Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2004/03/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Eric: > A photo technique book I was reading has a chapter on using a strobe > for fill light. As an example, the author discussing an ambient lit > scene which meters f 5.6 at 1/125 sec He then discusses the use of a > strobe set to output of 5.6 and varying the shutter speed to add or > subtract ambient light. That doesn't sound like he's using flash for fill. If the ambient light exposure is 5.6 at 1/125, then it's not like you can add ambient light and expose 5.6 at 1/60. Your picture will be overexposed. If you want just a fill light, I'd suggest setting the flash for 2.8. Two stops over 5.6. If you had no ambient light at all, your picture would be two stops underexposed. The flash is letting off just enough light for a perfect exposure at 2.8. But by shooting at 5.6, you're only letting in 1/4 of that light. Go ahead and shoot at the indicated shutter speed of 1/125. You'll be overexposing your image by a slight amount. Less when you get good at directing the flash just to fill in the shadows. If you want the flash to dominate, then set your flash to 5.6. With a shutter speed of 1/125, you'll get 1:1 between ambient and flash, and you'll be a stop overexposed. Change your shutter speed to 1/500, and you'll have just the opposite of above. Flash will be at a normal exposure, and ambient will be a fill light. If you want a 1:1 balance, then set your flash to f4, and shoot 5.6 at 1/250. That gives half the "correct" exposure to the flash and half to ambient. >When shooting outdoors and metering a scene (ambient light + strobe), how do >I isolate the f stop output of the strobe? When you're talking about metering, how are you metering? With a hand held, incident flash meter? In that case, you don't have to worry about the ambinet light. Without a flash meter, use the flash number and a tape measure. And now just take the dang twinkie light off, throw it in the nearest river, and bask in the glory of available light that your Leica can help you capture. :) Eric - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html