Difficult metering + Stitching film images

[alexdi]

This is actually two questions:

 

A)

 

Say I'm shooting a centered subject backlit by sunlight. Huge dynamic

range, way beyond any film. If I leave my Elan II on evaluative

metering, the sky will be blown out and the subject underexposed. So

I've discovered.

 

If I use spot metering on the subjects face (no fill flash), the

background will be totally blown out and the subject perfectly

exposed.. right?

 

And if I use center-weighted on the subject WITH a fill flash, I'll

end up with a slightly blown background and a well-exposed subject..

right?

 

But what if I spot meter off the sky to keep the background exposed

properly? Is the fill flash strong enough make up the extra stops for

the subject?

 

Would your suggestions differ with negative film instead of chromes,

or vice versa?

 

This isn't the most artistic picture, but I'm trying to get a handle

of difficult lighting. Any online resources to that end, I'd be much

interested in.

 

 

B)

 

Max Lyon's various stitching projects with digital captures make me

wonder if I could pull off the same thing with film and a scanner

that doesn't use autolevels. Is there any reason to presume I could

not?

 

 

Dave Indech

[whayne_padden]

Fill flash is a good way of compressing dynamic range. You may find that you should dial in +ve FEC if it's strong backlighting or just turn off automatic flash reduction. What flash do you have and does this camera support E-TTL?

 

I don't use print film at all but for slide with it's small 5 stop latitude this is important.

[alexdi]

Whayne:

 

I should have mentioned, this is with the built-in flash of my Elan II (EOS 50), which supports E-TTL.

 

DI

[Greg M]

Metering the background, then exposing the subject and letting the flash balance with the background is best and has always been what's worked for me, especially indoors when shooting with a window in the background that shows a scene I want shown in the final picture. I always shoot such a subject in manual metering mode- that way nothing changes, exposure-wise. The flash will make the proper calculation of the flash to light the subject... at least that is my experience with the 550EX.

 

 

Sounds like you are contemplating a multi frame stitch using flash in one way or another- right?

 

I've never been able to do that very well. Flashing, then stitching two separate images has always (at least for me) been impossible because the flash renders each scene too differently to be something that could be merged and look natural. There's always some minute difference in each frame that's enough to throw the two off.

[alexdi]

Greg,

 

Thanks for the response. I do all of my fill work with the on-camera flash, but I suppose I'm really wondering just how much exposure such a small unit can add. I like your method for window-lighting, and I'll try it in the future (with AE lock or manual), but I wonder if it's sufficient for scenes with huge contrast (outdoors)?

 

The stitching question was totally separate, I wouldn't dare attempt combining multiple flash exposures. But I'm curious if the recent popularity of stitching was due to the ease advantages of digital, or from some limitation with film.

 

Best,

 

DI

[whayne_padden]

Digital stitching software is very good. Just check this out.

 

www.ptgui.com

 

Also nice tutorial on fill flash by popular photography

 

http://www.popphoto.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=706

[Ken Katz]

I would probably overexpose the backround by about a stop, and under expose fill flash on the subject by about 1/2 to 1 stop. WIth the pop up flash, you will have to be real close in order to have enough power to do this. Since you can't turn off auto fill reduction on the Elan II, I would actually add +1/2 to +1 stop flash exposure to overcome some of the fill flash reduction (and actually get -1/2 to -1 fill flash).

 

With slides I would tend to be more conservative with adding exposure, and would bracket more.

[yakim_peled1]

>> this is with the built-in flash of my Elan II (EOS 50), which supports E-TTL.

 

To the best of my knowledge no built-in flash supports E-TTL, just TTL.

 

Happy shooting ,

Yakim.

[nathan_simpson]

what you say is all true. because the shadow side is about 3 stops darker than the background sky. the flash on your camera is strong enogh if you are within 15-20ft more than that it might not be. the way to get the results you want is to get an ambeant exposeure for the sky by meetering it or useing the sunny 16 rule. then useing your flash on ttl to expose your subject. to do this you will need to put your camera on manual. the av or tv settings probly wont work for this. i have atached a snap shot frim a mission trip i took that exibits the results i think you want. it was taken with an eos3 and a 550ex exp. was 1/50@ f16 and ttl. shot with velva 100F custom iso 50. the same results can be acheaved with neg film.

[alexdi]

Yakim:

 

You're absolutely right, though having no experience with off-camera flash, I doubt I could tell you the significance of the 'E'.

 

 

Kenneth:

 

At your prompt, I did a bit more research on AFR with the Elan II. It appears to affect only low-light compositions, petering off in mild daylight and beyond. Good to know.

 

Nathan:

 

Just what I wanted to hear.

 

Thanks to all,

 

Dave Indech

[Ken Katz]

"At your prompt, I did a bit more research on AFR with the Elan II. It appears to affect only low-light compositions, petering off in mild daylight and beyond. Good to know. "

 

AFR begins to have an impact in "mild daylight" and reaches its full -1.5 stop impact in bright light (doesn't peter off). My experience with the Elan II is that in strong backlight situations, AFR provides less fill than what I want, and I usually add some light.

 

Check here: http://bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/flashfaq.htm

[alexdi]

Inconsistent wording in an Elan II user-manual, my bad.

 

DI