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#1
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exposure for flash photos?
I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built
in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. |
#2
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exposure for flash photos?
On Aug 29, 5:24 pm, Wm Watt wrote:
I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. Look at the shutter speed dial and see if one of the numbers is in a differant color or has a lighting bolt next to it. That is the highest shutter speed the camera will sync at. The flash will fire at any shutter speed. But will not fire long enough to fill the frame. You will get a dark area either on one side or the other or at the top or bottom of the frame. Depending on how your shutter blades travel. The chart on the back of the flash gives you a distance and aprature setting for your camera. This is a starting point for your flash photography. With the aprature set, say f/8, the distance scale may say between 4 feet to 20 feet, then the camera set at the proper sync speed most of your images will be lit enough to be reconizable in this range of distance. Other than that, try it and see what happens and have fun with long exposures and flash at either the begining or at the end. See what happens, but have fun. Draco Getting even isn't good enough. Doing better,,,,does. |
#3
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exposure for flash photos?
"Wm Watt" wrote in message ups.com... I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. As another poster mentioned, there is likely to be an indication on the shutter speed dial of the correct setting. If you take the back of the camera off, you can observe the action of the shutter. I suspect that this camera has two horizontal curtains; if yours doesn't, then ignore what I am posting. A focal plane shutter moves the shutter curtains independently at low speeds. One of them opens the film gate to light, and the other closes it. At these speeds, the film gate is always completely open to the light. However, since the shutter curtains traverse the film gate in a fixed time, there is a shutter speed where the first curtain opens the gate while the second immediately closes it. This is the maximum shutter speed for use with a flash. At shorter durations, the curtains move in concert with a variable width slit for the light to get to the sensor. As for exposure, you must use the guide number method. In this method, you divide the guide number for the flash and for the film by the distance to the subject. The result is the fstop. This is the method that was used for many years (before the development of automatic flash exposure control). That is to say, every flash has a certain amount of light which it outputs. Every film is sensitive to a certain amount of light. Hence, one can construct a guide number for a given film type and for a given flash. Jim |
#4
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exposure for flash photos?
"Wm Watt" wrote in message ups.com... I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. ************************************************** ************************** ********* Wm Watt: I think you got good advice but I think Jim misunderstood what you were saying. (Maybe I misunderstand.) Anyway, you asked about using it indoors with fill in light from a window. I doubt there will be that much light coming from the window that will be stronger than your flash. I would just shoot with the flash and not worry about the light from the window. Now, if you are outside, what Jim said is right. That may be a little advanced for someone that doesn't have a clue as to the what shutter speed of the camera is for flash, so that is why I felt Jim was misunderstanding your question. If you wanted to use fill flash for outdoors, then figure that your flash probably has a guide number of about 80. The big potato smashers go about 100 or more. Most of the ones made that attach to the camera though are in the 80 range. So if you are using 100 ISO film, and your subject was 10 ft. away, the f/stop to use would be f/8. That is 10 divided into 80 = 8. If you are using 200 speed film, then go to f/11. It is always easier to figure it with 100 speed film and then add or subtract f/stops I think. If you have an automatic flash that has a little electric eye, then don't worry about it. The flash will make that decision. Ric in Wisconsin. |
#5
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exposure for flash photos?
Thank you for the helpful information. The camera has an indicator at
shutter speed 1/125. I was able to find instructions on the Internet for the camera and it is synchronized for flash at that shutter speed but I did not know what that meant. Now I do. The flash is called an Image CZ-55 for which I have not found instructions on the Internet. The flash has a switch for M (manual) and three automatic settings, but the camera does not have automatic exposure, just manual. I appreciate the exposure computations very much. At present I am interested in taking some portrait type photos using a collection of hats indoors with natural window light, using the flash to bounce light off a wall to reduce shadows. I have neither studio and nor experience so am improvising. |
#6
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exposure for flash photos?
"Wm Watt" wrote in message ups.com... Thank you for the helpful information. The camera has an indicator at shutter speed 1/125. I was able to find instructions on the Internet for the camera and it is synchronized for flash at that shutter speed but I did not know what that meant. Now I do. The flash is called an Image CZ-55 for which I have not found instructions on the Internet. The flash has a switch for M (manual) and three automatic settings, but the camera does not have automatic exposure, just manual. I appreciate the exposure computations very much. At present I am interested in taking some portrait type photos using a collection of hats indoors with natural window light, using the flash to bounce light off a wall to reduce shadows. I have neither studio and nor experience so am improvising. The three automatic exposure settings allow the flash to determine when enough is enough. You will find them much easier to control than the purely mechanical method. In most instances, you set the flash to a particular automatic mark. Associated with the flash setting and the film speed is an fstop. You set the camera to this fstop. Then you just shoot away. Jim Jim |
#7
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exposure for flash photos?
"Wm Watt" wrote in message ups.com... Thank you for the helpful information. The camera has an indicator at shutter speed 1/125. I was able to find instructions on the Internet for the camera and it is synchronized for flash at that shutter speed but I did not know what that meant. Now I do. The flash is called an Image CZ-55 for which I have not found instructions on the Internet. The flash has a switch for M (manual) and three automatic settings, but the camera does not have automatic exposure, just manual. I appreciate the exposure computations very much. At present I am interested in taking some portrait type photos using a collection of hats indoors with natural window light, using the flash to bounce light off a wall to reduce shadows. I have neither studio and nor experience so am improvising. The manual setting puts out a fixed amount of light. The intensity of the light hitting the subject depends on the distance from the flash to the subject, and brings up the whole "guide number" calculation thing. (The intensity of the light decreases with the square of the distance, divided by the phase of the moon, and multiplied by the gross national product of Luxomburg!) The automatic settings measure the amount of light that hits the subject. For each auto setting and film speed, there is an associated f/-stop. Set the camera to that f/-stop and in most situations, the exposure will be correct. For your fill-in flash application, determine the exposure for the light coming thru the window. Let's assume that it is f/8 at 1/125 sec (You are limited to using your synchro-speed of 1/125 sec). Hopefully, one of the flash's auto settings for the film you are using will be f/5.6. Expose for the window light (f/8) and set the flash for one-stop down (f/5.6). The window side of the subject will be properly exposed, and the other side will be lit, but slightly less, probably a better look than having both sides equally lit. (Caveat: how does your camera meter the scene? If it looks at the _whole_ viewfinder, and the area around your subject is dark, it will select a setting that averages the light and dark areas together. Move closer so that the well-lit subject fills the whole frame, get your exposure setting, then move back to where you want to be. If your camera meters on a certain area in the center of the viewfinder, then just make sure your subject fills that area.) |
#8
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exposure for flash photos?
"Wm Watt" wrote in message ups.com... I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. ************************************************** ********************** Dear Wm: Another thing you might try is to go down to your local paper or office supply store, and purchase a white foam board. (I got mine at wal-mart). If the light is strong enough for the reflector, it will lighten up the shadows. If you want, try some aluminum foil or a sheet of aluminum to reflect light back. If it is too much, crinkle it up (the foil not the sheet) and try it that way. Have fun. Ric in Wisconsin. |
#9
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exposure for flash photos?
"Wm Watt" wrote in message ups.com... At present I am interested in taking some portrait type photos using a collection of hats indoors with natural window light, using the flash to bounce light off a wall to reduce shadows. I have neither studio and nor experience so am improvising. The 1/125 sync speed means 1/125 or slower. So if you meter for window lite and want to use say f4, and the meter says f4@1/60 ,that's fine. Then move the "Auto" slider or knob on the flash till it says about f4. You will still have to make tests, and I"ve found many flashes to be a little optimistic. If you can bounce it off a card taped to the flash, it should diffuse it enough. Bob Hickey |
#10
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exposure for flash photos?
Wm Watt wrote:
I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in light indoors by a window? The key thing to remember is you're really making two exposures: 1 with natural light (shutter speed and aperture) and one with flash light (aperture only). Fill light is typically 1 to 2 stops (or more if you like) less than the key light. For fill light set your exposure according to the key light (natural) and set the flash to 1 / 1.5 / 2 stops "more open" (corresponding to a faster aperture than the actual lens aperture). The flash will "under shoot" as it believes the aperture is more open than it really is For example. If the key light (natural) indicates a 1/125 f/8 shot, then set the flash for f/5.6 (1 stop open) to get a moderately strong fill; or f/4 to get a shadow lifting fill. -or- If you can't control the flash power this way, then set the lens aperture according to the flash guide, then close the lens aperture down (1/2, 1, 2 stops) and open up the exposure time in reciprocal amounts to balance the natural light. For example: the meter reading is again 1/125 f/8 for the natural light. The flash setting is for f/8 at the distance you're shooting. Set the lens aperture for f/11 (1 stop down for fill) and open up the shutter speed to 1/60. Cheers, Alan. -- -- r.p.e.35mm user resource: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpe35mmur.htm -- r.p.d.slr-systems: http://www.aliasimages.com/rpdslrsysur.htm -- [SI] gallery & rulz: http://www.pbase.com/shootin -- e-meil: Remove FreeLunch. |
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