 Ujjwal Mukherjee |
Fill Flash Technique I would like to get some help on fill flash technique specific to my camera specifications. The objective is to remove the darkness from the face of the foreground subject with background also in sharp focus. We had discussed this issue earlier thinking that the darkness is because of the polarizer effect which John had pointed out earlier that the problem related to the shadow on the subject's face was due to the fact that the sun was either at the side or behind the subjects and I was advised to use fill flash technique. Now I tried to get some info on the net on this technique and got couple of them..I am just pasting those below so that they can come in help of others . My question to whoever can help me, is that, in this situation if I have to use fill flash technique the 1st step will definitely be be to take the reading of the background ,my problem lies with the next step.... now say I get the background reading as f/8 and 1/125 when I take the camera's meter reading now if I need to bring up the foreground subject to that value what value I change from this reading and at what stage I turn on the flash ? I mean after I take the background meter reading and then try to focus the subject do I turn on the flash and then focus or focus the subject and then turn on the flash. My concern is the effect of flash on top of the meter reading of the background may overexpose/wash the subject.. how do I compensate that effect? I have a built-in TTL flash unit on my Canon EOS-ELAN -II Will appreciate your help. Now pasting other available technique from the Net : Technique -1 ------------- STEP 1 Set your camera exposure based on a incident reading for the background. (Example: 1/250th at f/8.0 with ISO 160) STEP 2 For Auto Flashes Set your flash/strobe power output at 1 f-stop less than the cameras aperture. (Example: f/ 5.6) For TTL Flashes For Manual Flashes -----------------------------------------------------------------------
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John A. Lind |
Ujjwal, I use a completely different camera system. I'm not familiar with the EOS series of Canon's, not to mention the Elan II. I did a little research about the Elan II. It's maximum shutter speed for flash sync is 1/125th. The built-in flash has a GN of 43 (ISO 100; in feet). This makes it good to about 15 feet or so and it's not that powerful a flash. Farther than about 15 feet maximum and you need a more powerful external flash. Do you have the instruction manual for your camera? There is supposedly a mode (perhaps more than one) in which you can use the flash, and if the scene overall is bright enough it will fill at either 1.5 or 2.0 stops under the bright backlighting. Some of what I found was geared for using the "Canon Speedlight 380EX" external flash unit. Apparently you can program the camera to fire this external flash for fill also . . . and program how much fill to provide. I'm hesitant to say much more as I have never handled an Elan II. Hoping this will lead you to some places in the instruction manual that can help you. If you don't have the manual, you can go to Canon's web site and order one. -- John
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Jon Close |
I have an Elan IIe. The built-in flash is controlled by the off the film (TTL) flash meter. Regardless of the mode (Green, P, Av, Tv, M, PIC), in dim light it will fire full as the main light and in bright conditions it will act as fill light (-1.5 stops from the ambient exposure). The built in flash is pretty modest in power and the useful range decreases rapidly with each stop small aperture. The following website is pretty good at describing the Elan IIe flash systems Canon Malaysia has reproduced Canon's brochure "Flash Work" at
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Dana R. |
I use a canon Elan IIe I find the camera can do a good job for fill flash , but if you wish to use the manual settings instead of the programs, I find the nicest way to fill in around facial features is with a white poster board used to bounce natural light up to the subject from infront and below the camera.move the board around and you will see the shadows fade and still keep contrast details.
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