how to get good flash under all lighting conditions

[auke bonne van der weide]

I have this Metz 54MZ-3 flash, wonderful thing on my F80, but I find

it difficult using flash in general. How to make the best use with

this flash on a wedding-shoot, what settings and on what medium, film

or slide? Thanks in advance for every tip you can give me...

 

Just use TTL-matrix mode?

[wayne_crider4]

The old way was manual flash, knowing the distance that gave you a tight,

medium or wide shot and then you divided that distance into the GN for your

aperture, set it and then walked into the shot till the subjects were in focus.

Then auto flash came along and although many times it might work right,

many times it also worked wrong, (depending on the manufactuer) so you

needed to know the flashes capabilities when setting it at the flash guides

located on the flash so that you might need to compensate for very light or

dark situations. Nowdays it's TTL or E-TTL and many set their cameras on

dumbass and shoot away.

 

What it comes down to is testing your setup before commiting film to anything

thats important. Since Matrix TTL is probably 90% right most times, why not

do a test roll and know for sure. I own the N80 and shot it in shutter mode

matrix TTL outdoors with a SB24 in strong side lighting and the pictures came

out fine. What I do suggest is to not use matrix metering for church shots as it

tries to balance the background with the foreground. What you want is proper

exposure of the subject and drag the shutter for the background when the

background is dark. When there's a hell of alot of light around, outdoors say,

you can shoot matrix and balance the shot if you want. I suggest reading and

then re-reading anything in the manuals concerning using flash. Also read the

many threads on wedding photography located thru the search function. Then

grab two friends and ask one to dress in total black and the other in total

white, with detail in both colors, and put them in different lighting situations.

Shoot in matrix and centerweighted metering and mark notes at even

exposure, and then +1/2 and even +1 compensation. Use a good 400 speed

negative film of your choice,

[jonathan_brewer1]

There's two seperate techniques with strobe/flash photography, 1) using a strobe without any ambient light present, in which case it's whatever aperture setting you need and and flash duration(there's no ambient light for the lens or shutter to collect until the flash fires for whatever that duration is)...........................and 2) strobe/flash photography where you mix flash with ambient light(a continious source, like daylight/sunglight).

 

When you mix flash with ambient light, your lens lets the light of both lightsources through at a particular F-stop while the shutter is open, the ambient light will collect to create an exposure from the time the shutter opens until it closes, the flash firing off will also create an exposure but only for the period of it flash duration, the light will be collected from two lightsources, ambient light collects from the time the shutter opens until it closes, a strobes light collects only for the time the strobe is actually firing, for example if you're mixing strobe with ambient light, using F8 and a shutter time of 1/250 of a second, the ambient light collects for 1/250 of a sec,................ the strobe, if it has a flash duration of 1/1000 of a second, will cause an exposure for 1/1000 of a second.

 

In mixing flash with ambient, wedding photographers and achitectural photographers try to make end result natural looking, say for example you decide to shoot a scene, you set your meter to ambient, and you measure the ambient light at F8 @ 1/250 of a sec, you decide to use a strobe in this shot and after switching your meter to read flash, you take a reading and set your flash to give you an exposure of F22 @ 1/250, you then close down your lens to F22 and shoot the scene at that exposure, whatever's hit by the flash will look like the right exposure, the background which is being hit by ambient light which is 3 stops below your flash exposure(ambient metered at F8 @ 1/250, strobe metered at F22 @ 1/250) will look dark.

 

If you're shooting a mix of flash and ambient light and you take a meter reading of the ambient light, and that turns out to be F8 @ 1/250, you decide you want to fill in some shadow area of that scene with your flash so you set your flash to F6.3 and you expose at F8, the mix of ambient and flash light in that scene will appear to be more natural(with the right light modifiers for your strobe),.............................to balance flash and ambient, you're taking ambient readings with your meter in ambient mode, you're then switching your meter to flash and metering your flash, when these measurements are within a 1 stop-1/1/2 stops of each other, neither lightsource looks drastically lighter or darker than the other.

 

An example of this technique is 'Fill Flash', for example sunlight is hitting the background and the backs of your subjects, creating shadows on their faces, you take a meter reading of the sun in ambient mode giving you an exposure of F11 @1/250, setting your flash to give you an exposure of F8 @1/250 of a sec, and pointing the flash into the shadow areas and exposing at F11 @1/250 of a sec will give you a very natural looking shot where daylight/the highlight areas are a little more intense that shadow areas illuminated by your flash, mixing ambient light and flash to within 1-11/2-sometimes 2 stops of each other you can manipulate strobe and ambient to look very natural.

 

When mixing flash and ambient, there is one problem 'ghosting' this occurs when you're mixing flash and direct sunlight/intense ambient light at shutter speeds of 1/60 of a second or slower, what happens is that the ambient light is so intense in comibination with a very long shutter speed that you get two seperate exposures, so when shooting outside or in any situation where the ambient lighting is intense, stay away from 1/60 of a sec or slower, a good rule of thumb, at least for me, is to shoot flash and ambient at 1/125 of a sec, and preferably at 1/250 of a sec regardless of whateve you aperture happens to be, doing this will elimnate 'ghosting'.

 

I hope this has helped and not messed you up, good luck.

[Jerry_]

Unless you have a unique Nikon body, one should not use matrix metering and try to make use of +.3 +.7 +1 exposure compensation. Use the large spot meter. Nikon has a program that estimates the exposure in matrix metering -- it cannot determine what part of the 'scene' you want more exposure added to, i.e., the bride's white dress?

 

 

 

If you want a go at wedding photography, get a Nikon SB-28 or Nikon SB-26 speedlight, a SC-17 cord, and a flash bracket: the pairing works better than 'it's supposed to work very good said the salesman' unit that is not a Nikon item.

 

 

 

And, unless you have a great reason, stay away from slide film for weddings. If the exposure is off a little, not much correction can be made. Using print film -- one has some leeway for correction in the printing process.

[jonathan_brewer1]

I'm 'old school', so I do it all manually when I do portraits outside, I would suggest that upon getting one of these 'do everything' automatic strobes that you do some tests, shoot some scenes with varying lighting conditions, do each particular scene exposing manually for how you think the scene should look, and then shoot that same scene with your flash on automatic to see how the flash on automatic interprets that scene, and compare the two, scene by scene, to see what this flash will do depending on the situation.

[jonathan_brewer1]

OMT, about mixing flash and ambient light, 'fill flash' in particular, is that manipulating 'fill flash' and manipulating 'lighting ratios' for all intents and purposes are the same thing, understanding 'light ratios', gives you an understanding of how to play with 'fill flash'.

 

You're in a studio doing flash photography with no ambient light, you're using a keylight which creates highlights and shadows and a fill light, if this fill lights intensity is within a stop of the key, you'll see a fair amount of detail in the shadows,............same thing with 'fill flash' outside, your keylight/the sun, creates highlights and shadows, and when using a strobe whose intensity is within 1 stop of the sun, to fill in the shadow areas left by the key/the sun, you'll also see a fair amount of detail, same idea, the end result is same regardless of whether or not you're talking about a scene in the studio where the key and fill lights were both produced by strobes, or outside where you've filled in the shadow left by sunlight with a flash.

[ellis_vener_photography]

<I>how to get good flash under all lighting conditions

</I><P> Practice!

[beeman458]

Jonathan<p>

 

<i>When mixing flash and ambient, there is one problem 'ghosting' this occurs when you're mixing flash and direct sunlight/intense ambient light at shutter speeds of 1/60 of a second or slower, what happens is that the ambient light is so intense in comibination with a very long shutter speed that you get two seperate exposures, so when shooting outside or in any situation where the ambient lighting is intense, stay away from 1/60 of a sec or slower, a good rule of thumb, at least for me, is to shoot flash and ambient at 1/125 of a sec, and preferably at 1/250 of a sec regardless of whateve you aperture happens to be, doing this will elimnate 'ghosting'.</i><p>

 

I don't know if you have the capability but this is where second shutter curtain comes in.<p>

 

If you're using first shutter curtain, the flash goes off immediately after the first curtain opens. Then the sensor gathers the ambient light, hence the two images. But if you set second shutter curtain, the sensor gathers the ambient light first and just before the second curtain closes, the flash fires, laying the additional light over the ambient light; no ghosting. This is a good thing:)<p>

 

Hope this helps.<p>

[jonathan_brewer1]

The question of a first or second shutter is going to be problematic with using say a large format camera and probably most med format cameras.

 

Ghosting doesn't have anything to do with the particular sequence in which the strobe fires off, nor does it have anything to do with whether or not you have a second curtain, it's the problem of the intensity of the ambient lightsource/a very intense one like direct sunlight, and a very long shutter time(1/60 of a sec or slower), and firing off a shutter with the first 2 conditions present,......................................if your ambient light source is intense enough, and your shutter opens long enough, and you fire a flash,............you'll have 'ghosting'.

 

'But if you set second shutter curtain, the sensor gathers the ambient light first and just before the second curtain closes, the flash fires, laying the additional light over the ambient light; no ghosting.'..............................................you've lost me here, whenever/in whatever sequence you fire the shutter, you're not laying the flash/strobes light 'over' the ambient light, because at 1/60 of a sec, the ambient light has been collecting over a much longer period of time than your flash duration, and the shutter is open so long that the flash is now 'laid over' a very small slice of the period in which the shutter has been collecting this intense ambient/bright sunlight, which is exactly why you end up with 2 exposures and also the point of why you have 'ghosting'.

[jonathan_brewer1]

'and firing off a shutter with the first 2 conditions present,'.....................this should read,................. 'and firing off a strobe with the first 2 conditions present,'.

[beeman458]

I'm not going to get into an argument about ghosting and shutter curtains. It works the way I explained. I have nothing to do with the laws of the universe. Give it a try.

 

But as it was suggested, keeping the shutter speed up also helps prevent this from happening.

[jonathan_brewer1]

There's nothing to argue and nothing to try on a med format camera or Large format camera that doesn't have a second shutter curtain, when you use a camera that doesn't have a second shutter there's no way possible for it to work the way you explained, period.

[beeman458]

Jonathan<p>

 

You're correct that the idea wouldn't work on a MF body.<p>

 

The post that I responded to of yours and the original post, there was no mention of MF. So I applied my comment to both the posts as if the question revolved around a 35mm that would have available, in many cases, second curtain sync. I missed the part in your comment to me, that you were including MF in your thinking.<p>

 

So you definitely are correct, unless the MF body is programable for this sort of flash delay, the comments I made wouldn't apply to MF.<p>

 

Hope this clarifies any misunderstanding.<p>