Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/10/30
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In a message dated 10/29/00 10:19:17 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jgong@cisco.com writes:
<< Indoor fillin flash is set at -1 or -2 f-stops below the ambient light. So,
if your meter tells you that the room requires 1/30 sec. at f4, you would
set the flash as if you were shooting at f2. You're fooling the flash into
dropping the light output. >>
I have found this to be an effective technique, with one reservation.
Because of the angle of acceptance of the sensor on most, if not all,
auto-exposure non-TTL flash units, backlighting is quite likely to result in
underexposure of the area sought to be filled by the flash.
Manual control of the flash is the best solution. If the unit does not
have variable power, some standardized form of diffusion or bounce generally
needs to be
used to reduce light output to the desired extent, in a predictable manner.
The resulting degree of reduction in light output can be determined
through use of a flash meter or by trial and error, before using this
technique on an actual shoot. However, variable power is by far the more
practical and usable alternative.
Among compact units having variable power, the Minolta 200x works very well,
and it also provides a "flash ready" signal in the M6TTL finder. It can be
had for $30-50 in mint condition.
Good luck!
Joe Sobel