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07/04/2008 10:10:44 AM · #1 |
I have a friend who's doing clinical researches and she needs to take pictures of people mouths, arms, legs, etc to be able to count the hairs and see the evolution of the skin.
She uses a D70s and a Nikkor 60mm macro lens with a Vivitar 5000 macroflash. Settings used are: 1/250, F11, ISO200.
Everything used to work alright but then I went there and played with the camera (I didn't change much settings to be honest) and now she's having this problem so I kinda feel bad about it eventhough I don't think I have anything to do with it.
She called me saying the pictures are always underexposed. So I told her to play with the exposure compensation and the flash compensation buttons. She put the flash compensation on +1 and exposure compensation on +5 and the pictures are still too dark.
She says sometimes her picture is dark on the bottom (like if you were to put your finger in the way) and the rest is correctly exposed... Sometimes it's evenly exposed but still too dark.
I verified that the camera settings for the flash were set to commander mode and TTL. The Vivitar flash is on Auto too.
I really have no idea what could be wrong... hopefully someone here can find a solution or at least assure me that I did not forget to check anything. |
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07/04/2008 10:16:03 AM · #2 |
Sounds like she's flashing too fast for her camera's synch speed. She should be at 1/125th. The dark line on the bottom is caused by this.
If its still underexposed, raise ISO or open aperature.
Other than that, a light meter for proper exposure settings beats the hell out of guessing any day.
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07/04/2008 10:20:04 AM · #3 |
Originally posted by idnic:
Sounds like she's flashing too fast for her camera's synch speed. She should be at 1/125th. The dark line on the bottom is caused by this.
If its still underexposed, raise ISO or open aperature.
Other than that, a light meter for proper exposure settings beats the hell out of guessing any day. |
Isn't the D80 synced to 1/250th?
yann, what mode is she using the flash in? TTL, auto or manual? Post a sample if you can plz?
Message edited by author 2008-07-04 10:21:15. |
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07/04/2008 10:21:21 AM · #4 |
Doesn't the D70s synch up to 1/500th?
Anyways, she tried 1/60th and it was still too dark.
Message edited by author 2008-07-04 10:27:32. |
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07/04/2008 10:23:38 AM · #5 |
It's the D70s, not the D80. The flash settings in the camera are on commander and TTL. The Vivitar flash only has a switch for Auto or Manual and it's set on Auto. Can't post sample, sorry. She's at work and can't/don't have time to send me the pictures.
Message edited by author 2008-07-04 10:26:53. |
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07/04/2008 10:48:31 AM · #6 |
| If you changed some of the settings have her reset the cameara to factory defaults and start over. |
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07/04/2008 10:55:24 AM · #7 |
Originally posted by yann:
It's the D70s, not the D80. The flash settings in the camera are on commander and TTL. The Vivitar flash only has a switch for Auto or Manual and it's set on Auto. Can't post sample, sorry. She's at work and can't/don't have time to send me the pictures. |
Is that flash a dedicated flash for that brand of camera? If she's putting the camera on TTL and the flash doesn't recognize this, well that's the problem. The camera is trying to expose but isn't communicating properly with the flash. Ask her to put the flash on auto and the camera set to 1/250th @ f8 and take some shots. Let us know what the results are. |
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07/04/2008 11:18:05 AM · #8 |
Ok thanks for all the responses, VERY appreciated!
I called her again to tell her to try the camera flash setting on TTL instead of Commander but when I called she told me that another girl at her job put it on 1/60th and F11, rotated the flash a little and, for some unknown reason, it appears to be working now. (She told me she tried F11 1/60th before and was still too dark)
I might have another chance to go there myself so I'll definately look deeper into this. I'm thinking the flash is just really bad and can't do the job at 1/250th... but that would be ridiculous imo. Up-close like this (being a macro flash), I just can't beleive the flash would be ok to light F11 1/60th but not F11 1/250th.
Message edited by author 2008-07-04 11:23:42. |
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07/04/2008 11:44:39 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by yann:
Ok thanks for all the responses, VERY appreciated!
I called her again to tell her to try the camera flash setting on TTL instead of Commander but when I called she told me that another girl at her job put it on 1/60th and F11, rotated the flash a little and, for some unknown reason, it appears to be working now. (She told me she tried F11 1/60th before and was still too dark)
I might have another chance to go there myself so I'll definately look deeper into this. I'm thinking the flash is just really bad and can't do the job at 1/250th... but that would be ridiculous imo. Up-close like this (being a macro flash), I just can't beleive the flash would be ok to light F11 1/60th but not F11 1/250th. |
Flash exposure has nothing to do with shutter speed, the shutter only needs to be open long enough for the light to pass through. It's the aperture that controls the amount of light. It's not the flash that is too low in power, especially a macro ring light. If the photo is partly black horizontally it would most likely be because of a shutter speed that was too fast, like over 1/500th. Notice the rest of the shot though, it's probably well exposed, indicating it isn't an exposure problem. |
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07/04/2008 10:58:55 PM · #10 |
| The way she was talking, the problem she had most of the time was evenly underexposed shots. The problem with the black at the bottom only happened once or twice. Anyways, I'll look deeper into it when I can check out all the test shots she did. |
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07/05/2008 12:19:48 AM · #11 |
How is the flash triggered by the camera? PC cord? Pocket Wizards?
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07/05/2008 12:32:50 AM · #12 |
Hmm... I can't even remember, but I know it wasn't pocket wizards. Probably a PC cord since the flash comes with one. I can't remeber if there was a wire between the flash and the camera at all. There had to be one for it to work from what I understand so...
Message edited by author 2008-07-05 00:38:27. |
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