Fun controlled light test project

[outforalaska]

My roommate asked me if I would photograph his three daschunds. I thought it would be an excellent chance to try some new film and maybe use a flash with my m6 classic.
My father is a canon digital gear nut and offered to let me use his pocket wizard remote stuff, a sekonic light meter (which apparently can hook up to the flash sync for metering??), and his flash unit (not sure of the model [he's used it over the weekend and I'll go pick it up soon]).
I guess before I ask for any tips and tricks/ basic setup questions; I should ask if there are any links to explain all of this stuff to me. If not; if anyone would be kind enough to help me out. I realize that I'll have to fire test flashes to meter and then set the camera accordingly. I know a flash isn't a necessity at all, but I really just wanted to try it out.
As for film, I wanted to try some fine grain b&w - maybe illford, kodak - any good 100 or below speed stuff (recommendations?). I think I'll steer away from color as most of his photos that he has in the house are black and white.

 

[Matthew Allen]

This is the single best resource for off-camera lighting info online:

http://www.strobist.com

Look at the Lighting 101 section to get you started.

A nice cheap slower film is Foma 200 (actually something like 100 or 125 I believe) though of course there are many others.

Matthew

 

[Matthew Allen]

By the way, if you're using a digital camera then the flash meter (yes, the digital Sekonics can be used to trigger your flashes and will then meter and help you establish lighting ratios etc) isn't really necessary, though it'd be neat to have. The test shots are free with digital and the histogram is very useful for tweaking the exposure.

Matthew

 

[outforalaska]

I guess I could borrow a digital slr to run test shots. Probably save me a handful of totally unusable pictures.

I guess my next question (really dumb - but I'll suck up my pride and ask anyway) - on the back of the M6 is the pc flash sync, right? I can simply plug a cord from that and connect to the flash?

I read something different hot shoe mounts. Would the one on my leica work with the pocket wizard so I don't have to have a cable hanging off of my leica (might get in the way if I'm shooting off tripod)?

Thanks for the strobist link. It's very informative.

 

[Matthew Allen]

I guess I could borrow a digital slr to run test shots. Probably save me a handful of totally unusable pictures.

I guess my next question (really dumb - but I'll suck up my pride and ask anyway) - on the back of the M6 is the pc flash sync, right? I can simply plug a cord from that and connect to the flash?

I read something different hot shoe mounts. Would the one on my leica work with the pocket wizard so I don't have to have a cable hanging off of my leica (might get in the way if I'm shooting off tripod)?

Thanks for the strobist link. It's very informative.

Just reread your first post and I see you were talking about borrowing the flash gear but not the camera. My bad - if you are using a film camera then the meter is pretty much a necessity. Practicing on digital might be wise though if you aren't confident of your ability to set up the lighting.

I don't have an M6 but if it has a standard PC socket then yes you can connect it to pretty well any flash with a standard PC cord.

As to hot shoes, the PW should work on any standard hotshoe. As far as I know it's like any other flash trigger in that it only uses the centre and side contacts so the extra manufacturer-specific contacts don't affect it.

I have the poor man's version of the PW which is the cheap Cactus trigger sold by gadgetinfinity on ebay. Be warned, the off camera lighting stuff can be rather addictive.

Matthew

 

[tbm]

I use my Metz 54 MZ-3 flash with my M6 classic, M6 TTL, and Bessa R3A. With my M6 classic I use the 'automatic' setting; with my M6 TTL I use both the 'automatic' and 'TTL' settings; and with my Bessa I use the 'automatic' setting. If I am capturing images of our cat (and in the past of our dogs who have passed away) rather close, I set the Metz compensation to either -1 or -1.75 so as not to overexpose the captured image. On my Flickr page, today I posted two scans of our cat that were captured with my Metz flash, Bessa R3A, 50mm Summicon, and Fuji Acros 100 and printed in my darkroom. I prefer the Bessa only because its flash sync speed of 1/125th of a second is faster than my M6's measly 1/50th of a second, enabling me to get sharper handheld images. Both images were captured with me about 4-5 feet in front of the cat. Here is the link:

http://flickr.com/photos/21652620@N08/

 

[Matthew Allen]

That's a good point, traditional Auto mode (sometimes called thyristor) is great if you're only using one flash. It does rely on the flash sensor being pointed at the subject though so if you're using light modifiers that block the sensor or multiple flashes then it can't be used.

Matthew