fill flash question

Qarik

How do you do it?

I had been setting my flash to manual and settin gthe power to 1/8 or 1/16 typically. Jeffreaux had suggested leaving it in TTL and dialing down the exposure control.

Curious as to how which method other folks use. I suppose the TTL method might be a bit more automagic so you don't have to fiddle as much.

LiquidAir

If you are talking about sunny day on-camera fill flash, I let ETTL take care of it. For any kind of off camera fill flash I use the manual power on the strobe and either a flash meter or chimping to get the power right.

Wil Davis

The Nikon CLS is very easy to use, but I will often hand-meter and use that as a starting point, and then set everything to manual then monitor and tweak as necessary.

Two powerful advantages of using digital are (1) you can bracket like mad (given that you've spare memory, and memory being so inexpensive, there's really no reason to be memory poor), and (2) real-time quality checking.

I have a D300 and it's great being able to control everything from the camera set to commander mode.

HTH -
- Wil

divamum

I use my 430ex in ETTL and then use flash exposure comp as necessary. Works for me!

jeffreaux2

Camera in manual, flash in ETTL, use FEC to adjust how much flash contributes to exposure. I often shoot a shot first without flash to adjust exposure. I use the histogram to push my exposures as far to the right as possible without overexposing highlights. Then feed in a little flash....


With the camera in manual and the flash in manual, the amount of light the flash contributes to exposure will change drastically depending on distance to subject. ETTL makes this adjustment for us.

Qarik

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Camera in manual, flash in ETTL, use FEC to adjust how much flash contributes to exposure. I often shoot a shot first without flash to ajust exposure. I use the histogram to push my exposures as far to the right as possible without overexposing highlights. Then feed in a little flash....


With the camera in manual and the flash in manual, the amount of light the flash contributes to exposure will change drastically depending on distance to subject. ETTL makes this adjustment for us.

My one question on the ettl fill flash though..if teh background is lighter and the subject is wearing lighter clothes for example..the meter may think..oh I don't need flash at all! But in fact there may be some real shadows on the face that need a lift. I do realize that the flash always fires when mounted in the hot shoe and maybe it is just at the lowest strength when it the meter says "all good"..but that lowest strength may not be enough? I haven't tried it in TTL so I am of course theorycrafting.

This woudl require adjust the FEC..which is not unlike changing the manual power. But still you get distance info in the TTL so that is plus.

jeffreaux2

Qarik wrote:

My one question on the ettl fill flash though..if teh background is lighter and the subject is wearing lighter clothes for example..the meter may think..oh I don't need flash at all! But in fact there may be some real shadows on the face that need a lift. I do realize that the flash always fires when mounted in the hot shoe and maybe it is just at the lowest strength when it the meter says "all good"..but that lowest strength may not be enough? I haven't tried it in TTL so I am of course theorycrafting.

This woudl require adjust the FEC..which is not unlike changing the manual power. But still you get distance info in the TTL so that is plus.

Ive never experienced the issue you describe.....and in any event you can use FEC in plus or minus....that is asisde from cutting flash power you can also add in power.

The only issue I have faced is when in fairly bright daylight....and using a wide aperture...and high speed synch you cannot get a full power flash. Swapping ISO or aperture for shutter speed to get back below the native synch speed can cure this.......when it is an issue. I rarely find myself shooting portraits above 1/200 anyway.

LiquidAir

Generally when shooting with fill flash, I set my camera on M and adjust the shutter and aperture to expose the background the way I want it. Then I let E-TTL (tuned by FEC) worry filling in the foreground shadows. This technique may be particular to the Canon flash system. I don't know how you'd do the same thing with Nikon gear.