On 2/12/2013 2:36 PM, Bob W wrote:
From: PDML [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Walt
I have to admit that a good part of the resistance I have to taking up
flash photography is pure laziness. Aside from the fact that I don't
have an inkling as to what the photo is going to look like when I
decide to use it, I do find the technical aspects of it a little
intimidating.
I used to find it intimidating and I didn't learn to use manual flash until
after I had TTL flash on automated cameras. But when I found I wanted to use
flash on my M3 and only had an automated flash for a Pentax I bit the bullet
and discovered that manual flash is really surprisingly easy, to the extent
that now, on the rare occasions I use flash, always just use manual.
The best way to do it subtly is to use a tilt/swivel head and bounce it off
the corner of the ceiling, so it gets a good diffuse spread, and set it to
about 1 or 2 stops below the indicated reading.
The only mildly difficult thing about this is that you have to calcuguess
the distance from flash to subject taking into account the bounce. But in
general it's going to be about 2.5 times the camera-to-subject distance as
the crow flies, and your focus scale will tell you what that is.
Alternatively just get double the distance from the camera to the point
where the flash bounces.
You set the shutter speed to the flash-sync speed, set the aperture to match
the flash-to-subject distance - you read this off the table on the back of
the flash; it varies with the ISO - adjust by -1 stop if you want, then
focus and shoot.
In the good old days, paparazzi used to set things up so that they always
shot their subjects from the same distance - typically a full-length, so
they never had to adjust their camera settings and were guaranteed to get a
shot in focus, properly exposed.
B
Thanks for the tips, Bob!
I think I approach photography with too great a sense of urgency
sometimes. I don't like to spend a great deal of time fiddling and
figuring, and that's what flash photography has always represented to me.
I guess I'm a kind of Philistine/Luddite in that regard. "You
fancy-pants photographers with your flashes and your gels and your
fongdongs and your softboxes. Get off my lawn!"
-- Walt
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