One idea I had was that there was a delay somewhere in the system. The fact that I didn't see any flash no matter what shutter speed I used disproved my first thought that the delay was with the commander flash. This meant that if there was any delay, it had to be before the photo was taken--the flash must have fired before the shutter opened.
However, while following my mentor's suggestion of trying to find a point at which I can see flash, I have come to a different conclusion. When shooting at 1/8th power and keeping the same camera settings, the flash shows up every three or so shots. This is the same for any exposure time I try. This is making me believe that the sync issue is just a flash misfire.
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I tried shooting at 1/1 power for several times, but still could not get the flash to show up. Then I tried going back down to 1/8th power, and the flash only showed up one out of several shots, even with unchanged camera settings. However, the flash consistently shows up at 1/16th power and lower. This tells me that the issue is most likely with the speedlite itself, but I still don't know what's causing it.
One interesting thing I notice is that whenever I change the shutter speed, the ambient lighting changes. This reinforces the idea back in Balancing Flash and Ambient Part I of a photo with flash being of two different exposures--one of ambient and one of the flash.
However, while following my mentor's suggestion of trying to find a point at which I can see flash, I have come to a different conclusion. When shooting at 1/8th power and keeping the same camera settings, the flash shows up every three or so shots. This is the same for any exposure time I try. This is making me believe that the sync issue is just a flash misfire.
--
I tried shooting at 1/1 power for several times, but still could not get the flash to show up. Then I tried going back down to 1/8th power, and the flash only showed up one out of several shots, even with unchanged camera settings. However, the flash consistently shows up at 1/16th power and lower. This tells me that the issue is most likely with the speedlite itself, but I still don't know what's causing it.
One interesting thing I notice is that whenever I change the shutter speed, the ambient lighting changes. This reinforces the idea back in Balancing Flash and Ambient Part I of a photo with flash being of two different exposures--one of ambient and one of the flash.
Fill flash practice
After school today, I spent some time playing around with my flash to try and see what works and what doesn't. My goal was just to help better understand balancing flash and ambient light, so I just kept the speedlite on the camera hotshoe.
I took about 30 photos of the Bboy club practicing a routine. To meter for the ambient light, I shot "wide-open" at f/3.5, ISO800, and set my shutter speed to 1/50 sec. Then I rotated my flash to reflect off of a wall and set it to 1/32nd power (if I remember correctly). The purpose of this bounce-light was to counteract the window-light down the hall and the yellow fluorescent lights directly overhead. The results were photos with nice exposures and somewhat-even lighting on the subjects.
While the club was practicing, I tried more direct fill flash. I had Nick stand with his back to the window and used the flash to bounce along the wall he leaned on. The photos below are with the same exact settings (both in-camera and post-processing). As you can see, the flash eliminated the shadow his face was in. My only regret about his was having him close to where the flash was bouncing, since it looks almost like the flash was directly head-on. Having more light hit him from the side would've created interesting shadows across his face instead of flatter lighting.
I took about 30 photos of the Bboy club practicing a routine. To meter for the ambient light, I shot "wide-open" at f/3.5, ISO800, and set my shutter speed to 1/50 sec. Then I rotated my flash to reflect off of a wall and set it to 1/32nd power (if I remember correctly). The purpose of this bounce-light was to counteract the window-light down the hall and the yellow fluorescent lights directly overhead. The results were photos with nice exposures and somewhat-even lighting on the subjects.
While the club was practicing, I tried more direct fill flash. I had Nick stand with his back to the window and used the flash to bounce along the wall he leaned on. The photos below are with the same exact settings (both in-camera and post-processing). As you can see, the flash eliminated the shadow his face was in. My only regret about his was having him close to where the flash was bouncing, since it looks almost like the flash was directly head-on. Having more light hit him from the side would've created interesting shadows across his face instead of flatter lighting.