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Why is my flashgun not working? After pressing the button the photo is taken but the flashgun is working after the photo is already taken

Selena
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    Hi Selena! We need more details if we're going to be able to help you solve your problem. What flash (make and model number) are you using? What camera? What type of connection are you using between the camera and the flash? Hot shoe cable, pc cable, wireless optical trigger or wireless radio trigger? Etc. The more you tell us, the better chance we can help you. – Michael C Apr 14 '22 at 21:27
  • What "button" are you pressing? The camera's shutter button? A wireless remote that is supposed to trigger both the camera and a flash? Something else? – Michael C Apr 14 '22 at 21:28
  • What do you mean by "is working after the photo is already taken"? – FreeMan May 23 '22 at 16:26

2 Answers2

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Is the picture dark and underexposed because the flash was late?

The flash being a few seconds after the picture seems hard to reason how that could be, but a few seconds after the button is pushed is easy. Many cameras have a shutter delay option, 2 or 5 or 15 seconds after the button is pressed.

The flash is triggered by the shutter (instead of the button which triggers the shutter), so my guess is maybe you have a shutter delay set, but are imagining pushing the button takes the picture. Possibly you might not realize that it is the shutter that takes the picture, even if after that delay after the button. If the picture exposure does benefit from the flash, this would be a reasonable explanation that the shutter was open when the flash fired.

There is one other similar case, but Not applicable for a "few seconds". Triggering an optical slave with a TTL mode flash most likely will flash after the shutter closes, but only a small fraction of a second later. It will normally cause a dark underexposed picture if the shutter is not open.

WayneF
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My guess (for what it's worth): you have the flash gun set to "second curtain" and the camera to "fill-in flash". In that case the exposure time is calculated as if there were no flash (which makes for a long exposure in dark environments) and right before the end of it, the flash fires.

In that case, objects close to the photographer should appear well-lit and essentially sharp on the photograph, but when moving, typically with a blurred tail of movement as opposed to when using "first curtain" where the sharp part of the moving object will have a blurred anticipation of movement because it has been frozen by the flash at the start of exposure.

This is assuming a functioning setup, namely camera and flash working in a manner that makes enough sense that there are settings for achieving what you are currently seeing. Of course there are numerous ways where there is just a malfunctioning setup that won't do anything sensible for any situation. The details of your camera and flash that you give here are just not enough to guess either way.

user102869
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