Re: Easy Canon Rebel XT & Canon 430 EX flash questin

Today Floyd Davidson commented courteously on the subject at
hand

> Regardless of the lack of usefulness in his other comments,
> by the time you got to this one you seem to be on a roll
> again and not paying attention.
>
> That is a *very* good idea.

Paying attention to what, Floyd? Personal attacks? Thanks, but
no thanks. That I can discern, Wolfgang has not helped one iota.

> A good part of what you have described previously has been
> various problems stemming from using a single point source
> for illumination. You need to diffuse that flash, and
> since there are no convenient white ceilings available, you
> need to *make* one. I mentioned that to you previously...

No, it really isn't. It is /entirely/ because modern cameras and
flash units think they're so God Damn smart that they simply
cannot do the job in their default state. By that, I mean, the
way you get the camera in the box and the flash in the box.

One would think, "newbie" style, that setting the camera and
flash on full auto would produce at least reasonable results,
but it doesn't work that way. My first digital, a 2001 Fuji
4900, did because it's flash system was primative and
simplistic. My wife's $150 Kodak P & S does very well, within
it's 10-12 foot range, again because it uses simple AE. But the
various genre of "TTL" is a whole bunch more complex.

I had the problem with my Nikon 5700, but never figured it out.
I had it when I test drove a Nikon 8800 and SB-800 flash, but
never figured it out. And, the sales dudes in both stores failed
to help, even though I asked. Ditto on rec.photo.digital.

One should not have to RTMF 10-20 times, sit for hours trying
various combinations and expend 2,500 test shots for something
this simple! Why the hell isn't the /default/ to do the AE at
the /same/ point at AF?

Before you launch off into the tall weeds on me, none of the
choices I see in "Menu" allow me to do that. I must somehow have
figure out 1) to change from the "auto" 8-spot AF system, and 2)
to start using an AE button I thought was for daylight. Here's
the Rebel XT's choice, and yes, I tried them all - in very
controlled testing:

0: AF/AE lock
1: AE lock/AF
2: AE/AF lock, no AE lock
3: AE/AF, no AE lock

Now, Floyd, if you can tell me what those 4 things do, you're a
better man than me, Gunga Din! The manual is no help, and trying
it was no help. The /best/ I managed to do was somehow turn off
the AF lock indicator and the AE indicator.

My interpretation is as follows, except the tests don't bear
this out (or, I really am too stupid to live):

0: both AE and AF lock when I press the shutter half-way down (I
would think this is what I want, but it doesn't work)
1: locks AE but I have to manually focus
2: does something, but whatever it is, it does /not/ lock AE
3: does something, but whatever it is, it does /not/ lock AE,
that makes sense since it says that but I don't know what if
anything it /is/ locking.

Now, if you read and understood my intentionally "vicious
attack" on Wolfgang, you'd have noticed that I still cannot
fathom why "Manual" on the 430EX and "Manual" on the Rebel does
/not/ act like my 1969 Nikon FTN with an old-fashed flash bulb
or an old-fashion "strobe", both of which were the epitomy of
simplicity - GN divided by distance at 1/60th sync = f/stop.

> Note that two or three flash units, all with diffusers,
> would vastly improve your results.

First, nobody - and I mean nobody - can grasp the simple fact
that I want to be able to go to a museum for 2-3 hours and come
home with 200-300 at least acceptable pictures. It is entirely
possible to do that at an outdoor car show, I've done it many,
many times. So, Floyd, if you would be so kind, how the hell do
I do what you suggest with only me and no tripod, no light
stands, no unbrellas, and no diffusers, in a museum that will
not allow any of these things, huh?

You speaketh as one who has never tried this. Does it really
matter to you or the others if what I want to do isn't optimal,
can't you just accept that it /should/ work to some degree of
acceptability? Come on, here, Floyd, I understand diffusion vs.
glare and I understand why a single flash unit is inherently
limiting and bad, but using a diffuser doesn't cut it. How do I
know that? Because I tried the one that came with the SB-800 I
test drove on top a Nikon 8800 last April.

Again, you really don't know me, my education, training, and
experience, and I clearly don't know you. But, I can tell by
your suggestions that you've not done as much car photography
/in museums using flash/ or you'd know that something as easy as
the fat WSW tires of yesteryear will grab all the light energy,
reflect it back to the sensor(s), exposure for the tires, and
blow the entire car into "black cat in a coal bin" mode.

It should just Damn Well not, not, /not/ be this difficult to
get clean, reliable exposures with a $299.99 eTTL flash and a
$999.999 camera!

> See if you can find a book on lighting. Or read a book on
> taking portraits and see if you can transfer the concepts
> about lighting from a human face to a car. It's all much
> the same...

What in the living hell does /anything/ about portrature have
even the remotest transferrence to cars? It is /not/ the same,
and you've just blown off both your credibility feet with one
dumb-ass statement. Faces only reflect maybe 2-3% of what paint,
chrome, glass, WSW tires, signs in the foreground, tail light
reflectors, reflective license plates, et al do. And, protraits
are taken in a studio with a bland, non-reflecting backdrop only
a short distance behind the subject.

No, damnit! You're just like the rest of the would-be "experts"
around here! I've said again and again and /again/, it is
/trivial/ to get reliable, accurate, and consistant exposures
with the Rebel and 430EX when taking "flat" subjects - i.e., not
large depth 3-D like a car, and "flat" as in non-reflective, not
like paint, et al. And, no, a diffuser won't solve it. Help
some, yes, solve, no!

And, a "standard" museum exhibit is often designed to be small
in scale with nothing in front of, behind or to the sides that
the flash pulse can hit and get what I call "confused". And, how
do I know that? Because I can get 99 44/100% good results at
both the Walter P. Chrysler Museum and the Henry Ford Museum
when it is anything at all except a car, and not even when I'm
shooting the car at an angle, which will guarantee uneven
exposure front-to-rear as the light falls off to the square of
the distance. Using some simple H.S. trig, it is trivial to show
the from the headlights to the tail lights of a large vehicle
will be almost 2 f/stops when the shot is taken at 30-45
degrees.

So, please save the Photography 101 and Lighting 101 lessons for
somebody who a) cares, and b) doesn't already know it.

The main problem with text messaging is that people read
diffferent things than the author wrote, reach different
conclusions about the author's intent and their actual depth of
knowledge and experience, and allow their biases to get in the
way of the author's biases. There is also no intonation,
inflection or pitch to the "voice", nor any body language to
guide the receiver.

Take a class sometime in how to speak and how to listen for
understanding. Learn how really easy it is to completely miss
the speaker's intent.

Here's a few quotes for you and the others to reflect on:

"I understand all of your words, some of your sentences, but
none of your paragraphs." - Unknown

"English is a language hard to understand, but easy to
misunderstand" - Unknown (may be George Bernard Shaw)

"If you're lucky, you don't have to be smart. And, if you're
smart, you don't have to be lucky" - Unknown

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results". - Albert Einstein

"What we got here is failure to communicate" - The Captain to
Lucas Jackson in "Cool Hand Luke"

--
ATM, aka Jerry
.