[Leica] IMG: Sailing

[pklein at threshinc.com (Peter Klein)]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.  Mark, it ain't the light level, it's 
the contrast. Yes, I did indeed use fill flash, I just set the G1 on 
"mandatory flash" and popped up the little internal flash unit when the 
contrast range seemed too much.  Light out there on the water is very 
contrasty, and faces in shadow go right down into the mud.

I had expected that the flash would adjust itself to the ambient light. 
which it seems to have done, but the results were variable. I kept one 
overexposed shot of my wife (early in the series) because she liked it.  
There is a menu item for reducing the flash power, but I believe that 
then it's at that power level all the time.  I'll have to experiment 
further.  It's not advisable to twiddle with menus too much on a small 
sailboat when you're dodging sails, ropes, mass quantities of food that 
the ladies brought, not to mention a 70+ pound poodle. Probably a little 
adjustable flash like that little Nikon some folks recommend would be a 
better option--it has a switch on top you can just move back and forth 
to adjust the flash power.

I much prefer available light.  Some shots I took both with and without 
the fill flash. Whenever there was some natural spill light or reflected 
light into the shadows, the no-flash picture was better.  But sometimes, 
as John Wayne probably never said, "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta 
do."

--Peter

> With triple digit usable ISO's now you'd think flash was surely dead.
> But that's what they also said when they jacked TRI X from 320 to 400.
> "slow flash" as in the use of extended shutter speeds for plenty of 
> ambient
> light in the background and perhaps some blur effects:
> Bounce flash;
> And TTL flash on a short coiled cord are all very powerful weapons to the
> creation of non banal and usable images. I'd suggest to any photo 
> enthusiast
> that they check these techniques out.
> I spent real money on a Sb-800 flash. I thought it might be really 
> necessary
> when I got into doing some photojournalism a few years ago when I got here
> from the west coast. Turned out not so much but my pop up flash saved 
> my but
> repeatedly. With M use you don't have a pop up flash but you could have
> instead a tiny flash you'd keep in a bag where a lens would go.
> For when there is NO light. Or for when in very low light when you have to
> capture action. For lowering tonal range like in Peter's sailing shots:
> And for help in macro photography. Other stuff I'm sure.
>
>
> -- 
> Mark William Rabiner
> mark at rabinergroup.com
>
>
> > From: Geoff Hopkinson <hopsternew at gmail.com>
> > Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> > Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:40:02 +1000
> > To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> > Subject: Re: [Leica] IMG: Sailing
> >
> > No need to guess though Mark. Its all in the EXIF. Peter has forced 
> flash
> > to
> > help there as you noted. I have no idea whether that camera allow for
> > reduced power fill though. Actually just today I got the latest LFI
> > magazine
> > that has an article about using Nikon and Canon off-camera leads for
> > controlled fill and modelling effects. Hang onto those SC-17 leads and
> > Nikon
> > flash guns. I've just been using mine on my M9. Always something new 
> to try
> > and learn from.
> >
> > Cheers
> > Geoff
> > http://www.pbase.com/hoppyman
>
>
>
>