catching catchlights...?

[Sherrie Kuehlein]

Okay, I've been reading through the info posted recently about incident metering, and I get it. But what do you do when you need to use fill-flash? I have Nikon gear with an SB-28 flash, so if I meter manually with an incident meter and set my camera accordingly, what do I do with my flash? Do I have to manually set it for distance? I usually use the TTL-metering on aperture priority. I don't like using strong flash, but sometimes a bit of fill is necessary in shadow, or to get catchlights in the eyes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-Sherrie

 

[bmac]

What I used to do with my N70 SB28 rig was incident meter the person. LEts say I got 1/60 F8. I'd then put the strobe in A mode and set it to F5.6 or F4 depending on theamount of flash I wanted. That way the flash will not over power the scene. Try it , it works pretty good.

Brian

 

[Konical]

Good Afternoon, Sherrie,

I've used the same approach Brian described; it generally works well, at least with my Vivitar flashes. I might add that using a camera with a leaf shutter greatly simplifies use of fill-flash.

Konical

 

[Cheryl Jacobs]

Sherrie, what sort of conditions are you shooting in where fill flash is necessary for catchights? Honestly, I have a really intense dislike for the pin-point catchlights yielded by fill flash, and so I never use it. If I can't get what I'm after via natural light alone, I'll use a reflector, but never fill flash.

I'm not saying you can't use it, I'm just saying that I've yet to find a situation where I had to.

 

[rogueish]

In class last week, it was said that the eye can see 10-12 stops between light and dark(shadow). Film on the other hand can see about 4 stops. When using lights (fill and/or flash) the optimal setting is to get about 2 stops difference between light and filled in shadow.
Like Bmac said earlier (and Konical secounded), if shotting f8@1/60, you want your fill in to be 1-2 stops off (f4 or f5.6).

 

[D'Arcy Elliott]

Sherrie, what sort of conditions are you shooting in where fill flash is necessary for catchights? Honestly, I have a really intense dislike for the pin-point catchlights yielded by fill flash, and so I never use it. If I can't get what I'm after via natural light alone, I'll use a reflector, but never fill flash.

I'm not saying you can't use it, I'm just saying that I've yet to find a situation where I had to.

Did you know that, using fill flash will illiminate a geen cast on a wedding dress in shade, that it will illiminate a blue cast under blue sky, that in can provide more separation from the background.
Some conditions I have just mentioned, another is having a backlite subject or the sun is to high and you have got to get the shot.
Intelligent use of any form of light will always separate you from the hack! Fill flash is a tool, that's all. Ten to twenty years ago it was all the rage (in wedding photography) today most laugh at the thought...I believe that "they" just don't know that much about light. Light is everything!