Austerby
Well-known
I'm going to a Civil Partnership ceremony this weekend and will be taking my R3A along with the 40mm Nokton and some HP5+. It's being held in a big London hotel and I guess I'll be needing flash as well but I've never been a big flash user and haven't yet tried it on the R3A.
I have a Leica SF24 flash - can I just stick this on the top, set it to auto and set the R3A sync to 1/125 and fire away at the appropriate aperture.
Or is there more to it than that?
I have a Leica SF24 flash - can I just stick this on the top, set it to auto and set the R3A sync to 1/125 and fire away at the appropriate aperture.
Or is there more to it than that?
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Jason Sprenger
Well-known
It can be, but I recommend practicing with the setup before the weekend.
Indoors subjects are usually about 3-5 meters away. Practicing at 3m, then at 5m will definitely help.
And practice with the sync speed and aperture to bring in more ambient light. 1/125th helps capture folks that might be moving, but folks standing for a photo can stand a slower speed even down to 1/30th with a rangefinder. The advantage doing this is that the ambient light has a larger influence and the pictures look more natural and less like the junk the paparazzi peddle. Opening the aperture also helps bring in more ambient light too.
Diffusion can also bring a more natural feeling than head-on flash. While there are attachments, you do this as simply by placing a handkerchief over the flash and increasing the exposure by a stop or a stop and half.
Again, getting predictable results with flash is a matter of practice. The image being captured is different than what you are seeing, so the photographer needs to have feeling for what they are going to get to be successful with flash.
Indoors subjects are usually about 3-5 meters away. Practicing at 3m, then at 5m will definitely help.
And practice with the sync speed and aperture to bring in more ambient light. 1/125th helps capture folks that might be moving, but folks standing for a photo can stand a slower speed even down to 1/30th with a rangefinder. The advantage doing this is that the ambient light has a larger influence and the pictures look more natural and less like the junk the paparazzi peddle. Opening the aperture also helps bring in more ambient light too.
Diffusion can also bring a more natural feeling than head-on flash. While there are attachments, you do this as simply by placing a handkerchief over the flash and increasing the exposure by a stop or a stop and half.
Again, getting predictable results with flash is a matter of practice. The image being captured is different than what you are seeing, so the photographer needs to have feeling for what they are going to get to be successful with flash.
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rogerchristian
Established
Some light diffusion rather than the straight on harsh flash will help, as Jason says. An ideal flash would be a Vivitar 283, better to have a little more power than too little. Used 283's are available pretty cheap these days.
It was probably the best-selling flash ever produced (other than some real cheap ones), in continuous production since it was introduced in 1973 until it was discontinued by Vivitar around 2004-2005. Unfortunately, even the venerable 283 could not save Vivitar with the digital revolution.
I also understand B&H is making new 283's, they bought the rights to the unit from Vivitar or its 'heirs'. I will bet they are still selling them in good numbers!
It was probably the best-selling flash ever produced (other than some real cheap ones), in continuous production since it was introduced in 1973 until it was discontinued by Vivitar around 2004-2005. Unfortunately, even the venerable 283 could not save Vivitar with the digital revolution.
I also understand B&H is making new 283's, they bought the rights to the unit from Vivitar or its 'heirs'. I will bet they are still selling them in good numbers!