Hi Morgan, many thanks for reply. > > I think there's something you're might be missing here... > > I shot a band for the second time under very similar circumstances two weeks > > ago. It was my first attempt at using a flash at all, and so I found and > read everything I could about it (which BTW is not a lot). > > I think you should really look at and try to figure out the Guide Numbers > for your flash. I'm trying to infer information from your post, but it > sounds like you want a very high level of detail on the film. I think you > want a.) everything in focus -and- b.) everything well lit. If you were > outside in bright sunlight, this would be no problem. Just close the > aperture down for a big depth-of-field, and you can use all that available > light to create a great high-detail negative. > > Unfortunately, those are not the circumstances you are working with. > > It took me a while to wrap my brain around how the "throw distance" of my > flash works. Basically, as the aperture opens up, you can use your flash to > > expose a greater distance of space. As your aperture closes down, the total > > distance that you can effectively expose with the flash will decrease. > > So basically, you could use a relatively fast shutter speed and a small > aperture (which would produce big depth of field in normal lighting), but > you would get a very short "throw distance" from your flash. Thus, your > fast shutter, small aperture combination would result in a black background > because the aperture wasn't open enough for the flash light. > > Likewise, you could open the aperture up and get small depth of field, but > everything illuminated. > > I'd be willing to bet there's a way to get what you want, but I'm not sure > without knowing a.) the distances between you, the subject, and the > background -and- b.) the length of your lens. > > Hope I could help and not exacerbate the problem... > > -m > >
You're partially right in deciphering my question, having reread what I have written I didn't perhaps phrase it as well as I could, so I'll try again now. I really want to do away with flash, and shoot as I would in daylight. I can do this with certain compromises, as in fast film, slow shutter and wide aperture. However, I'd like to improve pretty much all of these but only by very slight amounts. The real problem is shutter speed, as I am getting blurred hands etc., and the lighting really is not that great so I am stuck with it. What I want to be able to do is to get as close to being able to take the photo WITH THE APERTURE AND SHUTTER AT SETTINGS I WANT, NOT THOSE REQUIRED FOR THE CORRECT EXPOSURE (apologies for caps, I don't know how to italicise in this email package!). All I want the flash to do is to bring the exposure up to what it should be, thereby using the absolute bare minimum amount of flash for my needs. I have use full auto flash before and it just flooded everything - the flash has a guide of 40, it's quite powerful and the stage isn't that big. I also much prefer the effect of stage lighting, and would like to keep some idea of this in the photo. I hope this clarifies, thanks again for your commnets Matt. p.s. If I reply in this way, does it fit into the thread structure of PDML properly?
