Hello All
Wondering if anyone has recommendations for using off-camera portable/hand held/speedlite flashgun with 5x4....?
Don't need complicated TTL modes, but want to attach Gary Fong universal diffuser (so my Metz 45cl 'hammerhead' flashgun is too big). Thinking of Metz 48 or 58.....but would welcome your advice. I'll be using it for interior documentary images, so I need to be flexible and quick.
Any help much-appreciated.
Best wishes,
Stephen
Portable flash with 5x4
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Stephen Vaughan
- Posts: 65
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 11:33 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00
Re: Portable flash with 5x4
I have done this in the past but I'm unfamiliar with the Metz flashes and the Gary Fong diffuser.
The best place to ask about this is probably the strobist forum as there will be more people that are familiar with that diffuser and the Metz flashes.
The main challenges that I have faced in the past are that when I have used the light modifier of choice (usually an umbrella), that my small flashes (Nikon, Vivitar) didn't have much power so I would end up metering around f/8.
For the portraits that I was shooting, I might have lost half a stop or so to the bellows which pushed me down to about f/5.6 so focus and subject stillness was pretty critical.
I'm looking at revisiting small flashes using a Gowlandflex to facilitate accurate focussing.
I used a Canon G9 to double check the lighting before committing to film. The G9 had a flash sync speed of 1/500s.
I have enjoyed your work in the past and am looking forward to seeing how this project develops.
Regards,
Marizu
The best place to ask about this is probably the strobist forum as there will be more people that are familiar with that diffuser and the Metz flashes.
The main challenges that I have faced in the past are that when I have used the light modifier of choice (usually an umbrella), that my small flashes (Nikon, Vivitar) didn't have much power so I would end up metering around f/8.
For the portraits that I was shooting, I might have lost half a stop or so to the bellows which pushed me down to about f/5.6 so focus and subject stillness was pretty critical.
I'm looking at revisiting small flashes using a Gowlandflex to facilitate accurate focussing.
I used a Canon G9 to double check the lighting before committing to film. The G9 had a flash sync speed of 1/500s.
I have enjoyed your work in the past and am looking forward to seeing how this project develops.
Regards,
Marizu
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Stephen Vaughan
- Posts: 65
- Joined: Sat May 03, 2008 11:33 pm Etc/GMT-1+01:00
Re: Portable flash with 5x4
Thanks Marizu
That's a great help – I hadn't heard of the strobist forum before, so I'll take a look there.
Just looked at the Gowlandflex too.....quite an incredible camera. I'd be interested to see the results of your experiments with flash and TLR 5x4.
Best wishes,
Stephen
PS - thanks for your kind comments about my work! Much appreciated.
That's a great help – I hadn't heard of the strobist forum before, so I'll take a look there.
Just looked at the Gowlandflex too.....quite an incredible camera. I'd be interested to see the results of your experiments with flash and TLR 5x4.
Best wishes,
Stephen
PS - thanks for your kind comments about my work! Much appreciated.
Re: Portable flash with 5x4
I'm a bit all over the place at the moment so I can't place the negs that I was thinking of, but I'll try to shoot some more during the next week and make them available.
When I think of indoor documentary images, I think of something a bit less stylised than the environmental portraiture of someone like Arnold Newman. I think of lighting that looks natural and fairly even.
This can be challenging on large format because the limited emulsions that we have available are all relatively slow so picking up background details that haven't been lit can be difficult if the ambient light is low.
We have to stop down further on LF to achieve reasonable depth of field which means that we need more power from our lights to offset that.
On the upside, our shutters usually sync faster than small cameras so we can overcome ambient more easily (assuming a powerful enough light).
When I think of indoor documentary images, I think of something a bit less stylised than the environmental portraiture of someone like Arnold Newman. I think of lighting that looks natural and fairly even.
This can be challenging on large format because the limited emulsions that we have available are all relatively slow so picking up background details that haven't been lit can be difficult if the ambient light is low.
We have to stop down further on LF to achieve reasonable depth of field which means that we need more power from our lights to offset that.
On the upside, our shutters usually sync faster than small cameras so we can overcome ambient more easily (assuming a powerful enough light).
Re: Portable flash with 5x4
Apologies for the delay, I got stuck in Scotland for a few days longer than expected, but I have uploaded my images to flickr and also some images outlining my working process, thought process and setup.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16558277@N ... 700037176/
I hope that this is helpful.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16558277@N ... 700037176/
I hope that this is helpful.
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Emmanuel Bigler
- Forum Hero
- Posts: 174
- Joined: Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:47 am Etc/GMT-1+01:00
- Location: Besançon, France
Re: Portable flash with 5x4
Hello from France
I have various flash units besides a Metz 45.
I have an old METZ 32 mounted on a G15 battery holder ; this makes a more compact "hammerhead" style of flash, fixed metric guide number = 32 @100 iso. The G15 battery holder for 4 x LR-14 / C-size (IEC RC14S) batteries, pushes the power reserve of this modest flash far beyond what you'll need in a single session.
More recently I acquired a METZ 40 Mzi with a built-in, electrically-driven, Fresnel focusing lens. This Fresnel lens has the advantage to concentrate light inside the useful image field, instead of wasting photons outside the visible fied like in many classical flashes like the Metz 45 and 32.
However, if you intend to use a diffuser, the built-in Fresnel lens will be totally useless and will bring no advantage at all with respect to a classical flash unit designed to cover a fixed field circle of about 65° (this is the usual coverage in direct flash lighting, with no external diffuser, for a 120 mm on the 5x4" format, a 80 mm in the 6x9 format ... and 35 mm in the 35 mm / 24x36 mm format, but speaking about this stamp-sized format is strictly prohibited here
)
I have various flash units besides a Metz 45.
I have an old METZ 32 mounted on a G15 battery holder ; this makes a more compact "hammerhead" style of flash, fixed metric guide number = 32 @100 iso. The G15 battery holder for 4 x LR-14 / C-size (IEC RC14S) batteries, pushes the power reserve of this modest flash far beyond what you'll need in a single session.
More recently I acquired a METZ 40 Mzi with a built-in, electrically-driven, Fresnel focusing lens. This Fresnel lens has the advantage to concentrate light inside the useful image field, instead of wasting photons outside the visible fied like in many classical flashes like the Metz 45 and 32.
However, if you intend to use a diffuser, the built-in Fresnel lens will be totally useless and will bring no advantage at all with respect to a classical flash unit designed to cover a fixed field circle of about 65° (this is the usual coverage in direct flash lighting, with no external diffuser, for a 120 mm on the 5x4" format, a 80 mm in the 6x9 format ... and 35 mm in the 35 mm / 24x36 mm format, but speaking about this stamp-sized format is strictly prohibited here
)