exposure for flash photos?
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From: Wm Watt on 29 Aug 2007 17:24 I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
From: Draco on 29 Aug 2007 17:42 On Aug 29, 5:24 pm, Wm Watt <ag38...(a)fastmail.fm> wrote: > I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built > in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to > get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment > and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The > built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been > playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on > the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in > light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the > public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or > links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. Look at the shutter speed dial and see if one of the numbers is in a differant color or has a lighting bolt next to it. That is the highest shutter speed the camera will sync at. The flash will fire at any shutter speed. But will not fire long enough to fill the frame. You will get a dark area either on one side or the other or at the top or bottom of the frame. Depending on how your shutter blades travel. The chart on the back of the flash gives you a distance and aprature setting for your camera. This is a starting point for your flash photography. With the aprature set, say f/8, the distance scale may say between 4 feet to 20 feet, then the camera set at the proper sync speed most of your images will be lit enough to be reconizable in this range of distance. Other than that, try it and see what happens and have fun with long exposures and flash at either the begining or at the end. See what happens, but have fun. Draco Getting even isn't good enough. Doing better,,,,does.
From: Jim on 29 Aug 2007 20:03 "Wm Watt" <ag384fm(a)fastmail.fm> wrote in message news:1188422665.465826.229410(a)57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com... >I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built > in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to > get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment > and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The > built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been > playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on > the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in > light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the > public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or > links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. > As another poster mentioned, there is likely to be an indication on the shutter speed dial of the correct setting. If you take the back of the camera off, you can observe the action of the shutter. I suspect that this camera has two horizontal curtains; if yours doesn't, then ignore what I am posting. A focal plane shutter moves the shutter curtains independently at low speeds. One of them opens the film gate to light, and the other closes it. At these speeds, the film gate is always completely open to the light. However, since the shutter curtains traverse the film gate in a fixed time, there is a shutter speed where the first curtain opens the gate while the second immediately closes it. This is the maximum shutter speed for use with a flash. At shorter durations, the curtains move in concert with a variable width slit for the light to get to the sensor. As for exposure, you must use the guide number method. In this method, you divide the guide number for the flash and for the film by the distance to the subject. The result is the fstop. This is the method that was used for many years (before the development of automatic flash exposure control). That is to say, every flash has a certain amount of light which it outputs. Every film is sensitive to a certain amount of light. Hence, one can construct a guide number for a given film type and for a given flash. Jim
From: Ric Trexell on 29 Aug 2007 21:56 "Wm Watt" <ag384fm(a)fastmail.fm> wrote in message news:1188422665.465826.229410(a)57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com... > I have a Yashica FX-7 SLR film camera. It is manual except for a built > in exposure indicator. I can adjust the shutter speed and aperature to > get good exposure outdoors but now I'd like to try a flash attachment > and do not know what shutter speed and aprature setting to use. The > built in exposure meter does not work with the flash. I've been > playing around with it with no film in the camera. There is a chart on > the back of the flash attachement but I doubt I can use it for fill in > light indoors by a window? I've looked in photography books at the > public library but they don't say what setting to use. Any advice or > links to advice would be appreciated. Thanks. **************************************************************************** ********* Wm Watt: I think you got good advice but I think Jim misunderstood what you were saying. (Maybe I misunderstand.) Anyway, you asked about using it indoors with fill in light from a window. I doubt there will be that much light coming from the window that will be stronger than your flash. I would just shoot with the flash and not worry about the light from the window. Now, if you are outside, what Jim said is right. That may be a little advanced for someone that doesn't have a clue as to the what shutter speed of the camera is for flash, so that is why I felt Jim was misunderstanding your question. If you wanted to use fill flash for outdoors, then figure that your flash probably has a guide number of about 80. The big potato smashers go about 100 or more. Most of the ones made that attach to the camera though are in the 80 range. So if you are using 100 ISO film, and your subject was 10 ft. away, the f/stop to use would be f/8. That is 10 divided into 80 = 8. If you are using 200 speed film, then go to f/11. It is always easier to figure it with 100 speed film and then add or subtract f/stops I think. If you have an automatic flash that has a little electric eye, then don't worry about it. The flash will make that decision. Ric in Wisconsin.
From: Wm Watt on 30 Aug 2007 11:05
Thank you for the helpful information. The camera has an indicator at shutter speed 1/125. I was able to find instructions on the Internet for the camera and it is synchronized for flash at that shutter speed but I did not know what that meant. Now I do. The flash is called an Image CZ-55 for which I have not found instructions on the Internet. The flash has a switch for M (manual) and three automatic settings, but the camera does not have automatic exposure, just manual. I appreciate the exposure computations very much. At present I am interested in taking some portrait type photos using a collection of hats indoors with natural window light, using the flash to bounce light off a wall to reduce shadows. I have neither studio and nor experience so am improvising. :) |