On-Camera Flash Problems

[pwphotog]

I have been shooting with the S2 now since last October and have been more than happy with the results both in-studio and outdoors (ecstatic would apply). The problem seems to be shooting indoors using an SB-80 or SB-28 flash mounted over the camera on a StroboFrame.

Specifically speaking, I am shooting chapel weddings here in Vegas, and when rear-synching the images I receive are somewhat yellowish to orange - a function, I am certain, of the ambient light color-temp. The real problem lies in correct exposure, exposure values are all over the place and - while under is better with digital - some of the full-length shots are WAY under. Being that we shoot MANY weddings daily, we dont' have a lot of time for pre-processing the images in photoshop, so we need to get the exposure values right/

While I realize it's "cheating" I am shooting in Program Mode to save time, at a synch of 1/60th and ususally an fstop that hovers around f5.6 or so.

The other problem we seem to be having is resolution. The images are often soft or appear to contain a lot of compression on closer inspection. We've tried both RAW mode (too slow when converting to TIFF- again we don't have more than a few minutes per wedding to get the images burned to cd, yet we are responsible for correcting color, etc.) and High-End TIFF modes, and there still appears to be a substantial amount of compression in the image.

HELLLLP! Any advice will be greatly appreciated, I've really got to get this figured out...I need a raise!

Thanks in advance, Paul.

[Wichita Wayne]

I usually shoot in manual mode using a flash meter. With our lights we tend to always use F-11 at 60 for both digital and film when we use our monolights to support the SB-24 on the camera. For the cerimony I use Program mode with ISO 1600 and ORG, ORG, OFF for great low light shots. I leave the White Balance at "Auto" and shoot N compression and 4256 resolution for a JPG file.

[pwphotog]

Problem is, in the setting in which I shoot, no extra lights for support can be used. With rear-curtain, the orange cast I get from the ambient lights in the building is horrendous. I spent 3 hours last night color correcting 3 - yes only THREE- weddings.

We're also shooting in Prog. mode org org, but you turn tone off completely? Interesting, I'll have to experiment with that.... White Balance is also AUTO...I do find whites get blown out VERY easily...I'm in HIGH TIFF at 3024, which yields about 27 shots per 512 card.

AND on top of that you're shooting at a 1600 iso? WOW. We're shooting at 200, same as we do with film - the film yields great color but digital is obviously another animal. I'll try some experimentation with higher iso's. Your studio light set-up sounds like mine....f-11 at 60, what iso are you shooting in the studio? I prefer 100-160.

Thanks SO much for your help in this, experimentation and responses to follow...

Anyone else? :D

[Wichita Wayne]

I usually set the sharp to hard for ISO 400 and lower but when I push the ISO up to 1600 I turn the sharp to off. At higher ISOs the sharp just adds noise and doesn't make a smooth looking picture. Since digital is virtually grainless you usually get a good looking shot with the sharp set to off and then later if you choose you can add some noise in the computer with your software. I actually love the camera at ISO 1600. That alone makes the S2 worth the money. Most of the time I shoot at 400 indoors with flash and 1600 without flash. Outdoors it is usually 400.

[Wichita Wayne]

Remember that TTL flash does not work really well at ISO 800 or 1600. If the TTL flash is the only light that I use then I shoot at ISO 400, Org, Org, Hard. I sometimes forget this and usually it takes a few blown shots to jog my memory. That makes the rear LCD really worth its weight in gold.

[pwphotog]

I agree about the LCD being well worth the battery life it expends. Only problem is that the LCD rarely matches profiles with the lab - the biggest problem that we have is this:

On the LCD, and on the Laptop, everything looks GREAT...well exposed, nice color (except the rear synch stuff) however...at the lab, everything looks really dark on their screen....AND, oddly enough, the Fuji Frontier that we print on prints everything DARK by about two stops. Weird, eh? That a Fuji printer doesn't match the color profile in the camera. Conversely, when I take my studio stuff to print at the WALMART lab (a Fuji Frontier), everything is perfect.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I'm sure I'll have more questions.

[Wichita Wayne]

My son-in-law works as a custom printer for a local pro lab (That we do not use, in fact he doesn't even use it anymore). He got chewed out for trying to calibrate the monitors and was told that just because he was a photographer didn't mean that he knew anything about production or production costs. If the monitors were calibrated it would upset the production workers and cause them to have to relearn the whole process. After we had the third batch of wedding proofs reprinted we decided to stop using them. They even cut off people in the formal groups and told us that the quality inspectors only checked for good color and not for composition. Cutting cost is great but when you have to redo a job what good does it do to work at cutting cost? They also tend to blame all the trouble on the photographer and act like they are doing you a favor if the reprint the job. The local One-Hour-Picture-Perfect will out do that lab with either film or digital. There are color labs all over the country that are going broke, and they blame it on digital minilabs. What I think is that a lot of them deserve to go broke. The bottom line on photography is the quality of the final print that is delivered to the customer, and maybe Walmart is the only one concerned with training their people to follow that simple rule.

[LinhLe]

I don't know that it should be helpful since my experience about working with flash is still base on my litle finepix 4900.

The preset white balance from manufacture for daylight, fluorescent 1, fluorescent 2, stungten ... are not corect in my camera. The auto white balance doesn't work well either. The indor pictures always cast some yelloish as you said. So, I used the custom white balance that I set up wth my flash and it came out really good.

You can test it for yourself at home (with your lighting on). If it work well, use the 2nd custom white balance for flash. You only have to reset it whenever you have to work with another falsh.

LinhLe

[Rockyw]

I bought a SB80 a few weeks ago. I have tried several things to shot this camera/flash and its not good at all. The exposure is as above post (all over the place) mostly always dark. We have been using A mode and TTL on the SB80. Outdoors we have used A on camera and A on the flash set at or just below the camera f stop. Some shots are good and most are bad.
What about the flash comp. adjustment? do you use it or the exposure comp. on the camera?
I also would like to get this thing shoting in the dark reception areas. With film it was so easy, not so with the S2 digital.
Any ideas would be great! thanks

[LinhLe]

Dear Rockyw

Sorry that I couldn't help much about your problem.
As I said, my digital photography experience is limited and it also bases on my litle Fuji Finepix 4900.
I did have a SB 80 which work beautifuly with thefinepix 4900 though I only could use the manual setting because the hot shoe of my camera is not a delicated hot shoe.
As I recall, there a lot of settings that you should play around with the SB 80. Thingking about the SB 80, I wonder if it is automatically calculate the range of lens as it does with Nikon Film SLR or we have to multiply with the factor 1.5x for lens? Would you check it and please let me know how does it work with your custom white balancing(with flash)? Your response is so fast that make me wonder if you really to have a chance to set a custom white balance with your flash yet. D
I have to wait as least 3 more weeks to have my S2 Pro(I hope, because I get stuck with my buget just by the red tape). Then I may really to joint you to play around with the flash

Sincerely yours
LinhLe:D

[Wichita Wayne]

We also have a Finepix 4900 and it is really nice. We gave it a real workout in Ireland last fall and the only trouble we had was when we drove over to Scotland where it was a little cool. We could only get about 20 shots per charge on the batteries. Aure wish it took AAs. But other than that it is a great camera. We also had a Finepix MX2800 that saw some heavy use. I did not have an S2 at the time but we also used an F-100 and a Hasselblad 501 C/M. the 4900 and the F-100 saw the most use.

[LinhLe]

Dear Wayne


Yes, You are right, I remember that I alway had some tlthle troubles with Finepix 4900 in winter.
About the battery problem, Could you try the power kit:
Do it Yourself a Power kit
http://www.s2pro.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1216
I used this kit with the 4900 and it work well. The real power of the kit is 1.2 X 12 = 14.4 volt at 4.5 ampere and it weighs around 0.4kg, enough to put in the camera bag and cary around.
Sincerely.
LinhLe

[Wichita Wayne]

I might give it a try.

Thanks

[pwphotog]

Okay...

So we shot a wedding yesterday with these settings:

ISO 200, Program Mode, Flash Compensation -1.0, ORG, ORG, OFF, White Balance set to Incandescent (the little light bulb icon), and often used the built-in wide-angle diffuser on the SB-26, and that did manage to solve a lot of the color issues. Well, that and I didn't use rear synch much at all.

However, all of the images DID need levels adjustments - pulling the white marker over to the beginning of the histogram to brighten things up.

What is the best way to help my lab view and print the images as bright as they appear on my laptop? (No, the gamma on the laptop isn't turned WAY up.) It seems silly that they wouldn't look the same, and in fact the images look dark on a lot of the monitors in the office.