2 questions -1) photos 2)china flashlights

1) I use a 20D Canon for church and luau pics mostly. Often have back
lighting too bright problems-the in camera flash doesn't reach very far and
I'm too cheap to buy a super flash for throw.
Just wondering if anyone has used a flashlight for additional front lighting
or if it's just a silly idea and I should go for the OEM additional flash unit.

2)Just read about china knockoff camera bodies disguised as Canon products.
Apparently they are cheap fakes and online purchasers are getting some for
rediculously low prices hoping to get a deal......I also read about phony luxeon
leds mfgd in china floating around as well. After noticing Coast and a few other
flashlight companies have made in china on the packaging I wonder how can
we be sure we are getting the real luxeon in the flashlight?

Up all night with sore throat and had time to think about non essential stuff.....

With reference to 1 - I have the same camera. You're unlikely to meter it correctly, and secondly, you're probably not going to expose evenly for mid-size areas. On the other hand, for a shot on the inside of a church, you can do exactly this, just make sure that you light bits that your body doesn't overlap the area you're currently lighting, and you'll not appear in the photo. Make sure to keep a nice even lighting - flashing the light is *probably* better, but it depends on your timing. It's difficult, but possible.

In the short range, you're talking macro type photography. It's possible:



(image is a link to the flickr page, as per flickr AUP).

That's my watch, it's a KHS Shadow Blue MkII, and the blue, orange and (in the bezel) orange lights are not visible until it gets relatively dark. I took this photo at night, with a nice long exposure (and since i was propping everything up, I stuck with ISO100 - good quality and nothing's moving, why not go for a longer exposure?) of 15 seconds, then the hour and minute hands showed up nicely, as did the tubes at the numbers. However, while I was setting up the shot, and the camera was telling me how long the exposure would take, I was lighting with my Surefire - the camera told me that a 2 second exposure would be enough... well that set me thinking. What if I lit the watch for 2 seconds with the Surefire in the middle of the 15 second exposure?

The reason the front looks crappy is because I'm obliquely lighting the PDA screen protector that I put on the front of my watch to avoid scratching the face of the watch.

So, close up.. sure. Long stuff, it's possible, but you need to figure it out carefully and practice. Middle.. good luck. A flash is a much better investment. Go peer at my pictures on flickr - there's more early on that are lit by my Surefire, and the later ones (since Christmas last year) use a flash (a Canon Speedlight 550EX).

Thanks for the info. I'm shooting at 1/100 to 1/160 at the slowest to reduce motion
since the people are usually dancing. Also, I've used ISO 400 to 800 with pretty good
success for the speed (f 2.8 aperture) but the backlighting is the major problem I'm having. The 20D cleans up incredibly well with PS elements. I've just learned to accept
blown highlights in the background from too much light back there.

It's usually easier to tease out or brighten shadows than to fix blown highlights. If you're already using PS elements, you could try underexposing some and then try and bring out the shadows in post processing.

shooting in raw also should give you a lot of leeway in adjustments if your camera/software combination allows you to use that option.

WRT to using LED lights, i've used them before in taking macro shots of inanimate objects, but with what you describe, i'm not sure if the LEDs are going to be powerful enough or well suited to taking those types of pics...

i don't think there is any flashlight that can beat the amount of lumen 1 xenon flash can give out in that split second. i think you will be better with the super flash...

or you buy a luxeon panel of 100 lux III U bin at 1500ma and use it as your flash
100x 20= 2000 )