Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>My head tells me that as soon as I am not confident about holding the camera >steady -- once I'm shooting at less than 1/30 -- I should REVERSE that ratio >so that I am now shooting 3:1 flash:ambient. So I usually leave the flash at >f4, say, set the camera to f4, and set the shutter speed one stop faster >than my light meter says I should. Why reverse the ratio? Keep working it till you can't shoot or your flash won't adjust any lower. As the light falls off you will finally get just flash exposure as you hit the bottom range of the power output and the background, unlit area goes dark. I go til the lense won't open anymore and the flash won't go lower power. You can pull the light back too but then it starts getting ugly. IMO > >Since I don't consider doing this until the shutter speed falls below 1/30, >I never end up with a shutter speed out of sync range. > >The point is twofold: > >1: Avoid evenly balanced light sources...yuk! >2: Make sure the sharp flash image dominates the blurry ambient image > >However, my heart always tells me I should be making a more gradual >change...exposing for the ambient light as long as possible...letting the >balance change gradually instead of suddenly snapping over from one ratio to >the other. Measure your flash with the meter's shutter speed set as high as it will go - 1/500th probably - this will eliminate the ambient from that reading. Then set your aperture from this. The flash is your shutter for the part of the picture it exposes. Your camera shutter speed is the shutter for the ambient. If the shutter speed gets too slow then its tripod time (if it was not already) >I wonder if anyone else on the LUG has a strategy for dealing with this >situation, and what ratios people use for (1) regular daylight fill (2) >night shooting where the flash image is dominant? and (3) the $64k Q -- >dusk, where you are on the cusp of (1) and (2)? I don't get ratios - I think "difference between ambient and flash". Don't know why? >-- >Johnny Deadman For sure this is what polaroids and assistants are for. When you have no help from either of these - good luck! Henry Ambrose