Figuring out Fill Flash with a M4-P

[raytoei@gmail.com]

Hi,

I am trying to figure out how to do Fill Flash with a M4-P.
Can you advise me whether the following is generally the right direction, i have read the Dante Stella's post as well as several others meant for SLRs.

* The M4-P flash syncs at 1/50 or lower.

Fill Flash attempts to capture flash and background exposure, a sort of double exposure. The first being the subject being flashed and secondly, it attempts to capture the ambient lighting so that the background is not darkened. This is useful when the Sun is behind the subject creating a backlit situation, and simple +EV won't prevent blowing out the background highlights. It is also useful in shaded environment or evening lighting and a simple flash will result in a spotlight effect whereas using fill flash will capture the subject being flashed but also capture the background.

To do this, i have to set the exposure setting to the background, then align the flash and the camera aperture settings. The ratio should be 1:1 or ideally 1:2 for a more nature look.

Here are the steps:

Evening Situation
--------------------
Incident light meter reads f4, 1/125 at iso 100
Flash used is a Leica CF 20 manual mode which is gn 20 meters.
Assuming Subject is 2.5m away, gn 20/2.5 = f8

Aligning f8 to camera means that at f8, i have to change exposure from (f4,1/125) to (f8,1/30) which works because M4-P syncs at 1/50 or slower.

So at 2.5m, I snap a photo at f8 and 1/30 Or I could snap at f11 and 1/15 for less harsher shadows.

Bright Sun Light, with Sun behind the subject
----------------------------------------------------
incident light meter reads f16, 1/125 at iso 100

Flash used is a Leica CF 20 manual mode which is gn 20 meters.
Assuming Subject is 2.5m away, gn 20/2.5 = f8

Aligning f8 to camera means that at f8, i have to change exposure from (f16,1/125) to (f8,1/500) which doesn't work because it syncs at only 1/50.

To solve this, I have to move nearer to 1.25meters giving a 20/1.25 = f16 aperture.

So at 1.25m, I snap a photo at f16 and because I can't sync at 1/125, I have to resort to 1/50 as the next best option.

Hence, f16 and 1/50 and 1.25 meters from the subject.

Actually, in bright sun light, going for maximum strength flash is usually quite spot on.

This is somewhat correct ?

thanks

raytoei

 

[Mudman]

basically. You can also use ND filters on the lens to cut down on the amount of light (or use a polarizer).

 

[peterm1]

What I usually do in these types of situations (using presumably a manual or an auto flash). In either case you need to set the lens aperture to a certain value for a flash shot at a given distance. There will be a scale on the flash unit to tell you what this is based on the power of the specific flash.

For fill flash just set the camera's aperture one stop smalle than the recommended value to give a better result for flill flash. This will halve the flash effect on film - alternatively two stops will reduce it to one quarter. This works if other parametes are correct. As these flashes do not work thru the lens (which of course an M4P is not capable of in any event( it does not know that you have reduced the aperture and so the result is as I have described above.

 

[rogerzilla]

You need a flash like the Vivitar 283, with lots of auto-apertures. Then set the flash to (for instance) f/4 if the camera is on f/8. If the subject is backlit then f/5.6 on the flash would be better. Using the flash on one manual setting is almost impossible due to the restricted sync speed of the Leica.

Leicas generally are not good for fill-flash; anything with a leaf shutter is far superior.

 

[Freakscene]

Flash is what Nikons are for. Trying to do daytime fill-flash with a film Leica M is an exercise in masochism.

Marty

 

[maddoc]

I like to read the off-the-wall techniques !! 🙂 I will try that the next time with my M4-P, SA-21, Tri-X and some junk-box National flash !

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

JSU, the Vivitar 283 looks nice, but i think it will need a Vari-power ? That piece of knob-thingy costs a bomb on ebay.... 🙂

 

[Mudman]

Just grab an old Nikon SB-28. Great manual flash.

 

[rogerzilla]

I bought a NOS 283 for 25 GBP on eBay two months ago. It really was NOS too - the inner bag had never been opened. Works perfectly and my incident flashmeter confirms it's making its full GN of 36.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

I spent the last hour being confused over Nikon SB-16B.

Can I use Manual and Non-TTL Auto with the M4-P ?

thanks

raytoei