Did I set wrong the SF-58 flash? Any Tips?

[sunhmt]

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Just got SF-58. I put it into M240 hotshoes to shooting. I tried 1), TTL , 2) TTL-HSS 3), A (auto?) 

Question:

1,Which mode is better for me to usually use?Any improve Tips?

2,When I used it for human figures photography, they said the flash is burning their eyes. What should I do to avoid that? Setting?

3,What's the top hidden white board plastic function?

4,Why the 'A' mode is too dark?

 

Thanks for every reply

 

 

 

 

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[Keith_W]

1. Use TTL. In this mode, the flash fires before the curtain rises, bounces around your scenery, and then goes into the lens. The camera takes a metering through the lens by reading the amount of light on your curtain, and sets the flash power. Then the curtain opens and the flash fires again.

 

TTL-HSS (high speed sync) is for fill flash during the day when you want to use high shutter speeds. It works by strobing the flash on and off very quickly - this causes you to lose flash power.

 

Auto uses the metering on the flash unit to meter and is often unreliable because it does not know what focal length you are using. 

 

2. To avoid flash "burning the eyes", use the flash in bounce flash mode. Point the flash towards the ceiling and use the white reflector card (answer to question #3) to direct some of the flash forwards. Hopefully you have a white ceiling which is not too high, because you will lose flash power the darker the ceiling is, and the further away it is. Also, ceilings painted in a different colour will give your picture a colour cast. Flash bounce towards the ceiling has the useful effect of softening the light from the flash, making it look more natural. But bounce flash only illuminates your subject from the above, which isn't always flattering if your subject has a bald head (think bright bald head, and face in darkness) - which is why you use your white reflector card built in to the flash. 

 

3. See above. 

 

4. See #1. 

[Luke_Miller]

With Auto the flash needs to "know" the camera ISO setting and the aperture set on the lens.  The ISO value is sent to the flash via the hotshoe contacts, but  Aperture must be manually entered on the flash in order for it to calculate proper flash exposure.  I suspect incorrect aperture is the reason for the underexposed Auto shot.

 

I agree with Keith about bounced flash.  That  creates much softer lighting and tends to reduce subject blinking.  I suggest turning off the secondary illuminator on the SF-58  since it will fire automatically when bouncing the flash and provides too much (in my view) direct illumination of the subject.  The white plastic board is the "white card" and can be pulled out to provide a bit of  reflected light (when bouncing) on the subject for catchlights.

 

I always use TTL flash metering with my Nikons, but with my Leicas  it will often be Auto.  Leica metering is often fooled by bright backgrounds or a light source in the frame and will  seriously underexpose the shot.  In some cases refusing to fire the flash.  The these cases Auto works fine since it ignores the background.

[Richardgb]

TTL mode is not foolproof, especially when shooting against the (natural) light for fill-in: it invariably under-exposes. Auto works much better in this situation.

 

It took me a while to get to know the menu options and their locations on the SF58. I've commented further here on my preferred alternative.