Urgent help RE Flash

[neo_hr]

Dear all,

I am new here and need urgent help since I am about to take some pphotos tomorrow, at the fashion show and cannot grasp flash photography really :x

I shoot film, live in Croatia if thats of any interest and have an ooooold camera, manual Minolta XG1, plus minolta I think 220 flash with full and half power.

Now, I am shooting this fashion show and can take some decent photos, even with flash but this is a problem since there is good ambient lighting that mixes with my flash. Lenses I have are 50mm 1.4, 135mm 2.8 and 70-200 4.5 zoom. I was thinking of using this last one since I will be far, and use it @ 200mm

What film speed do you recommend (maybe Superia 800? or 100 w. flash on full), how do I do it alltogether?? God I hate flash and I think I need to use it this time....

what about fill, can I fill the models faces with it, and what would be the best way to do it? I know this is a hectic post and a lot of questions but I really dont know where to trn to as it seems everyones gone digital,

Thankx everyone and greets from Zagreb!
Alex

 

[deb]

What is the flash distance for your flash unit. If you are far enough away to have to use the highest zoom, the question may be moot. If your flash won't reach the subject, you are better off not using it as you will end up with the foreground lit and possibly having the subject entirely in shadow.

 

[KMac]

Hi Alex,

I guess this info will be too late but for what it is worth, try this.

Select a reasonably fast film, ISO 400 or 800 should work fine. If you are hand holding the camera (i.e. not using a tripod) set the shutter speed to 1/(focal length) or a little faster. Focal length is the focal length of the lens you are using. This will help to prevent camera shake from ruining your shots while still allowing a reasonable amount of natural light into the camera to balance flash and background lighting.

Next, you need to know your flash's guide number. It is usually given either in feet or metres. Choose which one you are more comfortable with. Divide the guide number buy the subject distance to find the aperture to set your lens at. The guide number is usually given for ISO 100 film. ISO 400 is two stops faster so you can stop down the aperture two stops (bigger numbers) from the number you estimated with the guide number.

If you have some kind of TTL flash metering system, the guide number tells you the maximum flash output. You can move closer or open the aperture wider and the TTL program will quench the flash when sufficient light has reached the film.

Two things to remember are that ambient exposure is dictated by aperture, shutter speed and film speed. Flash exposure is dictated only by aperture and film speed. Shutter speed does not matter for flash exposure as long as it is slower than the X-sync speed (i.e. the speed at which the shutter opens fully before starting to close)

As always, you will have to experiment a bit to get the combination of ambient and flash exposure you are looking for.

I hope this helps,
Kevin