R2 Flash Photos

[hjfischer]

I just had processed a roll of Fuji Superia 400 taken indoors with my Voightlander R2, the 35mm 2.5 pancake, and a Nikon SB 28 flash. I set the shutter to the sync speed of 1/125th and used an aperature of F: 5.6. The negs were mostly under exposed even tho the flash is supposed to automatically compute the correct exposure/ flash duration. The flash works OK with my Nikon N70 camera, and the R2 exposes all my shots w/o flash correctly. Should I have used a speed of 1/60th instead? What really bugs me is that these shots were for a neighbor's workshop display and I will have to do the thing again. I don't want to use the Nikon SLR and prefer the R2 instead. My neighbor has used his digital camera without success on this project and I am eager to demonstrate the superior technology of rangefinder photography! Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Marc Jutras]

Just checking... what mode was the flash set to? Was it on Auto (not TTL)? The SB-28 has a sensor, right?

I have no problems with my Vivitar 283 and 285 using the Auto mode (with sensor). It's actually the most consistent flash setup I've ever used.

 

[FrankS]

My guess is the flash mode was left set on TTL instead of Auto.

 

[hjfischer]

Just checking... what mode was the flash set to? Was it on Auto (not TTL)? The SB-28 has a sensor, right?

I have no problems with my Vivitar 283 and 285 using the Auto mode (with sensor). It's actually the most consistent flash setup I've ever used.

I set the flash on auto. It has a sensor like your Vivitars.

 

[Nikon Bob]

Is it possible that you may have had negative compensation set on the flash? I have used an SB 26 with an old F2 and got good results in prints. Similar situation with the flash on auto and camera set to sync speed.

Bob

 

[hjfischer]

Is it possible that you may have had negative compensation set on the flash? I have used an SB 26 with an old F2 and got good results in prints. Similar situation with the flash on auto and camera set to sync speed.

Bob

I don't think so. But assuming nothing wrong with the equipment I obviously did something wrong, so I'm going review my settings and to do some test shots. You know what they say about carpentry: measure twice and cut once!

 

[BrianPhotog]

I've used my SB28 with an old Kiev 4am with no issues. Haven't tried with my R2 yet, but since everything is in the flash what camera you use won't make a diff.

 

[Goodyear]

I set the shutter to the sync speed of 1/125th and used an aperature of F: 5.6. The negs were mostly under exposed even tho the flash is supposed to automatically compute the correct exposure/ flash duration. The flash works OK with my Nikon N70 camera, and the R2 exposes all my shots w/o flash correctly. Should I have used a speed of 1/60th instead?

I'm suddenly paranoid that I've always been doing it wrong, but surely it would be the aperture you want to vary, rather than the shutter speed?

 

[Marc Z.]

If you had a Stofen flash diffuser and the flash wasn't rasied at least 45, possibly even 60 degrees, your pix would be underexposed. Unbounced, the diffused light fools the sensor.

 

[Pherdinand]

I am not sure changing the sh speed to 1/60 will help at all. Only the ambient light will expose twice as long, and i wonder if there was any of such ambient light🙂

 

[FrankS]

Goodyear, don't worry, you have not been doing it incorrectly. Changing to a slower shutter speed, like Pherdinand said, picks up more of the ambiant light, but indoors, that has a subtle effect on the end result. It is the flash and the aperture that are responsible for the primary exposure in this case. Outdoors with a much higher level of ambiant light, the situation is reversed and the flash (the typical on-camera flash units we use) plays a shadow fill-in role.

 

[Goodyear]

That's what I thought 😀

 

[mr.voigtlander]

Hi all,

The other factor to consider, if you feel the flash was set correctly, is to look at the flash to subject distance. You may have been too far away from your subject. If you know the guide number of your flash, the aperture multiplied by distance (flash to subject distance) will give you the correct exposure by equalling the guide number.

For example, with a guide number of 32 (at ISO100) and aperture at f8, the subject distance that will be exposed is at 4 meters (f8 x 4m. = GN32). If you change your aperture to F11 your distance for correct exposure would be 3 meters etc etc.

Try these manual flash calculations. It's quite straightforward once you know that your aperture controls the exposure.

 

[hjfischer]

Since I first raised this issue I have learned a lot from the input received. Considering that all my camera settings were within a "normal" range ( 1/125, f:5.6, 8' distance, ) and that the SB 28 flash unit was set accordingly for auto light output, I think that some manual exposure compensation was called for on my part. The subject matter which I didn't describe but should have, was several large displays of fishing lures, many of which had bright metal that reflected back. This probably caused the flash unit to under expose-similar to shooting a snow scene that requires additional exposure compensation. I'm going to try the shoot again this week and will add a a little more exposure. Thanks again for all the suggestions and comments and if I don't seem to be on track, let's hear about it.