At 9:57 AM +0000 12/20/01, olympus-digest wrote:
>Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 00:00:54 -0600
>From: "Bachofen" <mbachofen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Re: [OM] Cordless TTL?
>
>All this cordless TTL stuff aside. I remember T.Scales or somebody posting=
> a long time ago and questioning results with TTL on portraits. D. Fang=
> pointed out that TTL is not a the best in a portrait situation, but a good=
> flash meter and technique work best.
>M.E. Bachofen
The best method I found was to use the camera in manual mode with a little
flash in the shoe pointing up at the ceiling, and one or more studio flashes
triggered by the pipsqueak flash on the camera.
Pipsqueak flash. I use a SunPak Softlite 1600 A bought some years ago for $25
or so. This is a simple folding flash that can also be used to take a picture
if necessary. It's actually capable of automatic control, but I set it to
manual. I keep the flash straight, pointing at the ceiling, not the subject,
so it has no effect on the picture.
Studio flash. Most will answer a small flash with a large flash, swamping the
little flash. I've lost far too many pictures to cable problems over the years.
This eliminates synch cables, a great advantage.
Flashmeter. This is the key. I use an old Quantum Instruments incident-light
flashmeter at the subject, and set the camera according to the flashmeter's
indication after a test pop or two. I do not allow the camera to react to the
flash. It's all manual. An incident-light meter has a white dome receptor
that's held at the subject but pointed back at the camera (not the flashes).
One can remotely trigger the test pops by using a handheld pipsqueak flash --
just press the "test" button. No camera needed, and these little flashes are
far cheaper than radio remote triggers and the like.
Reflected-light metering doesn't work nearly as well as incident-light.
Joe Gwinn
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