Reverse Engineering Canon E-TTL II
May 9th, 2006I am working in my home photo studio. After days of trying things I am finally getting to the point where with a minimum of photographic equipment I can get slightly predictable results. If I do this in the dark, and move nothing, and change no settings at all. Prayer helps, too.
My equipment is:
- Canon 5D on tripod, 24-70 f2.8L lens set to 70 mm; using manual exposure (not manual flash!) at 1/125th at f/5.6 and using E-TTL II, evaluative metering, and auto focus, and no FEL or FEC. (If I do, the image is ruined).
- Fill-in flash on camera: a 580EX in group “A” set as master.
- Main flash: a slave 420EX on a stand in group “b” firing into an umbrella. That is the main light to my left (right on the photo).
- Background flash: another slave 420EX on a stand, in group “C” firing onto background
- The background: my secret weapon, an air mattress, but don’t tell anyone.
- “A:B C” master slave settings with A:B set as 1:4 or 1:8
With this setup I get images like this:
This setup is so sharp that I can (depressingly) see all the pores in my skin, and the reflection of the white umbrella in my pupil:
You can see larger versions by clicking through in the gallery.
The fun thing is that this is all reverse engineering. Canon and Nikon both make it very difficult to understand how their systems work. Presumably they don’t want anyone to know. Google terms like E-TTL II and you will see hundreds of professional photographers trying to understand how this works. A good example here (link). Come back in a month after you have read and understood all that. Thanks, Canon, for providing hours of fun.
May 9th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
Now if you were a model, you wouldn’t have pours.
The blow up is impressive. A lot of work though! I find flash is so aggravating - natural light is much easier though also annoying sometimes.
May 10th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Are you sure you aren’t in violation of the license agreement you entered into when you bought your camera? AFAIK, this license specifically forbids any reverse engineering of the type you are doing right now.
Canon have invested a lot of capital in the development of their intellectual property and surely they should be allowed to reap the benefit. Djeez, do you think that there is some God-given right that any flash equipment should work with any camera? A real professional choses his/her equipment maker and sticks with it.
From your blog, it was already clear that you’re an insufferable liberal on social issues and religion — but now you also show yourself to be a commie bastard when it comes to economics!
You wouldn’t know it, of course Michael, but Prayer indeed helps!
May 10th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
I know… you are right, of course. I should just stay within the intended Customer Behaviour Pattern and buy the next expensive camera whenever a problem threatens to occur.
The problem is, I have only one more step to go before I hit the MOST expensive Canon camera, so I am anticipating the next step after that. Buy Canon shares?
May 12th, 2006 at 10:33 am
Glass is key - spend money on good lenses & it’s a bigger pay off than the camera once you have gotten to the pixel range you are at now.
May 12th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Oh yes.. that 24-70 f2.8L is great.. it’s mainly glass, absoutely.
But in terms of light, it’s all E-TTL II… mysterious E-TTL II!
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 pm
You all to see the lenses these guys use quite incredible .
September 25th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Better: see
http://blog.michaelwillems.ca/2009/07/14/know-your-ab-c/