Hi Howard,
First of all, I think that the following discussion may help to clarify some of
your questions:
http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=001Q5n
> (...) So I tried
> manual mode and set the diaphragm to f22, but didn't know what to set the
> shutter to. I empirically picked 1/30 (camera on a tripod), but realize that
> the exposure would be set by the very short flash duration. Could I have
> used 1/125, for example?
>
I'm tempted to answer "why not?" but that's what your question is about, ain't
it? ;-) If you want to have all your light coming from the flash unit, the
shutter speed doesn't matter at all, as long as you keep it under or equal to
x-sync speed. As you said, flash duration is quite short, and all you need is a
open curtain to let all this flash light come in... in your case, 1/125s.
> What is the optimal way to use flash in this setting?
>
In this particular case I'd say that 1/125 (x-sync) is a good choice. Notice
that if there's *absolutely* no light present (a dark room for example) there's
no difference between 1/125s and 12 hrs exposure (besides some dead batteries ;-)
The flash makes all the work.
Don't be confused about the exposure indications in your camera. It's telling you
about ambient light and not about flash exposure. The blinking slider was just
saying that "1/30 f/22" was not enough to expose the film with the light
available in the room. As you wanted a black background, 1/30 was good enough,
but 1/125 was maybe even better (to avoid any color casts, for example).
You don't even have to turn your lights of unless they 're quite strong.
> If I were to be so close up that flower filled the entire viewfinder would Av
> be OK since there is no 'background' that the camera will try to expose
> correctly, just subject?
>
Expose it with the flash or expose it by means of the available light?
> Just as an experiment, I tried to bounce flash from the side by putting a
> large bright white cardboard board about a foot to the side of the flower and
> tried holding the flash just 2 or 3 inches from the board…but the indicator
> on the flash indicated that there was not enough light generated for correct
> exposure. Why didn't that work?
>
Are you sure that the light was bouncing back on your subject? I'm a big advocate
of FEL (Flash exposure lock). You can see when your flash is not giving out
enough power by using FEL and looking at the flash ready symbol (lower left
corner) If it's blinking, you need more power. Check your setup and be sure
you're putting the light where it should.
> While I was shooting, the exposure indicator in the viewfinder was at -2
> stops and flashing and I couldn't quite figure out why, though I believe the
> indicator on the flash said the flah exposure was adequate. Is this supposed
> to happen.
>
Again, that was an indication of the ambient light level of your
subject/background. See my previous comment.
Regards,
Gerard.
PS: Don't apologize for making questions! That's what this forum is about ;-)
Just be sure to include a "EX" or "L" or "7" or "3" or "630" or whatever to keep
it "on topic" so we don't wake up the Majordomo Gods of the a1lymph.
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