khanosu Posted December 22, 2006 Share #1 Posted December 22, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) Below is a sample of using the Metz 54MZ-4i flash with a Heliopan Digital UV/IR filter and processed in Photoshop CS3. White balance set in ACR. Only exposure and a bit of contrast and fill light changed in ACR using sliders, nothing else. I am not a color guy (stick to B&W most of the time) and rarely use flash so I am no authority on color For me the flesh tones look acceptable but you be the judge. I previewed this in Microsoft viewer and colors looked good although not as good as in Photoshop. The picture is of my daughter who just came back from her ballet practice; I probably had no more than half a minute to take this picture Here is more data: Camera: New M8 v 1.09 90mm APO Summicron Heliopan Digital UV/IR Filter (B&H #HED55) RAW Conversion: ACR in Photoshop CS3 Flash: Metz 54MZ-4i with SCA 3502 M5 Flash Mode: GNC Light Modifier: Gary Fong’s Lightsphere All this looks awfully funny when mounted on the small M8 Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas (to those who celebrate Christmas)! Furrukh Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/11879-m8metz54heliopancs3-flesh-tone-sample/?do=findComment&comment=124535'>More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted December 22, 2006 Posted December 22, 2006 Hi khanosu, Take a look here M8+Metz54+Heliopan+CS3 Flesh Tone Sample. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
grober Posted December 22, 2006 Share #2 Posted December 22, 2006 Thanks for posting. Yes, given the proper ceiling of a reasonable height, the Lightsphere works very well indeed. I use it on film cameras with V283 and Sunpak 383 + 120J flash units. With the advent of the M8, I was very concerned about a US$60 flash ruining a US$5000 camera so I followed Sean Reid's advice and bought a WEIN Synch Safe device. (I'm guessing that any "smart" Metz flash could be trusted without the WEIN device???) Plus, the Safe Synch adds a PC fitting which is useful in its own right. I also have a Morris wireless trigger with two receivers which is very handle when using multiple flash units in large group shots. I'd love to see Leica or Metz come out with a smaller but still powerful flash that has at least a tilting if not a completely tilting and turning head. The fixed head of the existing Leica flash units automatically cancels them from my consideration due to my aversion to direct flash. Great shot! You must be very proud of your beautiful daughter. -g Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wide.angle Posted December 22, 2006 Share #3 Posted December 22, 2006 Nice image! Any change you could show an image of the camera and all that stuff on it!?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
egibaud Posted December 22, 2006 Share #4 Posted December 22, 2006 could you please make a similar picture pointing at your hand... this way we could judge the skin tones without losing concentration due to your daughter's beautiful smile :-) Merry Xmas and congrats for the pic Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
khanosu Posted December 22, 2006 Author Share #5 Posted December 22, 2006 J.W. Thanks! Yes, I am very proud of her. She is also patient (most of the time) and a good model. A small flash with swivel capabilities is desperately needed for the m8. As you can see from the picture of the setup below things are ridiculously out of proportion. Sctt, you asked for it! Here is the picture of the set up. I must warn you that the setup looks really ugly, so look at the picture below at your own risk Furrukh Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/11879-m8metz54heliopancs3-flesh-tone-sample/?do=findComment&comment=124666'>More sharing options...
sean_reid Posted December 23, 2006 Share #6 Posted December 23, 2006 Hi Furrukh, Nadia is gowing up fast.You asked me about the skin tones and they're a little pink in her face and part of her arms but maybe she was looking a little pink that winter day. If you start working more with flash, I'd suggest getting it off the camera by using a coiled cord and starting to work with the Metz in your left hand and the M8 in your right. If you mount a strap on the flash, it can dangle from your wrist when you need your left hand to change focus. Freeing the flash from the camera will make the M8 more balanced and fluid as well as allowing you complete freedom as to where the flash will be (used direct or bounced) relative to the subject. My wife and I work this way almost exclusively with flash. I think that if you practice with it, you may never want to go back to on-camera flash. Cheers, Sean Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wparsonsgisnet Posted December 23, 2006 Share #7 Posted December 23, 2006 Advertisement (gone after registration) ...I'd suggest getting it off the camera by using a coiled cord and starting to work with the Metz in your left hand and the M8 in your right. If you mount a strap on the flash, it can dangle from your wrist when you need your left hand to change focus. Sean, Would you post a photo of this procedure. I would like to try it the next time I do flash. Such a new procedure will -- of course -- obviate the necessity to hire a gorilla to remove the flash from the M8 hot shoe. Glad the shoes on my feet don't fit this tightly. Have I said how fantastic this camera is? I am off to my 2nd stage shoot this weekend. What a treat to be using my magic lenses again. Regards, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvaubel Posted December 23, 2006 Share #8 Posted December 23, 2006 Hi Furrukh, Nadia is gowing up fast.You asked me about the skin tones and they're a little pink in her face and part of her arms but maybe she was looking a little pink that winter day. If you start working more with flash, I'd suggest getting it off the camera by using a coiled cord and starting to work with the Metz in your left hand and the M8 in your right. If you mount a strap on the flash, it can dangle from your wrist when you need your left hand to change focus. Freeing the flash from the camera will make the M8 more balanced and fluid as well as allowing you complete freedom as to where the flash will be (used direct or bounced) relative to the subject. My wife and I work this way almost exclusively with flash. I think that if you practice with it, you may never want to go back to on-camera flash. Cheers, Sean But Sean I use a wrist strap on my camera. If the flash is tethered to the camera, arent you in wrist strap handcuffs? what about freeing the flash from the camera with a remote? Rex Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveEP Posted December 23, 2006 Share #9 Posted December 23, 2006 Hi Furrukh, Nadia is gowing up fast.You asked me about the skin tones and they're a little pink in her face and part of her arms but maybe she was looking a little pink that winter day. If you start working more with flash, I'd suggest getting it off the camera by using a coiled cord and starting to work with the Metz in your left hand and the M8 in your right. If you mount a strap on the flash, it can dangle from your wrist when you need your left hand to change focus. Freeing the flash from the camera will make the M8 more balanced and fluid as well as allowing you complete freedom as to where the flash will be (used direct or bounced) relative to the subject. My wife and I work this way almost exclusively with flash. I think that if you practice with it, you may never want to go back to on-camera flash. Cheers, Sean Perhaps you could get your good lady to take a shot of you in the various positions, i.e. holding the flash to shoot, and how you hold it when not shooting etc.... I always found a floating flashing to be problematic, but maybe I was holding it wrong ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest smep_reloaded Posted December 23, 2006 Share #10 Posted December 23, 2006 Hi Furrukh, nice portrait of your beautiful daughter but I think the skin is a little bit too red in the picture. I recommend to use a Nikon SC-17 TTL-Cord, the Manfrotto Lite-Tite MA026 and a lighting support for Portraits with the flash off the camera. The SC-17 works with the M6TTL and M7 and as the contacts are the same on the M8 it should also work. [ATTACH]19298[/ATTACH] Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ho_co Posted December 23, 2006 Share #11 Posted December 23, 2006 I recommend to use a Nikon SC-17 TTL-Cord.... FYI--SC-17 has been discontinued and replaced with the SC-28 (at higher price, of course ). Same cord, still works the same; only change is that the cord comes out of the camera connector parallel to the camera. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
khanosu Posted December 24, 2006 Author Share #12 Posted December 24, 2006 Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions. Hopefully more people will add their own favorite tips here. Even though my daughter was on the pinkish side at the time the picture was made (right after her ballet practice) I agree that the picture is more on the reddish and pinkish side than it ought to have been. So in conclusion: Heliopan Digital IR/UV filter + CS3 combo gives slightly pinkish skin tones – but they are in the right ball park; slight tweaking should get them better. Does everyone agree? Here is a picture of mother and daughter made a few minutes ago behind the piano singing Christmas carols not very much in tune. Same setup as before except that I used 50mm Summicron this time. Off camera flash would definitely have helped to get better molding of the shadows. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season. Furrukh Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/11879-m8metz54heliopancs3-flesh-tone-sample/?do=findComment&comment=125529'>More sharing options...
khanosu Posted December 24, 2006 Author Share #13 Posted December 24, 2006 Same Heliopan Digital IR/UV filter + CS3 combo as before except that a studio flash was used here. The skin tones were reddish/pinkish so I took a bit of red out. Furrukh Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/11879-m8metz54heliopancs3-flesh-tone-sample/?do=findComment&comment=125586'>More sharing options...
Cindy Flood Posted December 25, 2006 Share #14 Posted December 25, 2006 Furrukh, You are very lucky to have such a beautiful daughter as a model. Thank you for sharing with us. I have M8, Metz 54-4, Leica SF 24D, and Wein safe-synch. I too, do not wish to blow up my investment. Am I to understand that I could operate either of my flashes off camera by adding the Nikon SC-28 cord and that the proper module for mounting the metz to the M8 is SCA3502 M5? I would appreciate a confirmation from someone in the know. Thanks. Cindy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
khanosu Posted December 25, 2006 Author Share #15 Posted December 25, 2006 Thanks Cindy! I have not used the Metz off camera yet. Sean uses it off camera but I think he uses it in auto flash mode not TTL mode. According to sp’s post above he uses the 24D with Nikon SC-17, I assume the 24D works in full TTL mode with the SC-17 but I will let sp give a definitive answer. I am also curious about this. Happy Holidays and a Merry Christmas! Furrukh Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilfredo Posted December 25, 2006 Share #16 Posted December 25, 2006 That B&W shot is priceless. Wilfredo Benitez-Rivera Photography Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ho_co Posted December 25, 2006 Share #17 Posted December 25, 2006 I have M8, Metz 54-4, Leica SF 24D, and Wein safe-synch. I too, do not wish to blow up my investment. Am I to understand that I could operate either of my flashes off camera by adding the Nikon SC-28 cord and that the proper module for mounting the metz to the M8 is SCA3502 M5? Cindy-- The short answer is yes, but I haven't received my M8 yet so you may prefer not to count me as "one who knows." Leica's SF 24D is in fact manufactured by Metz, and usable directly on the M8. Because the Nikon SC-28 simply takes all the contacts of the M8 and moves them to the end of the cord, putting it between the M8 the SF 24D will also work just fine. As for the Metz 54-4i, you see above a photo showing its use on the M8 without Safe-Synch. One of the forum members (Mark Norton as I recall) actually measured the Metz trip voltage and found that it is low enough not to damage the M8's circuitry. Check the Metz web site for specific functions of the 54-4 when used with the M8 and proper 3502 module. A forum member sent them an email to which they responded that they have not so far had opportunity to check the camera's feature set against the flash's capabilities, so the M8 doesn't yet appear as one of the supported cameras. But you won't damage the flash or camera using the two without Safe-Synch and with or without the SC-28 cord. For further confirmation, you might want to search the forum for both "SB-800" and "Metz." SB-800 is a Nikon flash model whose use with the M8 via the SC-17 was discussed; and there have been several threads concerning Metz flashes with M8. --HC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bernd Banken Posted December 25, 2006 Share #18 Posted December 25, 2006 Hi Furrukh, great shots from great persons with a great camera:) If you are interested in a low budget equipment for indoor/outdoor shootings please look at the following. Here is a small book which contains a lot of stuff for the above mentioned purposes: 'lowbudgetshooting' by Cyrill Harnischmacher ISBN 3-00-016166-X €19,90 Copyright Cyrill Harnischmacher 2005 This little book describes in (german) with a lot of photographs how to 'soften' lights of flashs or sun etc with unexpensive materials build by you. Just look at the hp: http://lowbudgetshooting.de/ Cheers Bernd Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodyspedden Posted December 27, 2006 Share #19 Posted December 27, 2006 Hey every I started a new thread on this subject but let me share here the rig i use. This is the M8, with the Metz Mecablitz 54. I use it with the Metz 3502 M4 Module which has a cord to remotely connect to the flash. I mount all of this on an old Vivitar rig which allows the camera to be mounted on the horizontal bar of the L rig and the flash to be on the vertical bar to cold shoe at the top of the bar. The cold shoe swivels giving me the opportunity to control the light direction to a fair degree. (You could also have the Metz working as the commander flash and that would trigger remote flash(es)) for even better lighting control. But more to the point, the single Mecablitaz, on the remote rig provides for a very well controlled single flash exposure. The Vivitar rig may not be produced any longer (I bought mine in 1975) but i am sure there is someone out there filling this need. I will so some research to find something currently available to provide solutions for today. Cheers Woody Spedden Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/11879-m8metz54heliopancs3-flesh-tone-sample/?do=findComment&comment=126938'>More sharing options...
rvaubel Posted December 27, 2006 Share #20 Posted December 27, 2006 Hey every I started a new thread on this subject but let me share here the rig i use. This is the M8, with the Metz Mecablitz 54. I use it with the Metz 3502 M4 Module which has a cord to remotely connect to the flash. I mount all of this on an old Vivitar rig which allows the camera to be mounted on the horizontal bar of the L rig and the flash to be on the vertical bar to cold shoe at the top of the bar. The cold shoe swivels giving me the opportunity to control the light direction to a fair degree. (You could also have the Metz working as the commander flash and that would trigger remote flash(es)) for even better lighting control. But more to the point, the single Mecablitaz, on the remote rig provides for a very well controlled single flash exposure. The Vivitar rig may not be produced any longer (I bought mine in 1975) but i am sure there is someone out there filling this need. I will so some research to find something currently available to provide solutions for today. Cheers Woody Spedden Jesus! What a rig! Now I remember why I am an available light photographer.. Seriously, with all that stuff, why not just use a DSLR with autoflash everything. I don't know squat about flash, but there must be a point, but for the life of me, I can't figure out what it would be Rex Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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