flash gun exposure issue.

[njg39]

hi, im still new to photography so i hope this question does'nt sound daft. i bought a yongnuo yn460-II to go on my eos 450d mostly due to my limited budget.the instruction manual is in poorly translated chinese therefore quite difficult to understand for a novice.my problem is when i fit it to the camera although the camera does fire the flash it does'nt seem to adjust exposure settings accordingly so i end up with a excessively overexposed image.i am using it in AV or TV mode and the flash set on M mode. is this something im doing wrong or is the flash not really suited to the camera. any advice greatly appreciated.

[ianpinion]

Hi njg39,

From what you've told us you have the flash unit set to manual, which means you have to adjust the flash power yourself using the + and - buttons on the back of it. In this case it seems as though you need to lessen the flash units power so take the power down so it reads -1 EV and take a test shot. If it's still too bright take the power down one step at a time, taking a test shot after each adjustment until you find the correct level.

However, the simplest way is to switch the flash unit's mode to TTL, which allows the camera to control the flash-gun's power level using the camera's own light meter. Sometimes, you may still need to take the flash-gun's power down a little even when using this if you're just wanting a little fill-in flash.

Hope that helps.

[njg39]

thanks for your reply ian, i have 3 modes on the flash M,S1, and S2 if i set the flash to S1 or S2 it does'nt fire.I am thinking that the flash perhaps is'nt fully compatible with the camera because when i go into external flash control settings on the camera i get a message saying 'INCOMPATIBLE FLASH OR FLASH TURNED OFF' .

[cosmicma]

having a quick look at the flash there seems to be only one pin on the contact plate which means it is impossible for the camera to control it
not to worry the flash duration ( strength ) can be manualy altered and the head can be tilted / rotated so there is some control of the amount of light that the flash produces
as ianpinion has allready explained you need to alter the flash strength stop overexposure remembering that 1/250th is the fastest sync speed you can use
you'd be better off putting the camera in manual so you can alter the apeture easily
the difference between 1/60th and 250th of a second shutter speed where the flash is concerned is nil but at 1/60th you will allow more ambient light into the camera allowing the flash to be used more as a fill rather than the main light source
i say 1/60th although there is no reason why you can't use lower shutter speeds but camera shake might become an issue if not on a tripod but anything above 1/250th will leave a black stripe on the image because the camera can't sync with the flash above that
the rest is down to experimentation with flash strength and apeture to properly expose the subject

good luck...

[Cathus]

Your flash isn't dedicated to your camera so won't adjust its output the your camera's settings, you'll need to adjust the camera output manually.

The S1 & S2 buttons are for when you have the flash in slave mode, usually triggered off camera by a flash on your camera or the pop up flash, or in S2 mode via the TTL off-camera trigger system of your camera (if it has this)

[njg39]

thanks everybody for your input,i realize now that the flash obviously isn't fully compatible with the camera,as you say it only has one contact point with the camera.but all is not lost i can still use it ,its the best i can afford at the moment so it will have to do for now.its a steep learning curve this photography lark but im getting there (i think) thanks again.

[Cathus]

you can do greatstuff with one flashgun on manual, check out the Strobist website:

http://strobist.blogspot.com/