Mamiya C330, Metz flash help?

[max zappa]

Ok I have 3 questions.

1. I have a Mamiya C330 and a Metz 45CT-1 flash. If outdoors in

daylight e.g. my hand-held light meter reads 125th at f8, that would

be correct settings on the C330 for correct exposure without flash.

If I now wish to use fill-in flash for the same shot, I believe I

would adjust the flash auto exposure setting to f5.6 which would

reduce the flash exposure whilst keeping the camera settings the

same as before i.e. 125th at f8. IS THIS CORRECT?

 

2. Now taking the above situation again, but setting the flash at

the same auto exposure setting of f8 as the C330, what will exposure

be like. Will the shot be properly exposed or overexposed?

Presumably the camera is now receiving not only the ambient light

but a burst of flash as well?

 

3. Ok now I find myself indoors, it is nightime, I have 400ASA film

in the C330, but the lighting is so poor that my light meter reads

8th second at f2.8, but ideally i want a greater depth of field, so

I might just want f5.6 which will now require a 1/2 second exposure.

No can do! Even with camera tripod mounted my subject aint gonna sit

still for 1/2 second.

 

I decide to use flash, but what are my options and what shutter

speed do I set on the camera. I understand that leaf shutters

syncronise with flash at any shutter speed.

 

Do I set the camera as indicated on the meter i.e. f5.6 at 1/2

second and set the flash auto exposure correspondingly to f5.6 (or

perhaps f4 for fill-in).

 

Or can I simply set f5.6 on both the camera and flash auto exposure

and choose almost any shutter speed e.g. 125th. My reasoning here

being that the flash at this setting will provide all the light that

is required to properly expose the subject and will be of such short

duration that exposure longer than the duration of the flash will

lead to overexposure. OR should I set the camera for some other

shutter speed and if so what?

 

Hope you cab help

 

Max Zappa

[david_holland1]

1. That is correct, although it does seem backwards until you think about it.

 

2. Assuming that the auto reading for the flash matches the external reading exactly, the flash burst should be so short that the flash doesn't affect the exposure and it will still be correct. This also assumes that the background is the same distance from the camera as the subject. Without these assumptions, you may well alter your lighting ratios. It would be a good idea to shoot a polaroid or digital with the light set-up to test.

 

I use this equal exposure setup to balance background light to a backlighted subject. If the backlighted subject dominates the flash exposure reading, the flash will overpower the ambient light on the shadowed subject and you will get correct exposure on the subject, but the more distant background will be correctly exposed by the camera settings since the flash output will fall off dramatically behind the subject.

 

3. You should set the flash to the taking aperture and the shutter speed to the slowest that will freeze the subject. The flash burst will be much shorter than the shutter speed so the ambient light will have little if any effect on the exposure. However, the slower the shutter speed, the more the background will show (although underexposed several stops). With the light ratio you described, unless the background is close enough to benefit some from the flash, you are likely to get a deer in the headlights look against a black background.

 

The standard solution is a slave to separately light the background plus a reflector or second light to ratio the fill on the subject, with the main light off camera.

 

Your indoor hypo really needs a much more in depth treatment of studio lighting, as to which there are some really good books available on amazon.com.

 

Hopefully if this is something you need an answer for right now or want to go out and experiment some, this will be helpful.

[picturesque]

1. That is correct. However, be aware that thyristor flash is dependent on what the flash's sensor determines is correct flash exposure for the average (read middle gray) subject. Very light or very dark subjects will throw the sensor off. Also, thyristor sensors tend to be sensitive to how far away the subject is. Test it and see. Most are good from the 7-10 foot range and can vary outside of that range. Another thing is, in my experience, most flash manufacturers overrate their flashes. With my Metz's, I rate the flash's ASA 2/3 to 1 stop slower than the film I am using. Also try fill flash at two stops below ambient.

 

2. The subject (what you metered for) will be overexposed, say if the subject is in even shade, and the background (if the printer prints for the optimal rendition of the subject) will be darker. However, in my experience, if you are talking about direct frontal sunlight on a subject such as a person, often the flash's sensor is fooled, and you will not get overexposure but perhaps underexposure for the shadow areas such as eye sockets. Depends on how the sensor reacts to different situations. If you have a flash meter, just test. Different flash brand's sensors react differently, too.

 

3. Depends how you want the scene to be recorded. If you use f5.6 and 1/125th, you will get a properly exposed subject (given the bit about light/dark subjects above) and a black/dark background. Flash falls off pretty quickly over distance and has little effect on a background unless the background is pretty close to the subject. If you use f5.6 and any shutter speed from about 1/8 to 1/30 (2 to 4 stops underexposed from the ambient), you'll record some of the background (underexposed, as mentioned above), but there and if your flash is set correctly to expose the subject (not used as fill), your flash will effectively freeze your subject due to the short duration of the flash, even if there is slight subject movement. Also, you can handhold at fairly slow shutter speeds and get pretty sharp subjects. There might be some motion blur if your subject is moving, like dancing, and if the subject is against a light background, such as bright windows or ceiling fixtures, you may get motion blur where the subject overlaps the bright background. If you use settings that are too close to the ambient exposure, you will get motion blur for sure, and if you handhold, you will see the blur from camera movement too.

 

In your example, if you use 5.6 at 1/2 and set the auto flash exposure for 5.6, your subject will be overexposed if the same ambient light you measured is illuminating the subject.

 

>My reasoning here being that the flash at this setting will provide all the light that is required to properly expose the subject and will be of such short duration that exposure longer than the duration of the flash will lead to overexposure.<

 

In practice, this doesn't happen.

 

Best to do a series of tests to determine for yourself the following:

 

1. How your particular flash's sensor reacts to different lighting situations and subject reflectivity.

 

2. How settings closer and farther from the ambient exposure, combined with flash, renders the background, and it's motion stopping effect.

 

Use transparency film so there can be no variation from printing from negative film.