Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/11
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I'm with Rabiner on the flash thing. A twinkie in the hotshoe (a Viv 2600
works wonders and is ludicrously cheap, and allows you to use nice wide
apertures), or a Viv 283 in the hand. If you have the hotshoe sensor, even
better.
In either case, you have to remember that flash photography is *still*
available light photography, and that your flash is only one source of
light, and you treat it as such. Balance with ambient, even if there isn't
any, and use the strobe off axis, and you'll get nice results most of the
time.
I'll say it again! It's just a friggin light source like any other, so why
restrict it to one (rotten) position, and to the exclusion of any other
source?
F'rexample, most of the pictures in the 'hitched' section on my website, and
'lou reed is dead', and about half of 'very quick on the eye', were shot
with fill flash. I think they still look like leica pix.
In this respect, using smaller flashes is a positive advantage on the M
because you can shoot at wider apertures even when the subject is close.
Anyone comfortable with handholding at 1/15 to 1/4 should be able to produce
very pleasing and un-flashy flash pictures.
Incidentally, my wife got irritated with the bucket-of-white-paint look of
the pictures she took with the Viv 283 in the hotshoe, and so she's started
using the old trick of pointing the head at the ceiling, and taping a 3x5
white card to the back of the flash, with about an inch poking beyond the
head. This way you get the nice soft bounce but a bit of key in the eyes.
Works great, much better than my stofen soft box, which I have always sworn
by.
- --
John Brownlow
photos: http://www.pinkheadedbug.com
music: http://www.jukebox.demon.co.uk