On 31 May 2013, at 13:10, Bruce Walker <bruce.wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 7:03 PM, Walt <ldott...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On 5/30/2013 5:46 PM, Bob W wrote: >>> >>> On 30 May 2013, at 18:53, Walt <ldott...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> >>>> So, I was wondering where I might be able to learn more about shooting >>>> manual flash in the event the TTL function fails me -- something to give me >>>> an idea of when to adjust the flash output power, at what distances, etc. I >>>> know nothing about guide numbers, flash modes, or anything like that. >>>> >>>> Anybody got any suggestions to that end? Any guidance would be >>>> appreciated. >>> >>> The guide number tells you how powerful the flash. It's of no real >>> consequence in practical shooting. >>> >>> To use flash manually, >>> >>> 0. Set the flash to manual >>> >>> 1. Set the ISO value on the scale on the flash >>> >>> 2. set the shutter speed to the flash sync speed, or lower >>> >>> 3. Measure the flash to subject distance - you should be able read this >>> off the focus scale, but if you're bouncing the flash use the distance from >>> the flash to the point on the ceiling, and double it. >>> >>> 4. On the flash scale, read off the correct aperture for the flash-subject >>> distance >>> >>> 5. Set that aperture on your camera >>> >>> 6. Focus and shoot >>> >>> You can vary the flash output, eg for fill flash, by lying to it about the >>> ISO. >>> >>> Setting the shutter speed slower than the flash sync speed gives you a bit >>> of ambient light and some motion blur against the flash-frozen bit. >>> >>> B >> >> Thanks, Bob. >> >> Although, strangely enough, there's no ISO scale on the flash as far as I >> can tell. None of the function buttons on the back seems to bring up any >> indicators. I'll have to do a little digging around to see if there's >> something I'm missing. >> >> Hmmm. > > Nothing's missing, Walt. Modern flashes don't come with the exposure > guide Bob described. I don't know when they stopped adding that, but I > suspect whenever the fancy *-TTL flash automation became standard. > Neither the Pentax AF540 or AF360 have it. I have a Metz SCA 3000 which begs to differ. Perhaps it's not all that modern, but does have all the fancy ttl stuff. I also have an Olympus FL36 which I could have sworn had it, but I've checked, and it doesn't. I know I've used it manually, so I think it must tell me something useful on the control panel. > > If you set the flash manually to the same setting as the Guide Nimber > is quoted for, eg ISO 100, zoom 50mm, then you can determine the > aperture for a given distance from the subject with this formula: > > aperture = GN / distance I never remember that for some reason. Perhaps there's something to be said for tattoos after all. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
