Thanks very much for your very concise brief summary of what would really
take much time and experimentation to learn otherwise.
Regards
Titoy
-----Original Message-----
From: Lex Jenkins <lexjenkins@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, January 04, 2001 12:47 PM
Subject: [OM] Re: OM 35 SP or XA
>First of all, forget about fancy flash tricks with the XA-series. They're
>designed to accept a specialized type of flash rather than the conventional
>shoe mounted units. Consider flash with the XA cameras to be a point and
>shoot affair.
>
>Using flash with a leaf shutter camera having user-adjustable shutter
speeds
>(which includes TLRs and some MF SLRs and every LF camera I can think of)
is
>fairly simple:
>
>1. First, determine the recommended f/stop based on distance to subject
>using the flash unit's guide number or the table printed on the flash.
>
>2. Then take a meter reading to determine which shutter speed is needed to
>use that f/stop without under- or overexposing the background.
>
>3. Fire away. For best results, bracket around this basic exposure. If
>your flash has adjustable output (like the Vivitar 285), use it to bracket.
>If not there are a few tricks: adjust the f/stop; keep the f/stop at the
>original setting but place something over the flash to reduce output
>(tissue, a diffuser, ND filter, etc); or keep the f/stop at the original
>setting and move closer to the subject to increase the flash effect,
farther
>away to decrease. As little as one foot nearer or farther away can make a
>big difference, especially with slow film or slide film.
>
>Opinions differ over what constitutes "fill-flash". Most photographers
>regard it as just enough flash to reduce shadows on the face and to add a
>catchlight to the eyes. That's fine for circumstances in which
reproduction
>quality can be controlled. But photojournalists (which I was) generally
use
>more flash to compensate for the relatively poor reproduction in
newspapers.
> So I'd usually use a flash ratio approximately equal to ambient light -
>sometimes even brighter when ambient light was low.
>
>Here's an example: I've chosen 10 feet as the ideal distance to subject;
>with ASA 400 film and my flash I'll set the aperture to f/8; with the
>subject in open shade on a relatively bright day I'll need a shutter speed
>of 1/500 to prevent blowing out the background at f/8; I take the shot,
>knowing that I'll have a photo that obviously looks like flash was used
but,
>unlike indoor flash, will have a more pleasing appearance because it is
>balanced by an equal amount of ambient light.
>
>This particular scenario would be next to impossible with an OM-1 and T20
>flash. That combination simply cannot sync above 1/60th. The only
>alternatives would be to use slower film, floods or reflectors to
supplement
>the lighting. None of these techniques would help freeze unwanted
movement.
>
>If I want to decrease the flash "look" I could stop down to f/11. But this
>would underexpose the background. So I'll compensate by using a shutter
>speed of 1/250. Now I have the same EV (exposure value) as before for the
>background/ambient lighting, but I've decreased the flash effect by a full
>stop.
>
>If, to maintain a preferred depth of field, I want a particular aperture, I
>could instead move back and zoom in, or stay put and place something over
>the flash to reduce/diffuse its output.
>
>By combining a high shutter speed with flash in daylight or other bright
>light you can better freeze action or prevent unwanted movement. OTOH, if
>you want to incorporate subject movement or blur along with flash (a
popular
>trick among fashion photographers and those shooting editorial
illustrations
>- I use slow sync quite a bit when photographing my exuberant grandsons),
>just use a slower-than-sync speed of 1/30 or slower. This can be done with
>an SLR or other camera using a focal plane shutter (Leica RFs, etc.) too.
>
>That's the basics. The rest is experimenting to find what works for you.
>===========
>Lex Jenkins
>===========
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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>
>
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