 Lori McCoy |
flash Could someone please help me. I am having trouble understanding how to work my flash (manual) with my camera setting in manual. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
On general terms, if there isn't something unique about how your particular flash works, is you base everything on the power level you have the flash set to, the distance you are away from subject, and what iso you have. If there's a distance scale on the back of the head of the flash, you choose you power setting, or you choose apeture you want to use first, and use the distance scale as a guide. Pretty close most of the times. Set the iso on the flash, set the power at 1/8th power, 1/4 power, etc... then look to see at what distance meters or feet you are, such 12 ft away, and the scale may indicate something like f/4. If you change iso, you slide something over to point to the right iso number. Or if it's lcd display, enter the number, and the scale should slide over to indicate a higher or lower apeture for the iso. Now this dosen't take into account light that's already around, be it sunlight or room light. So a flash on maual will not give an accurate exposure just based on the distance scale when the flash is used with available light. There's where it's good to have a flash meter. Otherwise you need to calculate or estimate by how much available light there is that's adding to how much the flash is putting out.
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Jon Close |
What make/model camera? What make/model flash? Operation varies by maker's system, or whether flash control is automatic controled by the camera (dedicated TTL, E-TTL, D-TTL etc.), or automatic controled by sensor on the flash (non-dedicated auto-thyristor), or if flash output is fixed (manual flash output).
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Jagadeesh Andrew Owens |
Join the club. I've since dubbed on-command artificial light "The Light of Lucifer".
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John H. Siskin |
Working with strobes is easier than most people make it out to be. The key is to watch what you do and make changes based on what you see on your camera back f computer monitor. I am attaching some stuff from one of my classes that may help. In teaching this class I keep trying to find ways to say that you have moved into the land BEYOND metering. When you use a strobe meter you get a response that tells you how to make a middle density, but it doesn’t tell you how to make it look right. There is no automatic way to make it look right, only the application of brains can do that. When I make a shot with strobes and a digital camera, the first thing I do is to put the camera on manual and I will pay no attention to the meter in the camera. The only things I pay attention to are the proof image on the camera back and the histogram. More than metering these two things tell you about your image. Let me suggest a plan for seeking the right exposure: 1) set the shutter speed to the sync speed, 2) set the aperture to your middle aperture, whatever that is on the lens you are using, 3) take a picture, it will be wrong, 4) move the aperture dial to let in more or less light based on test exposure 1, you can look at the histogram to help determine how much to change the aperture, but the proof image should tell you if you need to change a lot or a little, 5) more test exposures and changes of light placement and light power until the strobes are right, 6) change shutter speed to balance values between existing light and strobe light, this will require more test pictures. This same technique will work if you are mixing strobes and daylight. This was why the Polaroid bill was so high with film cameras, but with digital these test exposures are free, so we should not be afraid to make them. This is the essential trick with strobes, to evaluate and change our images in search of the right levels for our lights and our exposures. Experience helps. With the histogram and the proof image on camera or in the computer we have better tools for creating the right exposure than any meter could give us, but it does take repeated testing.
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Lori McCoy |
Thank you everyone for your responses. I use a digital rebel xt with a sigma EF-500 DG super ETTL. My question is, if I have my camera on manual and I am shooting outside, do I put my flash on ttl or do I have to put it on manual mode? Thank you, Lori
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Jon Close |
Outside in daylight, set the 500 DG Super for E-TTL and for high speed flash sync. Regardless of the exposure mode chosen on the camera, the flash output will be automatically regulated to give fill-flash. If you don't set the flash for high-speed sync, the camera will not allow a shutter speed faster than 1/200. See http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ for more information on using flash with EOS cameras.
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Lori McCoy |
Thank you Jon!
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