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Forum: Lens Clubs 02-22-2021, 04:04 PM

"The 200mm... the seemly unloved these days focal length club"
Posted By wkraus

Replies: 417
Views: 45,273

Evening sun, Lower Austria. Pentax LX, smc Pentax-FA* 1:2.8 200mm, Asahi Pentax SMC orange filter, f/6.7
Adox CMS 20 II Pro film/Adotech IV 1+24 (!) developer (EI 12)

20005_00 Lower Austria, April 2020 by Wolfgang Kraus, on Flickr

Crossposted from Post your B&W Film shots.

Forum: Lens Clubs 09-28-2021, 10:19 AM

300mm plus Lens Club: discuss your long lenses
Posted By turbofoen

Replies: 40,905
Views: 4,335,807

Sigma 50-500

Forum: Lens Clubs 08-27-2021, 05:42 PM

The 15mm Limited controls my mind - club
Posted By brightseal

Replies: 12,402
Views: 2,290,448

Forum: General Photography 07-27-2021, 09:49 AM

advice and commentary sought for Yellowstone and Gran Tetons National Parks trips
Posted By cobbu2

Replies: 142
Views: 5,409

I did this exact trip this past August and enjoyed it immensely. We concentrated more in the northern and central sections of Yellowstone having seen most of the major southern attractions in 2017. Also we did a cursory drive-through of Grand Teton NP since we covered that well also in 2017.

I brought my K-3 II with the 18-135 WR, the 55-300 PLM (which I rarely used), and the 10-17 ED Fisheye (and I'm glad I did).

Also along was my trusty P6x7 with the 55/4 6x7 and the 35/4.5 6x7 Fisheye-Tak (and some 320TXP and Velvia 100).

It turned out to be the perfect combination for me. Here's my "greatest hits" trip album.

Have a fun and safe trip!

Cheers, Allan

Forum: Pentax K-3 III 05-06-2021, 06:16 PM

Why I chose Pentax and the K3iii in particular
Posted By clickclack

Replies: 7
Views: 898

Hi!
I might be preaching to the choir, but here is my story re the title line.

I started photographing in 1964 (yup, I'm an old guy) and haven't stopped to this day. That makes for 55+ years making pictures. At that time, film was the only option, so I saved my money and bought a Rolie Twin Lens Reflex (TLR) camera and used a Weston Silicone Light Meter. Thus began my love of photography. Later, I migrated to a Nikon FM and then a FM2, and further on to a F3. The first SLR w/a meter in the mirror was my TOPCON SUPER DM. It was a fabulous camera that eventually was stolen. I also used an Olympus OM-1, which gave me great shots in Japan. Then there was the Contax N1 film camera which I coupled with a Zeiss 400mm f 4.0, (I bought it for 1/2 price, which was $2k at that time. Unbelievable, esp. now) which I still have today! I have an adapter for it to use on my EX-3. I will get one for the K3iii. My first digital camera was a Fujifilm FinePix F30 with 6.3mp. Got it in 2007 and photographed the deep Southwest. It was incredible then and can still hold its own today. Then came my Canon 5D MK III w/ typical lenses. Terrific coloring, abysmal AF. HEAVY! Finally sold that and bought a Fujifilm XH-1. Awesome camera but too many quirks. Sold it, kept 2 zooms of high quality. EX-3 came next and I will keep it, but it is a compromised camera.

Now, I have a Pentax with a pentaprism. You see, I had several SLRs w/pentaprisms and loved the real, live view. The digitals I had were mirrorless and the views produced have NEVER lived up to a pentaprism's view. I cannot tell you enough just how happy I am now that I'm using an OVF once again. I will never go to EVF. Never. So, here's to Pentax taking a gamble that there are enough of us out there who want OVFs. Go For It, I say...

Turned out to be a long diatribe, so I thank-you for your patience if you read this letter to you.

Forum: Lens Clubs 10-25-2020, 12:40 PM

The 15mm Limited controls my mind - club
Posted By Rondec

Replies: 12,402
Views: 2,290,448

Misty Sunrise (DA 15 limited)

Misty Sunrise by Vincent1825, on Flickr

Grain Bins at Dawn (DA 15 limited)

Grain Bins at Dawn by Vincent1825, on Flickr

Both shot with my (still functional) K-01. Sometimes when I turn it on I get a black screen, but if I shut it off for a minute or two it seems to remember its job again. Funny that Flickr thinks that this is the HD DA 15 limited, but mine is the old fashioned SMC version of the lens.

Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 09-20-2019, 11:58 AM

SMC F-1.7x converter odd behaviour
Posted By vonBaloney

Replies: 5
Views: 975

The converter can also find focus at different positions (it has its own moving part) depending on where it starts and how far off the focus on the lens is. So the MFD when using the converter is actually not constant (with a given lens) because it is finding equilibrium between two focusing elements (the base lens and itself) and the starting position of each matters.

Forum: Lens Clubs 11-13-2016, 01:38 PM

Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By pacerr

Replies: 4,552
Views: 852,024

You value them as they existed in their day . . . as we do veterans of any type.

There's break-points in photo development - as all other technology. Sometimes we shoot with old gear simply to acknowledge and show respect for the past - like old cars or old aircraft or . . . .

What's cool is only those that KNOW can produce great images with older gear - or rtry. Smile an' humor those that don't know. Sort'a like them that don't know how to harness a mule, huh? :hmm:

Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 09-28-2017, 11:34 PM

birding
Posted By redpit

Replies: 18
Views: 2,039

I had the D7000 and then (for reasons I have explained elsewhere in here) I also got the K-5. I used the Bigma 50-500 on both so it was an easy task to make a side by side comparison. The K-50 is an entry level DSLR while both the D7000 and the K-5 where the semi-pro top APS-C models of each company at that time (around 2012-2013), using the same 16,3 Mpxl sensor. Long story short, I became a Pentaxian after a few months shooting both cameras! When I had some time for shooting I always picked my K-5 and left the D7000 home, as it was giving me more pleasure and quite better results.

Don't get me wrong @enyaw I don't mean that the D7000 is a bad camera, on the contrary it is very good and honestly more than enough for anything in the hands of a good photographer! Concerning the AF performance and especially AF tracking, the D7000 was way better on paper than the K-5, but that didn't seem to be the case in real life shooting. The keepers rate (remember smae cameras, same lenses, same settings and photographer) was higher with the K-5! I found that while the D7000 was better at AF tracking, the tack sharp pictures I was getting were less than those from K-5. The D7000 could track quite well in the sense that you wouldn't find a caption that was completely out of focus, while that happened from time to time with the K-5, but the buffer of the D7000 was significally shorter (and disturbing for my aviation photography) and the K-5 frame rate was also higher. So, after shooting let's say a high speed pass of a fast jet, with the D7000 I was getting 6-10 frames that all were good and 1-2 of them tack sharp if I was lucky while with the K-5 I was getting 15-20 frames where 1-2 where out of focus, 5-6 where good like D7000 and 7-10 tack sharp and excellent captions...

I had tested both combos in various conditions and there was only one case where the D7000 was way ahead of the K-5 (even the K-5IIs I got later). That is AF tracking small subjects on bussy backgrounds! So If you had to track a bird in flight, both cameras where very good while it was flying high against the sky or clouds. If the bird was coming low and there were mountains, trees, etc on the background, the K-5 was loosing the subject and you were lucky if you got any sharp images at all (e.g. when the bird was filling the frame and had good contrast against the background). OTOH the D7000 would keep on tracking the bird and would give you more or less the same % of keepers like when the bird was flying against the clear sky! So for the K-5 you had to develop techniques to overcome this con (that is another story). Anyway I wrote a lot as your equipment and question took me back to my first steps with DSLRs. I hope you weren't bored!

So to your question, no the K-50 can't exactly match your D7000 settings (which is a more advanced camera), but if you set the K-50 properly you can still get great results, with very different shooting style and more importantly completely different mentality :lol:

Enjoy shooting with your great cameras!

Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 07-20-2014, 07:30 PM

How reliable is focus confirmation with manual lenses...
Posted By chiggerbyt

Replies: 15
Views: 3,248

Somewhere in your manual for the KX there is a "catch in focus" instruction. It must be turned on in your menu option. Menu option 2 AF On your KX menu settings> Menu #2 >Mode >Set to AFS. Custom menu 4 option 22 Using aperture ring> set to 2 "Permitted". Custom menu 3 option 21 Catch-in Focus> set to 2 "ON". Base of your Super Takumar (manual focus lens) must make metal contact with lens mount (search for this on the forums if you need to). Turn camera on and set focal length of lens. Switch focus switch on front left of KX to AF. Press shutter and hold down all the way while you manually turn focus on camera. Shutter will fire when the center spot is in focus taking the photo. This is how it works on my KX with a manual lens as an option to using your eye to try and get it right. Helps for when you don't have the time to spend carefully focusing. Hope this helps some.

Forum: Photographic Technique 09-13-2013, 05:00 PM

Perfect focus everytime
Posted By Wired

Replies: 299
Views: 103,853

So you have calibrated your lenses for front and back focus, however your are still getting shots that appear out of focus. You go back and spend hours re-calibrating every one of your lenses, maybe even send them off to Pentax to calibrate, but you still end up with the shots that are front or back focused.

Well I'm here to help with a little trick on how to configure your K5/K7 to get more of your shots in focus more often.

The problem here is not that your lenses are not calibrated correctly. The problem here would not be fixed by going to a Canon 5D mkiii, D800, OMD EM1, or whatever else may be crossing your mind. The problem here is that from the time you lock focus to the time your press the shutter either you or your subject may have moved. Even when you fully depress that shutter you may have moved the camera just enough to loose focus. This is obviously more important for when precision focusing can make or break the shot. This also assumes that you are not experiencing camera shake, but true focus issues. There is a way to over come this!

First off, we are going to go into your cameras shooting menu and scroll over to page 5 where "Button Customization" lives

next, select AF Button and set it to "Enable AF" this is on by default.

af button by LK_335, on Flickr

Then go back to the button customization menu and go down to "shutter button half press", we are going to change this to off

half by LK_335, on Flickr

almost done. go to the side of your camera and flick the switch over to "C".

AFC by LK_335, on Flickr

Finally, we are going to set your "AF" mode switch to SEL.

So what does this accomplish?

First off by being in SEL mode for autofocus you can now choose which auto focus point you are using in the view finder. Your going to select this with the 4 way pad on the back to keep your AF point right over whatever you want to be in sharpest focus.

Second, by having the camera in constant AF mode, your camera will do whatever it can to keep whatever is under that AF point in focus. So the AF motor will constantly be hunting, you will notice you only need to move a fraction of an inch for the camera's AF to start working. But your target is still sharp as a button.

I guess a skipped a step, you need to also keep your thumb held down on that AF button on the back. the second you release that button, AF stops!

The other bonus of this method is that if your shooting on a tripod, you can set your focus, hit the AF button to lock, then you can adjust your exposure and do whatever without fear that by pressing the shutter your camera may freak out and change focus on you.

This is invaluable not only for moving targets but for stationary ones too, because even though that lime on your desk isn't moving, you are when your holding your camera. So let the camera do the work and keep that focus locked!

Quotes from other pages regarding this method:

"Doing so allows you to set the camera to continuous-servo AF (AF-C) mode permanently, while still being able to get the benefit of focus-lock like you do in single-servo (AF-S) mode. This means that at any time, you can switch between a focus/recompose/shoot style of photography (portraits and landscapes) and continuous subject tracking (sports & wildlife) without having to change camera switches or menu settings."

"To emulate single-servo mode (focus/recompose/shoot)

Place the active AF point on your subject
Press the AF-On button to acquire focus
Release the AF-On button to lock focus
Recompose and shoot
To focus continuously on a moving subject

Place the active AF point on the subject
Press the AF-On button
Keep the AF-On button pressed to track focus while simultaneously pressing the shutter release"

K3 Setup for AF button focusing!

you've asked for it! Now you got it. It's incredibly easy!

Go into your shooting menu, page 4.
Select Button Customization
AF Button - AF2

Then, hold down the "AF Mode" button on the side of your camera, use the front dial to select "AF.C, use the rear dial to select "SEL-1". Thats it your done!

For bonus points, use the different SEL settings to allow the focus to track across the frame. Very handy in sport situations. ie: SEL-3 will lock onto where your focus point is entered, then track it as it moves. Very useful.

Forum: Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 10-10-2013, 11:40 AM

Battery grip -- do you need it?
Posted By Pentikonian

Replies: 60
Views: 8,100

Also helpful for some people with grip strength/ pain issues due to arthritis/ age. Sometimes a larger grip area requires less force to securely hold, and slows the onset or reduces the amount of discomfort when using the camera for extended periods. I had the grip specifically for that reason. Shorter use times are not a problem. As everyone is different, this is a definite YMMV area.

Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 02-12-2012, 12:22 PM

How Manual Is Manual?
Posted By excanonfd

Replies: 25
Views: 2,378

If you buy an A lens, you can do everything that you normally do with an AF lens (control everything from the body), except of course, auto focus.

If you buy an M lens, you set the mode dial to M, focus and compose the shot, turn aperture ring to aperture opening size you want, press the green button to obtain metering and shoot. Pressing the green button closes the lens down to the aperture value you have set to obtain the proper meter reading, releasing the shutter does the same plus opening and closing the shutter across the sensor to capture image.

If you buy an M42 lens, you will need an M42 to K mount adapter. Set the mode dial to Av (most Pentax DSLR defaults to Av mode), focus and compose, turn the aperture ring on lens to an aperture value you want to shoot at (the viewfinder will darken as you stop the aperture ring down), the camera meters in real time constantly in Av mode with an M42 lens. Click the shutter to capture image.

There are other modes and things to consider when using MF lenses, such as CIF mode, exposure compensation, split prism focus screens, viewfinder magnifiers etc. These thing should be used by the shooter as he/she sees fit.

Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 02-12-2012, 02:12 PM

How Manual Is Manual?
Posted By Lowell Goudge

Replies: 25
Views: 2,378

How manual is manual?

Really, it is a process and not just using manual aperture lenses.

For me, going manual means you take a meter reading somehow, and then you decide the shutter and aperture to get the exposure you want.

This may be pushing the green button, using an outside light meter, or even the sunny 16 rule (sunny day, shutter speed =1/ISO at F16) and adjusting from there.

If you are simply discussing using lenses not in the A position, then metering can be still accomplished in camera, however some bodies (the K10/20 are the worse) have "unique" metering behavior as a function of aperture. My advise is to make meter readings at f4-5.6 because that seems to be where they are most accurate, and I think this is because this is the aperture range of kit lenses. Kind of makes sense, doesn't it.

Once you have the meter reading, as I said, set the aperture and shutter where you want and shoot

Forum: Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 10-29-2010, 10:46 AM

Problems removing SD card from my K-5
Posted By telfish

Replies: 70
Views: 17,125

Never had a card stick in my k7 or k5. There is a knack to ejecting these cards. You press down with your finger nail and then quickly remove your nail to allow the spring to eject the card. Some cards will come right out of the camera and most will just pop up enough to remove easily. If you just allow the card to eject against finger pressure then it will sit low in the slot and be difficult to remove due to the card door being a tight fit.

Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 12-15-2011, 12:39 PM

Is it me or my K5? Impossible to shoot red skies!
Posted By Ecaterin

Replies: 71
Views: 10,978

Count your lucky stars that you're joining the digital era *now* Even 2 digital-camera-generations ago, white balance was just a nightmare. I never even bothered with auto-WB on my K-10-d unless I was in bright sun, the K10 was all manual-WB alla time :P

As much as they've improved, one area where digital cameras still have a heck of a time, is transitional light. If you've got competing colored light sources, or the light quality is complex enough that the auto WB might not be able to figure it out, you have to go to manual. Sunset light is a bear that way :) If you take a set of photos under iffy WB conditions on auto-WB, the camera will turn out a series of hilariously different photos - picking tungsten WB for one shot, and daylight WB for the next, even when they're exactly the same.

On a similar note, the hardest color for digital to handle is red (anyone got good sensor-physics to explain this? I'm sure the reason is known :)). Red toned highlights more than any other color can really get burned (meaning lots of digital data wasn't captured, resulting in a mono-colored hotspot) in a non-adjusted shot - one reason I went from the K-x to the K-5, was this issue. Any time I'm going to shoot something that's a pure red, and illuminated, I take care with a tad of under-exposure to be sure I have enough data in the red channel available to edit! If the red gets burned or really color-cast shifted, it's much harder to get red (more than any other color) back in post processing, because the actual digital data for red was never completely captured.

K-x's burned reds:

So if you've got iffy lighting for WB *and* you're shooting a very red subject, you'll be doing a lot of post processing, because while the K-5 has great adjustability no camera can beat a fully enabled copy of Photoshop or whatever software you're using :)

You can do a lot of fine tuning of WB in-camera, and then tune even more in the color settings, but frankly I find it really fussy and prefer to shoot in RAW and tune the WB in Photoshop where the controls are much more refined and the screen is huge. For any given sunset, I'll shoot a frame, try out several different WB presets and choose one that gets the closest - and then just ignore WB and concentrate on exposure. Knowing I'll tweak the WB the rest of the way in Photoshop, means I can relax and work on getting a good shot :)

This pano I was able to quickly grab an auto-WB setting that got very close to the color & pushed it the rest of the way in post. I don't know why the K-5 handled the deep orange so well that day, it's a mystery:

This shot, on the other hand, was an absolute work out - I was only able to get a WB color palette in the same zip code as the actual scene and had to post-process to tweak white balance, remove color cast and do a couple of other things to get there. It was completely eerie light, even wilder than it looks in the finished pic.

This is an area where you'll need to embrace your inner Zen blank-slate of ignorance. You're building an entirely new skill set, accumulating enough data to start being able to intuitively set the camera. Shoot every sunset you can, every illuminated red you can, while adjusting your camera settings and observing. Let the camera show you what settings get you close to what you saw. Pick up a copy of Photoshop Elements (much less overwhelming than the full program, but still powerful & lets you edit in RAW), because you're crippled without good post processing software. Learn all of the tricks of RAW editing - that's going to give you the most dramatic reclaiming of the photo you saw, in the photo you took.

Just as with film, taking the perfect exposure is only half of the process - you need the perfect 'development' in post-processing as well. And here's where we drag out the Ansel Adam's attributed quote "Great photos aren't taken, they're made."

Forum: Lens Clubs 08-14-2011, 09:30 PM

Adaptall Mount Club (Tamron).
Posted By excanonfd

Replies: 4,552
Views: 852,024

So it was all in my imagination after all... Anyways, after finding out my pet theory was like a sieve, I decided to give the yellow dotted PK/A adapters another look and clean if needed. I am happy to report that I was able to restore maximum aperture of f2.4 to three of four yellow dotted PK/A adapters I have.

I am posting a picture of the adapter with the inner shroud removed for sake of clarity. All of my adapters' right side locking tab move freely back and forth while the one on the left is very stiff or at least a lot stiffer than the one on the right. Even the one that work properly have stiffer left tab than the right, just not as bad. I thought if the left tab can move as freely as the right tab, would that solve this misread maximum aperture problem?

I took the first and the last adapter apart but it shouldn't be necessary to do so to clean the adapter. You will need Naptha (lighter fluid), lots of paper towels to blot the lighter fluid with, and canned air. It's very simple to clean the adapter; you just have to literally drown the adapter while working the left locking tab back and forth (right tab as well, but not as much).

Place the nozzle of the lighter fluid bottle on the edge of the silver ring (where the right locking tab is screwed to) and let the fluid dribble out, while moving the bottle around the rim. At the edge where the serrated metal meets the black plastic ring (where left locking tab is screwed to), let the fluid dribble out in between, apply the fluid to several spots along the rim. The lighter fluid will act as lubrication so that the left locking tab will move quite freely. Press and hold the black plastic aperture control button (the left locking tab will travel further than normal) and you should start seeing grimy lighter fluid seeping out on to the silver ring in the picture. Blot the grimy fluid from the adapter until dry to touch, and repeat the process at least once more, depending on how grimy the lighter fluid becomes.

When you are satisfied that the adapter is clean as it can get without dismantling, and the left locking tab is moving freely, it's time to test the adapter. Blot dry the adapter and thoroughly wipe down the adapter clean, use the canned air to dry/force out any remaining lighter fluid from the adapter. If you have a hobby compressor, even better. Just make sure to drain the tank of moisture before using it to blow air at/into the adapter. If you don't have canned air, just let the adapter sit or use hair dryer without heat. Mount the adapter to the lens then to the camera and hopefully, good news!?

The fourth one, which was on my 54B, I have repeated the process six times ( two separate sessions) and finally took it apart and wiped down each component, without success. That one is now permanently attached to the 54B.

For those concerned with drowning the adapter with naptha (a solvent), there is always a risk but in my experience with various solvents as a car painter, I could safely say that naptha simply isn't 'hot' enough to cause damage to any component inside the PK/A adapter. All it does is strip the body's natural oil from your hands when handled and evapourates fairly quickly without leaving residue. I would not use WD40 and it's like because of the residue left behind could gum up the adapter in the long run.

Hope this helps and happy cleaning! :)

Forum: Pentax SLR Lens Discussion 04-16-2011, 03:30 PM

Shooting WA, ie DA 15
Posted By pacerr

Replies: 8
Views: 2,492

For about 40 years I didn't use anything shorter than 50mm. I was quite happy with an SMC 85/1.8 as a normal lens for FF film. I just wasn't seeing in wide angle and to a large extent it was due to a false perception of 'wide angle' lenses as being solely a distant landscape tool.

When I transitioned to DSLRs and was freed (economically?) to experiment more I discovered that lens focal length, whether WA or telephoto, was a perspective tool, not a crop tool.

I'm certainly not yet totally into the WA world, but a Tamron 10-24 and a DA 16-45 are teaching me to see common subjects from a different point of view, although I do have to intentional look for the different ideas.

- Don't think of focal length as only a crop factor

- Do set yourself specific goals for exploring perspective

- Think about background and DoF as well as subject matter

H2

Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 11-09-2010, 09:26 AM

Flash usage, and TaV or manual mode.
Posted By egordon99

Replies: 5
Views: 3,364

Replace ETTL with PTTL if you're using a Pentax PTTL flash, and note that the sync speed of your camera is 1/180s, not 1/250s. This was originally written for Canon, but light is light so most of the principles still apply.

Basically, with flash, the FLASH exposure is solely determined by flash power (actually duration, how long the bulb is actually firing for), aperture and ISO. Ambient exposure is determined by ISO, shutter speed, and aperture (just like without any flash), so the trick is balancing the two. If I'm indoors in a smallish room (such as in someone's house), I usually just forget about ambient since the flash is powerful enough to light up the entire room (hence the 1/200s below, if the flash didn't fire, I'd have a more or less black picture) Now although you're shooting MANUAL Mode, that's only for the ambient exposure (the exposure needle in the viewfinder will blink warning you about underexposure, but ignore that). The camera's E-TTL metering will determine the needed flash output for a proper exposure.

Here's something I wrote on another forum -
"Easy" recipe for great E-TTL flash shots -
1)Point flash at ceiling/wall (to the side or behind you, experimentation is the key!)
2)Put camera in MANUAL mode on the mode dial
3)Set FEC to +1 on the flash head

4)Shoot RAW (this allows you to recover some highlights that might get blown as a result of #3 above)

5)Set ISO to 200 (to start)
6)Set shutter speed to 1/200s
7)Set f-stop to whatever DOF you want

Now if the flash runs out of "power" because of high ceilings, you can raise the ISO or open up the f-stop to compensate. Or you can slow down the shutter to bring more ambient light into the exposure (in addition to adjusting ISO/f-stop) If the ceiling is REALLY high (like in a church), you may need a reflector to throw some of the light forward (I use the Joe Demb Flip-it).

Quick and dirty outdoor fill flash tutorial -
Basically, if your subject is in shade and the background is bright (ie under a tree) or majorly backlit, fill flash is your friend. Think of those times when you got a properly exposed background, but the subject was almost pitch black.

Put camera into Av mode, metering will set the shutter speed to expose the overall shot (which in the situations that call for fill-flash will generally be the background) based on your selected aperture/ISO.
Make sure flash is set to HSS (in case your shutter speed go faster than 1/200s) and E-TTL. Fire away! The shutter speed/f-stop/ISO will expose the background, and the flash should output enough power to light up the foreground.

Now to control the background exposure, you use exposure compensation on the camera body (which would adjust the shutter speed), to adjust how much fill for the flash exposure, you use Flash exposure compensation. The trick is balancing the two (as it is with indoor work), and that comes with experience/experimentation.

IF the flash is providing all the illumination (which it generally is in a small-ish room with you bouncing it off the ceiling), the shutter speed AND how dark it is do NOT matter AT ALL.

Try this - Pick a room in your house at night. Have a bunch of lights on. Set the shutter speed to 1/200s, aperture to f/5.6, ISO400. Point the flash straight up towards the ceiling (make sure the flash is in ETTL). Shoot.

Then turn off ALL THE LIGHTS, so it's pitch black. Do not change any settings. Take a picture. The picture should turn out the same, AND the flash wouldn't even have to work any harder. Basically, the flash is hitting the ceiling, and turning the ceiling into a large light source. THIS light source is providing all the illumination to the picture. How much flash power you need depends on the aperture, the ISO, and the distance from the light source to the subject. How dark the room is has NO affect on how much flash power is needed.

Now if you went with ISO400, 1/200,s f/5.6, and did NOT turn the flash on, the shot should be pretty dark, even with the lights on.

Now turn the flash back on, but adjust the shutter speed to 1/100s. The shot will probably look VERY close to the first two shots (you can turn the room lights back on now ) Then try 1/50s, 1/25s....Eventually you'll see the room lights "creeping" into the picture. This leads into the next paragraph...

A "flash picture" is made up of TWO distinct exposures. The "ambient" exposure if comprised of shutter speed, ISO, and f/stop. The "flash" exposure is comprised of ISO, f/stop, and flash power (and of course the distance from the light source to the subject) In the above example, the ambient exposure is essentially nil, so the picture is completely made up by the flash "components".

Once you nail using the flash to provide ALL the illumination, you can move onto more advanced topics such as balancing flash and ambient exposures.

You need to decide the CAMERA mode (Av or M, forget about using Tv/P auto modes) and the FLASH mode (Manual or E-TTL).

Indoors if the ambient light is fairly low and I'm using the flash to provide all of the illumination, I'll use M mode on the camera (and generally set the shutter speed to 1/250s to just get an ambient exposure) Outdoors where I'm using flash as fill (or indoors if it's bright, but this happens rarely) I'll use Av as I can rely on the camera to set a good general exposure WITHOUT flash, and then the flash can fill-in.

Now as for the FLASH mode, E-TTL works great if the flash is ON camera and you are constantly changing the distance between the light source and the subject. Now keep in mind what when you're bouncing, the bounce surface (ceiling or wall) actually becomes the light source. If you try to go Manual flash, you'll be adjusting the flash power for pretty much every shot, and this just isn't practical. E-TTL will get your flash power "in the ballpark"

Now once you get the flash OFF-CAMERA (on a light stand and shooting into/through an umbrella), Manual flash makes sense because although YOU can change the camera position, the light source is NOT moving (unless you move the stand of course), and as long as the subject(s) stay in the same general area, the subject-light source distance is constant. I'm talking portait/formals setups here.

Hope that helps!

Forum: Site Suggestions and Help 05-05-2010, 10:54 PM

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