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Outside exposure, Inside fill flash
Mar 25, 2023 14:21:45   #
compilot Loc: ARIZONA
 
Goal: Obtain relatively well exposure outside of window, while properly exposing object on table. Canon 1 DX Mk II on tripod, 1/30, F8.0, ISO 400, Canon 580 EX RT Flash, manual mode. I set exposure for outside scene, then used flash in manual mode with various power settings that are annotated on each image. Please comment if you have tried this and let me know how I did in comparison to your work.. Cheers -- Dan.


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Mar 25, 2023 14:50:43   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
compilot wrote:
Goal: Obtain relatively well exposure outside of window, while properly exposing object on table. Canon 1 DX Mk II on tripod, 1/30, F8.0, ISO 400, Canon 580 EX RT Flash, manual mode. I set exposure for outside scene, then used flash in manual mode with various power settings that are annotated on each image. Please comment if you have tried this and let me know how I did in comparison to your work.. Cheers -- Dan.


Out side exposure follows the sunny 16 rule; that is f=16 at 1/ISO when at sea level and at summer time. So at this time of year you will loose 1/3 to 1/2 stop of light, at 5,000 feet you gain one stop of light (actually 2/3 stop).

Assuming there is little to know ambient light from outside reaching the interior subject, the relationship would be one part rule of 16 to the same unit volume of flash output to fill the interior subject. This is generally called in old school parlance as 'syncro sunlight'.

Most would say your 1/8 flash, but a trained eye would go for 1/16 power setting.

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Mar 25, 2023 20:33:20   #
compilot Loc: ARIZONA
 
Thanks for your very detailed reply. My choice was 1/8, but I will look again at 1/16. I think both are editable and could result in an acceptable image. This was just a test I had not performed before. Cheers -- Dan.

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Mar 26, 2023 01:07:46   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
compilot wrote:
Thanks for your very detailed reply. My choice was 1/8, but I will look again at 1/16. I think both are editable and could result in an acceptable image. This was just a test I had not performed before. Cheers -- Dan.


Dan, no offense to your selection. The 1/8 does give a more detailed sort of effect, but the 1/16 exposure gives a more 'natural' look to the effect.

A new challenge would be to go outdoors and do this test again using the speed light with sunlight. In fact, try doing a test in what is called "open shade", that means complete shade but viewed so that there is full sun falling just outside that shaded area illuminated by full sunshine.

Then do the teat again using the flash to fill in a subject illuminated by sunlight. An old 'trick' was to place the subject with the sun coming from behind (no squinting eyes and scowls) but with full sunlight illuminating the scene.

The thing to look for in this last test is that the flash is adding to the exposure, so think in these terms. So sun (rule of 16) plus flash fill equals total exposure. An easy 'trick' is to "think' (do not adjust the camera ISO) that your ISO is almost double what you set on the camera. The other part of this 'thinking' is to use your f stop to control your exposure. So the Rule of 16 can be set at 16, but you know the correct exposure is actual one stop greater. So you then under expose the image at one shutter speed higher, and the flash will fill in the shadow perfectly.

One of the great thing about speed lights with their ratio control of out put is that you can change the amount of fill flash up or down to get the right amount of fill that looks good to you.

One last thing, your speed light uses a thyristor circuit to control light, unfortunately this is accessed through the small electronic eye on the front of the flash. The problem is that these are selectable to Infared energy and this can make exposure control with a thyristor circuit unpredictable, so use the ratio control on the flash to control the volume of fill light from the flash.

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Mar 26, 2023 07:15:12   #
Jimmy T Loc: Virginia
 
compilot wrote:
Goal: Obtain relatively well exposure outside of window, while properly exposing object on table. Canon 1 DX Mk II on tripod, 1/30, F8.0, ISO 400, Canon 580 EX RT Flash, manual mode. I set exposure for outside scene, then used flash in manual mode with various power settings that are annotated on each image. Please comment if you have tried this and let me know how I did in comparison to your work.. Cheers -- Dan.


Please give the following a look see.
I have had a lot of success using Mark's tips.
They usually make me . .
Smile,
JimmyT Sends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvaiQR26Y74

Edit: Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eI4S2g0c0c

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Mar 26, 2023 07:21:53   #
starlifter Loc: Towson, MD
 
The sixth one looks good exposure wise but a little harsh. Try bouncing the light on of the ceiling.

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Mar 26, 2023 08:54:01   #
Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.
 
Jimmy T wrote:
Please give the following a look see.
I have had a lot of success using Mark's tips.
They usually make me . .
Smile,
JimmyT Sends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvaiQR26Y74

Edit: Also, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eI4S2g0c0c


One of the aspects that seems to never be covered with high end flash meters are how options that are designed into the high end flash meters. I use a Minolta Flash Meter IV (let me clarify, this is NOT the more diminutive Flash Meter IV, but the ultra sophisticated IV).

There are vary purposeful reasons for how you take a meter reading with the Minolta Flash Meter IV. If you plug a sync cord into the meter and take a reading you get the flash ONLY as a read out.

If you discharge the flash after you activate the meter to read (you have a delay), the meter will take a reading of the ambient light, and then after you discharge the flash, the reading that you get will be the combined reading of both the flash AND the ambient light as a combined read out.

There is more, as you then rotate the shutter speed reading the meter will then adjust the exposure read out as a new calculation for the two readings of light. In this way your meter will show you the point when the ambient light will become the dominant source of light. With this reading you now know where the point of transition occurs, this is then a way of telling you when the ambient light is dominant and how much shutter speed is needed to suppress the ambient light.

Keep in mind that the first point in an exposure is effecting the highlights.

So, if you had a blond model and you want to increase the light color action of that blond hair you would use a shutter speed at that transition point or in perhaps two stops faster a shutter speed. The outcome for the exposure will be correct, yet the effect on the upper light tones (here in the example a subject with blond or light density hair would be favored) of your image can be favored.

This works because we control exposure of the flash with the f stop, while exposure for both flash and ambient light are controlled by the shutter speed.

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Mar 26, 2023 09:56:24   #
compilot Loc: ARIZONA
 
I did the same sequence with bounce, did not like any results. Cheers -- Dan.

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Mar 26, 2023 09:57:42   #
compilot Loc: ARIZONA
 
Thanks again for your added in depth analysis, I will print your post for further use. Cheers -- Dan

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Mar 26, 2023 10:02:17   #
compilot Loc: ARIZONA
 
I watched the first Youtube post and realized that I have also gotten some good tips from that presenter. I have a Seconic flash meter, it did not cross my feeble mind to use it to simplify the process. Also have modifiers, so I got very well educated on this process. Thanks for contributing to this post. Cheers -- Dan.

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