On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 20:11:04 -0700 (PDT), John Mason <profmason@xxxxxxxxx> wrote/replied to: >Let me put the question this way... How do PJs and >event shooters get natural looking fill flash with >their auto everything SLR's and speedlights, while >working quickly? > >I know--I know for sure--that they aren't thinking >hard about flash compensation, but I've seen the >results and they're (very often) pretty damn natural >looking. Oh yes they are so thinking about FEC. In fact, it's likely the only thing they're actually manually changing and thinking about on the camera (if they are using the built in auto exposure and auto focus features). Course they have to frame and, er zoom as needed. In camera FEC is a must of course, sorry about that. A good flash will allow you to use FEC on the flash itself, but it's not as fast or convenient. Generally I have my in camera FEC on 1 and 1/2 stops under. I have found this gives me a nice fill in most normal conditions, on say a human face. I can adjust from 2 stops under to 2 over, as required by the lighting and the harshness of the subject's shadows in the scene. It works kind of reverse as you'd think, because very dark objects make the camera overexpose (ye old make everything mid grey feature) while very light objects make the camera underexpose. Therefore FEC has to be changed to balance that. And it has to balance your fill amount required too. A good camera / flash combo can also meter the flash exposure from the focus point on the fly, while applying the camera's FEC as set by the user. My favorite is to take a flash exposure lock (FEL) reading from a neutral object and recompose using that exposure, while at the same time using the camera's FEC. But if I can't do that I use my own FEC adjustments as I see fit. (then I check the playback review :-) The amount of fill wanted of course has to be added or subtracted to/from all these equations. Sometimes you want to really light up some harsh shadows while other times you only want to add a catch light or a tiny bit of fill. There is also a way to do this by changing the ISO of the camera. You can do the same thing as in camera FEC this way, but it's a lot of work to keep track of. Like this: set your camera ISO for 2 stops underexposed (4x the ISO). >From ISO 400 to 1600 (as an example of 2 stops negative FEC). Ok, now use the camera in Manual exposure mode and readjust so your exposure is what it should be (two stops over the new metered exposure). Now you're back where you started from for the main exposure, but the flash will fill according to the 2 stops under which the ISO is set at. Use other values of the ISO to use FEC this way for other values. Camera trade in time? -- Jim Davis, Nature Photography: http://jimdavis.oberro.com/ Motorcycle Relay Kits: http://www.easternbeaver.com/
