taken at correct shutter speed but still parts are black !

[lucivictoria]

thanks for the respones!! but unfortunatley, my shutter speed is on

1/60 and its a Minolta xgm and thats the sync speed, so it cant be

that? could it be that im too close to the subject?( i did realise

at some point that i was meausring 1.5m at about 1m) (im taking

portraits of persons agaist a wall) its not a solid black line, it

more of a shadow, a big shadow on the bottom part. any more ideas ?

im stumped! the camera is old, could it be a problem with the

camera ? (altough all pics withough flash are fine) the mount is

broken so i hand hold the flash above the camera could that pose any

problems ?

Lucy

[bill_sooby1]

Lucy,

 

Thanks for the extra details. I wonder if you are creating a shadow with your hands or the camera itself is in the way of the light.

 

Getting rid of shadows in close up shots (although 1.5m wouldn't normally count as "close up") is always a problem and holding the flash above the camera will make the problem worse.

 

You can buy brackets that screw into the camera's tripod bush, so that you wouldn't have to hold the flash. You may be able to find a used one on ebay.

 

If you can take flash photos at a greater distance that are OK, then I don't think anything is mechanically wrongs.

 

Good luck

 

Bill

[alice_guy]

How big is the lens you have fitted?

 

Are you using a lens hood? It may be blocking the flash if so.

 

As an experiment you could try taking a photo in a darkened room, set a long shutter speed, say 1 second, and during the 1 second, manually fire the flash raised high up off camera [if there is a test button on the flash] and see if that has any effect.

[400bpm]

Might it be that the shutter curtain is old and slow, perhaps sticking at the end of it's cycle and causing nonexposure at one end of the frame? Take two shots of the same scene with the same lighting, one portrait and one in landscape orientation. If you have that black bar at the top or bottom of the portrait oriented shot and on the left or right (correspondingly, of course) of the landscape oriented shot, you've got a bad shutter. Just an idea.

[grinder]

Does the camera have bulb and X flash settings? I know my Minolta autocord can be used with both and if you accidentally switch it to flashbulb it will mess up the photo. The other suggestion above about maybe the shutter is a little slow is my guess, also try a 1/30th shutter speed on a flash photo since that is half the speed of your sync speed to see if the shutter is just a little slow. Good luck I hope you able to work it out, I know it's frustrating.

 

,Grinder

[garry edwards]

Lucy,

 

As you're very new to PN you probably won't know it, but we don't like it when people start extra threads as you have done - twice.

 

In the future, please ask your question and any supplementary questions in the same thread, it's easier for people to keep track of it and to find it in the archives.

 

Back to your question: It would help if you could post an example of the effect you're getting - then people will have solid info on which to base an answer.

[dinsdale]

At that close a distance to the subject, it's not impossible that the flash isn't covering the entire area.

 

Maybe it's pointed up too far, and not illuminating the field of view?

 

I could swear I've seen this happen before.

[stephen hazelton]

It sounds like the flash may not be covering the full frame. For example, my flash covers 35mm, so if I shoot with 24mm lens, then only the middle part is flash-illuminated. Shooting up closer would do the same thing, since the flash is above the camera.

 

Try using bounce flash off the ceiling. Experiment with homemade flash diffusers. Make sure your flash doesn't have a zoom function (on mine, the front plastic piece slides in and out).