Hello, until now in all my years of serious shooting (about 6) i have never really used a flash on my cameras because i like the look and feel of available light photography. I am truly clueless when it comes to flash settings and the use of a flash on any camera. What i am wondering is what is involved with using a flash on a non-TTL M6 camera - is it all a matter of guessing and hoping you are right? How accurate can one "guess" the amount of flash needed? Does a TTL M6 camera do a better job of using the flash (the M6 is completely mechanical, so how would it compensate for the flash used - or does it pre-fire and then you manually put in what it tells you to).

Thanks for enlightening me.

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), October 02, 2001

Answers

Matthew:

My advice is to get a good book on flash photography before you even attemt it with ANY manual camera. AND, if you are going to be doing a lot of flash photography, their are better systems than the M6(TTL) to do it with...

That being said, you can use any flash with "AUTO" capabilities fairly easily on your M6. The main difference is that the flash sensor in an auto-flash unit is built in to the flash unit itself and you set your lens aperture to an equal setting on your flash, while TTL flash systems use an in-camera flash sensor that avoids the necessity of matching flash and camera settings. Most flash units that have TTL capability will also have AUTO capability, so you could use a Leica SF20 flash in AUTO mode on your M6, and in TTL mode on your M6TTL...

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), October 02, 2001.

Matthew,

You could fill up a whole page on this subject and not cover everything. I would recommend looking for a book on flash photography, which would cover most of the areas of use. I would look in the library, because some of the best books are long out of print. Today, a lot of people buy a TTL flash and shoot away without ever learning about things like guide numbers.

Basically you could buy a simple flash like a Vivitar 283 and shoot flash on any non-TTL camera. The flash has several "auto" settings that correspond to an f-stop. You simply set the camera to the sync speed, set the auto setting to a color, based on how far you need the flash to go, or the depth of field you need (both related to the f- stop), set that particular aperture on the lens and shoot. You would also need to determine whether the flash is THE light source or just Fill light in contrasty ambient lighting. This brings up the biggest limitation for the Leica M camera and the use of flash for outdoor fill flash... the anemic sync speed of 1/50th of a second.

If the proper exposure outdoors is f/16 @1/125th of a second, then to get the shutterspeed to the proper sync speed would require a tiny bit past f/22. If you divide that aperture into the guide number of the Vivitar flash (GN 120ft), then you get a flash range distance of about 5 and a half feet... not to mention that you have no control over the depth of field. Most Leica lenses don't even go to f/22, so the use of these cameras for outdoor fill flash is limited. The proceeding numbers are for ISO 100 film, so if you find yourself with a faster film, then it is even more of a problem to get the shutterspeed to 1/50th of a second.

I myself save the use of flash for my SLRs which sync at 1/250th or my medium format gear which syncs at 1/500th. I have never had a flash on my Leica M's, and have never missed it. Know your gear's strengths and weaknesses... play to the strengths and try to avoid the weaknesses.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), October 02, 2001.

There's nothing particularly funky about working with a manual camera and flash illumination. Modern SLRs include a lot of very nice conveniences that make it much easier to learn how to do things, but there's nothing that can't be done by the application of well known techniques for exposure measurement and calculation.

An M6TTL allows a little more flexibility through the use of through the lens flash metering. When coupled with the SF20 flash unit (or other dedicated flash units), automated metering for fill-flash and aperture flexibility are achieved. But you can do everything with a 'classic' M6, or M4-x or whatever.

In the simple case, let's posit that you buy an SF20 flash unit for use with a classic M6. You don't have TTL metering, but you have the flash metering built into the flash. A calculator gives you the correct aperture to use, based on film speed and shooting range. You have the range of shutter speeds up to 1/50 sec as your time domain to meet with flash sync needs. Fit the flash, set the shutter speed, set the aperture, focus and shoot. Simplistic, but certainly not guesswork.

I would suggest buying a book on flash photography to learn the whole game. Flash utilization can be very helpful for many different lighting circumstances. Understanding the hows and whys makes appreciating the modern automated conveniences of other cameras easier.

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), October 02, 2001.

If you're using an auto flash, it's really very simple: set the flash to the lens aperture (potentially minus half to a full stop), point the camera at your subject and squish down the shutter release. A swivel head flash like the Metz 54 will enable you to bounce the flash off the walls for a more ambient light look. Shoot slide for a few rolls and compare the results with what you recall doing at the time. It's pretty straightforward. After a bit of experimentation you'll have an idea of how much to underexpose the flash and ambient exposures to get the look you want, then you can just keep that in your head.

I wouldn't recommend using a non-auto flash as you'll end up running calculations in your head all the time. Automation is good! Although you don't get much of it with the M6.

Even indoors the results can be quite convincing sometimes:

In this case the flash was bounced off the wall to the right and the flash exposure was set to minus one stop (I think).

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), October 03, 2001.

Lovely picture, Rob! Thanks for showing it.

-- Godfrey (ramarren@bayarea.net), October 03, 2001.

Very nice photo Robert! Was this taken in Bombay?............

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), October 03, 2001.

I don't care for auto-thyristor flash very much, it gets fooled too often. I find it just as convenient to use manual flash. There's no "guesswork" involved, and even if your flash doesn't have an exposure calculator on it, doing the calculation in your head is simple. Ffter a few rolls of film its almost as effortless as pre-setting the focus or estimating the exposure, something that fits very well with the Leica philosophy.

Manual flash exposures are accurate and consistent, which is why I prefer it to auto flash.

Joe

-- Joe Buechler (jbuechler@toad.net), October 03, 2001.

So can anyone recommend a good book on flash photography, for those of us who want to learn how to take the guesswork out of manual flash work?

Thanks.

-- Dave Gochfeld (dave@stinky.com), October 04, 2001.

Dharavi, Bombay this year.

Can you do bounce with manual flash? I suppose if you use a flashmeter you can, and if you have a flash which allows you to set fractional flash power output (most auto flash units do) you can also balance with ambient light, but it seems like a bit of a hoohah.

Auto flash is very accurate with bounced flash because you get such even illumination; it's trickier with direct flash, but that's usually pretty ugly anyway.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), October 04, 2001.

An example of ugly direct flash. Harsh shadows, sharp fall off in illumination etc. Useless:

This is the kind of result you can expect from manual flash because you can't bounce in manual mode. I don't know whether using an electronic flashmeter is part of the "Leica philosophy" ;-), in which case you'd be ok.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), October 04, 2001.

Thank you everybody for your recommendations. I guess i'll just have to go out and read a book. I haven't been to a public library in a while, it should be fun to check it out. If that fails there is always online book stores that stock everything.

Thanks again,

Matthew

P.S. Rob, great photo! This is exactly the type of use i had been contemplating, and it is a marvelous example

-- Matthew Geddert (geddert@yahoo.com), October 04, 2001.

In one of the above responses, there is a comment to the effect of "you can't use bounce with a manual flash". Gee, I guess that everyone who was using bounce flash for years before automatic flashes hit the market were just getting good results by accident :-).

It is perfectly possible to use a manual flash for bounce, but it does take some experience to know how many stops are going to be subtracted from direct flash. It depends on how efficient the surface you're bouncing off of is as a reflector. Two stops from an average height ceiling painted white or close to white is about right for most medium distances.

So, if the direct flash calculation would have been f11 at 10 feet, set the aperture to f5.6, point the flash at the ceiling, drag the shutter to get as much ambient exposure as you dare.

It's not that difficult :-).

As to the original question, the TTL addition to the M6 TTL is of questionable utility due to the 1/45 second sync limitation. I'd recommend either an SF20 used in auto mode or a Vivitar 283 which makes the camera more top-heavy but also offers much greater utility.

-- Rolfe Tessem (rolfe@ldp.com), October 06, 2001.

Fair enough, Rolfe, but using some degree of automation does take the guesswork out of it. After you've done all the little calculations for bounced manual flash, your subject will be over the horizon.

I know a portrait photographer here in Modena who uses a tape measure to make sure his subject's head is the correct distance from the camera. He gets consistent results, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't get equally good results faster and more flexibly using a bit of modern equipment.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), October 07, 2001.

Rob, I have no problem with automation. The problem is that the ubiquitious presence of TTL flash in modern SLR's has given us a generation of photographers who have no idea what is going on behind the scenes.

For example, your friend who is using a tape measure to gauge flash exposure. This is simply overkill.

For years I used one of the Honeywell potato masher flashes with a Nikon F. Used with 400 ISO negative film, if the ceiling was average height it was f5.6. If it was higher or darker than average it was f4. If it was a low ceiling, it was f8.

Once you get to know the parameters, it really isn't that critical.

Yes, if you're shooting reversal film then precision is more important. But if the exposure is really that critical then you should just meter the damn thing :-).

-- Rolfe Tessem (rolfe@ldp.com), October 07, 2001.

Yeah, I think the tape measure thing is mainly to impress his clients! He's an old bloke and he likes to put on a bit of a show.

Anyway, I agree with you, and also nowadays in the hybrid film/digital world we inhabit there's a lot more latitude really.

-- rob (rob@robertappleby.com), October 08, 2001.