what happened with the shutter speed ?

[meredith]

my son had his pre school graduation yesterday, so off i went camera in hand. it was held inside one of the pre school class rooms. it was quite brightly lit. i used a flash (canon speedlight 430ex) with a diffuser. i used av mode with a low setting so i could get a nice portrait with a blurred back ground. but for some reason my shutter speed was really slow and i couldnt change it. so all my pics were blurry if the kids were moving. does anyone know why i couldnt get a faster shutter speed ? and what should i have done ? i ended up putong it in tv mode and choosing a faster shutter speed but then how do u control thr depth of field ? im confused ! hope u guys can help. thanks again meredith:confused:

[owenmorris]

You could try shooting manual that way you have full control of what you want, what I tend to do if not sure of settings I require is shoot one frame in av mode check settings then go manual and adjust accordingly.I alway's use tripod whenever possible but when people are moving its difficult.

[coffee]

When inside with flash I go right to M and as a beginning point go to F5.6/shutter 1/160. Then change things from there if need be.

The reason your shutter is slow is in AV without enough light, the the camera will try to properly expose with a long shutter. Even with a flash mounted.

[jerryph]

It should have properly exposed in TTL mode, no matter what mode the camera was in!

Was the flash out of TTL mode (set to manual by mistake?)?
Were the batteries freshly charged ones?

There is a small lesson here... make SURE your settings are working for you BEFORE you start shooting and chimp often. Chimping is where you look at the back of your camera and check out the pictures you just took.

As you get more experienced, you will chimp less, but even the most experienced photographers chimp in the beginning to make sure their settings are giving them the results they need at least at the start of a session.

[coffee]

Even in ETTL mode, and in AV, I get slow shutter when in AV. Am I doing something wrong?

I would certainly rather use AV when using flash.

[LensBaby]

If it is in Ettle mode, I never have problems, only when I accidentally hit a button or dial on the 580 ExII I had this happen and it took me forever to figure it out. I have read the manual at least 25 times, and still do not understand it. As far as a Canon product that I am not totally happy with --- the manual for that speedlite.