Questions on using a flash w/ leaf shutter lenses

I'm an available-light photographer but find that I have to use a flash to photograph a tea ceremony. My only previous experience w/ flash is w/ 35mm equipment; now, I will be using TTL flash w/ my 6x6 (Rollei w/ flash adapter) with a Metz flash (probably the 45CL-4). Here are some questions:

<p>

1) What shutter speed should I choose? The subjects will be moving a little (walking would or whisking tea would be the fastest

movements), so I presume I'll have to use at

least 1/250 sec to avoid blurring? I would prefer to have ambient light to be dominant, but I don't know what the interior lighting conditions are beforehand other than it's inside a temple, so the walls/ceiling will most likely be brown wood and the floor, tatami (straw/tan color). Usually, the ceiling light is a single flourescent fixture.

<p>

2) What specific negative films would one recommend? The subjects may be wearing colorful kimono.

Flash does freeze movements. I believe most commercial flash lights

have durations of about 1/1000 second, which is equivalent to a

shutter speed of 1/1000 s. There are flash lights that stop bullets.

Thus the shutter speed is irrelevent when flash light is the dominant

source of light. Otherwise you have to worry about blurring caused by

a slow speed you choose for the room light. In your case, I would

imagine, 1/60 would be the bottom line.

Using a slower shutter speed to mix ambient light with the strobe light is called "draging the shutter".

<p>

Anyway, if you are shooting color and the ambient light includes fluorescent light I recomend you use the fastest shutter speed (1/500 I presume) to minimize the effect of the fluorescent light, which registers a nasty green on color print film. It's true that you could use Fuji Reala, NPS, or NPH film that does better with artificial light sources, but they're not perfect. Incandescent light

will be yellowish compared to flash, and that's not too bad for skin tones in small doses.

<p>

If you are shooting B&W and/or mixing incandescent or daylight with flash then there are two ways to go: flash as fill or ambient as fill.

<p>

With flash as fill you set the shutter for full exposure with the ambient light and set the strobe 1/2-2 stops less to fill in shadows. This often makes for a very slow shutter speed. A wedding photographer shooting in a chapel might use a shutter speed of 1/30-1/2 sec. which means a tripod and stationary subjects.

<p>

What you're probably interested in is ambient fill, in which the flash dominates but the background doesn't go very dark. You should get or make a bounce adaptor, like a Lumiquest Pocket Bounce, that will send part of the light directly at the subject and bounce the rest off the ceiling. For years I just pointed my flash up and taped a white business card to the back. A flash with a high guide # is a big help. As a rule of thumb you need 2 stops more flash power this way compared to just pointing the flash directly at the subject.

<p>

First, you select the widest aperture that gives you adequate DOF, then you set the shutter so that the ambient exposure is 1/2-2 stops under. (With shutter speeds slower than about 1/125 and ambient exposure stronger than 1 stop under you can get a blurred ghost image overlayed with the sharp flash image.) Set the flash for full exposure.