Thanks to Lee's site, I've become reaquinted with the idea that the XA allows
bracketing of fill flash.
When shooting outdoors in full sun, and your subject has her back to the sun,
you can throw just the right amount of light on her
face using these settings. I shortened the text, laminated it and used 3M (TM)
Magic (TM) double-sided Photo-safe adhesive tape to
attach it to my XA's door. The Photo-safe stuff is acid-free which is
important 'cause the nasty non-Photo 3M (tm) Magic (tm)
double-sided adhesive tape ate up the front of my preamp. Anyway, to atone for
my negative comments about my XA, here's a summary:
-----------------
ASA 100, A11 @ FULL
6' = f11
To bracket @ 6',
f16: -1 stop less fill
f 8: + 1 stop more fill
ASA 400, A11 @ FULL
6'= f22
f 16: + 1 stop more fill
-----------------
That's approximately what I stuck on the door, in Lama-speak. Some of the
details left off in the interest of saving space are:
After you turn on the flash, move the lever to f11 (for the 1st EI 100
example). While the A11 is charging, set the focus to 6' (2
meters) then adjust your subject distance to match by walking.
Set the A11 flash to "FULL" instead of 100. It will throw a full dump which is
the correct fill amount (outdoors) for EI 100 film
at 6 feet.
(This is also the correct exposure for a main light on EI 400, indoors. Moose
and John Lind will point out that this is a rough
approximation, intended for amusement purposes only. You probably shouldn't
shoot on the lunar surface without testing these
settings first. Thoroughly. Please photograph responsibly. Know when to say
"when".)
Bracketing the Fill amount, the background exposure is the same since the XA is
always Aperture-Priority-Auto, for better or worse.
When you open up the aperture to f8, more of the fixed amount of flash fill
arrives at the film plane. Your OM body can't do this
because it won't synch with an A11 flash at 1/400th of a second. :)
Don't sweat the details. To use fill flash, place yourself 6' (2m) from your
subject, set the A11 at "FULL". For EI 100 film, set
the aperture at f/11. For EI 400 film, set f/22.
My faith in Master Maitani is restored.
Lama
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