Re: [Leica] Fill flash help

[Henry Ambrose <digphoto@nashville.net>]

>Can someone either give me some help, or point me to a quick & dirty
>exposition on line, on how to add just a bit of fill flash to a Leica M
>(on topic) portrait setup I have to do this week?  I've never had to do
>this before, and am having a brain spasm trying to think through what to
>set where on camera and flash.
>
>The physical setup is a group shot of four vocalists (including my wife
>- this has to work) after a performance in a church hall.  I did a roll
>there last week with just available light, but while there's enough
>light to get a picture (on HP5 @ 800) the light is all from directly
>overhead and the eye sockets and foreheads have unflattering shadows.
>The situation permits a tripod (which I had to use last week too -
>exposures were about 1/60 @ 2.8) but won't allow me to set up my
>umbrella stands to get a lot of light with balance.  (I don't want to
>take just a straight flash shot.)   So I'm thinking I can just lighten
>up the facial shadows with a bit of fill from a shoe mount flash held
>about arm's length  away from the camera (I can dial the flash output
>down to 1/16, and add a wide angle diffuser to further reduce power, if
>need be.) 
Is the location of the subjects fixed? Can you move them to where you 
have a wall or ceiling to bounce off of? That'll look way better than 
direct flash even holding it off to the side.  White ceiling? Great! 
Since its black and white even a colored wall is OK. Something that will 
reflect light at an angle to the subject.

Maybe someone can hold the flash pointed at the wall for you while you 
meter. There must be at least one person around who would do that. Take a 
long sync cord anyway. 

If not, use a little longer lens and get further away from your subjects 
and bounce from the ceiling, flash on camera pointed straight up. Have 
your wife hold the meter. 

Then just use your flash meter to measure for your aperture. Say f4, 
whatever.

Then, camera on tripod, set the shutter to as slow as you need for the 
ambient light. Within reason it can be set quite slow. Just as long as 
its 1/50 or slower to sync.
>
>I started to plan on using my N**** with whiz-bang TTL everything
>dedicated flash, but after reading the flash instruction book I can't
>figure out how to adjust the ratio of available light to flash (it seems
>to be a "use these settings and we'll do fill flash for 'ya" sort of
>deal) and since I'm not sure what I'll get automatically I'm thinking
>I'll just do it myself with a real camera (real photographers don't use
>auto . . .).
This is a very good use of whiz bang auto everything! It'll be lots 
faster and easier.  Nikons rule here.
If you have D type lenses and appropriate camera and flash. Set the flash 
compensation for -1.7 or -2 stops and blast away. Just set the camera for 
the desired ambient exposure as if no flash was involved. Tripod is good 
if its real slow shutter speed.
Easier - but you sound like you want to do it better!

Have fun!

Henry Ambrose
>
>Anyway, I have ambient and flash meters, both incident and spot (but no
>instruction books, which might answer this question) to help me get a
>basic exposure - I used 'em last week, along with the M6 meter, and got
>decent "average" negatives.  But like I say, I need to add a bit to the
>faces and for the life of me I can't figure out how to use the meters to
>tell me what to set on the camera and flash. I'll bracket a couple of
>stops (with the flash power control, I expect) either side of my
>starting point, but can someone give me a clue how to find the starting
>point?  Off list is probably better if there's any back and forth
>necessary, but if it's just a two or three step process there may be
>others on the list who could use the info too.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Cheers,
>Kip
>