desirable flash percentage

[federico2]

Hello, <br>I just purchased a sekonic L-358 flash meter and find it

awesome. One feature I really like is the indication of the percentage

of flash light vs. ambient light. What I'm interested in knowing is

what percentage of flash is most desirable for outdoor portraits. What

do you use usually? I made some internet research but most tutorial

sites I found displayed photos with very noticeable fill-flash, which

I don't find very aesthetic. What is the right percentage to light up

the shadows just a bit whitout making the flash use too noticeable?

Around 20-30%? Is the difference between those two values noticeable?

Does a 10% flash produces some effects? I guess i'll shoot a roll of

slides to check, but wanted to know if somedoby has a quick answer or,

even better, some examples with different flash values.<p>Thank you

very much,<p>Federico Sartorio

[steve_levine]

Most camera manuals tell you to set the flash around 2/3rd's of a stop below ambient. In full shade, I prefer the flash 1 - 1 1/2 stops below ambient. Experiment and see which you like.

[james_ogara1]

Some of it depends on the film also.

 

If you are using slide film, for instance, it can be nice to use just a touch (I think Galen Rowell used to say almost -2 stops just to bring out the shadows a little).

[bruce_rubenstein___nyc]

There is a review of the L-358 done by Steve Sint (wedding and commercial photographer) here: http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=3&article_id=732

 

He relates the percentage readout to the amount of fill flash.