Camera Labs

when using my external flash on ettl, its supposed to automatically give me the right flash power to expose my subject right?
i was playing with my flash in my room, my camera was set to manual and my flash on ettl, i set the aperture to f/1.4 to make sure that whats behind the subject was properly exposed and left the ettl to set the right exposure for my subject. the picture turned out wrong, it was overexposed, almost all white. shouldn't my 430exII dialed down the power automatically to give me a properly exposed shot?

Sample? Settings? I have a guess, but it might be totally off given the lack of information.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

here's a sample shot

i metered for the background, then set it at 1/60, f/1.4, iso 1000 to get the background properly exposed, then left my flash on ettl mode.

It's not what I thought it was, but that does mean I don't know what it is. Are you using it in manual mode? What happens in, say, Av mode and auto-ISO? I'm just wondering if your settings have pushed the exposure outside the range of the flash.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Beware that a hotshoe flash at 1/32 or 64 still blasts out a lot of light, and the aperture of F/1.4 is very, very bright. Yes, the flash will adapt, but it cannot go below a certain limit (unless you start taping neutral density filters over the top of your flash).

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I take pictures so quickly, my highschool was "Continuous High".

thanks for the replies.

this is in manual mode. i did try using a smaller aperture and a lower iso setting, that helped prevent overexposing the subject but wouldn't that leave my background underexposed? i was trying to match the exposure of the subject and the background, that's why i'm trying to push it with these settings

so there's a limit on how low the power of the flash can go even on ettl, i didn't know that... so if i want to shoot and get the depth that f/1.4 gives and use a shutter speed and iso setting that gives me a proper exposure on the background, what can i do to not overexpose the subject? do i need to resort to diffusers or bouncing? the problem with bouncing is that sometimes there's no decent place to bounce, sometimes it gives color casts sometimes no where to bounce at all.

If f/1.4 is too much, it is too much. I guess "eating" up some of the flash power by a diffuser would probably be the easiest way around it.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

You do the same thing if you want to use f/1.4 in daylight and the light is too bright. You attach some ND filters to the lens to artificially darken the scene.

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