Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Okay, you weren't to know, but I shoot grabby street stuff so a tripod is out of the question. The problem is that as soon as the ambient exposure drops below what I can safely hand-hold, I am relying on the flash exposure to hold the image sharp. At this point, it seems to make sense that the flash should dominate: hence my decision to flip the ratio of flash:ambient from 1:3 to 3:1. Comments still welcome... >>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) - -- Johnny Deadman "One is ashamed to want so much for oneself - but how else are you going to justify your failure and your effort?" - Robert Frank