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I'm new to using external flashes and having a lot of trouble. I have a Canon Rebel EOS T5, an Altura Photo E-TTL Auto-Focus Dedicated Flash (AP-C1001) with Altura Photo Wireless Flash Trigger with Remote Shutter.

I can get everything to work together, the wireless triggers connect to my camera and set off the external flash (no I do not use the built in camera flash), but when I go to take the picture at the max sync speed 1/200s, the picture remains dark and underexposed. The distance isn't an issue, the flash power is 1/1 and very bright, and even when I bring the flash less than 5 feet away from the grey card or any subject, everything is still dark.

Also when I have the flash mounted to the camera via the hotshoe, and take a picture, it does become lighted from the same distance and camera settings.

Any ideas or suggestions to fix it?

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    What happens if you try at slower shutter speeds (say 1/60s)? Some triggers don't work perfectly when right on the sync speed. – Philip Kendall Sep 16 '15 at 19:18
  • It starts to bring the exposure back out, but it does take way more time to even begin to capture any of the light. – Naulee Sep 16 '15 at 23:16
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There may be several factors at work. Here's a checklist I'd go through:

  1. Are the batteries in everything: the camera, the flash, the triggers, fully charged and in good health?

  2. Are any of your camera's internal flash control menu set to use a wireless mode? Turn that off. The external flash selection should be greyed out if the Tx unit is properly seated on the hotshoe.

  3. Is your Tx unit properly seated on the hotshoe?

  4. Is your flash set to a wireless slave mode [S1/S2]? If so, get it out of those modes. They tell the flash to listen to the red sensor panel on the front, not the foot. Your radio trigger is on the foot.

  5. Is your flash in M mode? The triggers you have are manual-only and cannot be used with eTTL, HSS, 2nd curtain, etc. etc. They only do manual firing.

  6. The T5's sync speed is 1/200s, but some radio triggers may add a propagation delay, and might not achieve 1/200s sync, so you'd see a dark band at the top and/or bottom of the image. Try a slower shutter speed.

  7. Are the Tx and Rx units of the triggers all set to use the same channel?

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A quick reference:

1) Adjust your iso. Iso 200 is a good start.

2) Use Manual mode.

3) Adjust your sync speed. A normal one is 1/200 on modern cameras.

4) Adjust your aperture. Start with f8.

5) Put your flash in 1/4 power.

Troubleshoot.

  • Is the flash firing? Check bateries, and remote trigger.

  • Do you capture some stuff with this settings in ambient light during the day? If not, something else is wrong.

  • From there play with just aperture and flahs power and distance.

TTL you need to setup the camera, trigger and flash on TTL.

Make some tests in manual mode. There is a chance your triggers do not support TTL or the configuration is wrong.

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  • I have already done this. I am still troubleshooting, but the problem is seeming to be the transmitter and receiver – Naulee Sep 17 '15 at 1:51
  • Is the transmiter really triggering the flash?. – Rafael Sep 17 '15 at 2:14
  • Yes, the flash goes off. It sits on top of the receiver on a tripod, and it goes off when I press the shutter on my camera, I am guessing there is some miniscule delay between the flash and camera using the transmitters, it works fine if the flash is directly mounted to the camera hotshoe. – Naulee Sep 17 '15 at 15:11
  • Try lowering the sinc speed a lot. And turn off rear curtain if the case. – Rafael Sep 17 '15 at 15:55
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if anyone wanted the answer to my question, I did finish troubleshooting. It was in fact the transmitters and receivers misfiring the flash. I bought a Neewer 16 Channel Wireless Remote FM Flash Speedlite Radio Trigger to confirm my suspicions and it did the trick.

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