Using an sb900 flash

I ordered my dp2m with a flash; however, the place where I bought everything from was sold out of flashes. So, I proceeded to try the sb900.

It seems that you have to be careful to set things up ahead of time. If you do not, you will get a black gradient in the image. I suspect that this is from the shutter not being timed to the flash properly. Here is an example image:

The white balance is also off; I set everything to flash AWB, and had to remove the warming gel from the flash or else have a completely orange image.

If I set the dp2m to:

Manual

1/125

f/4.0

single shot

ISO 100

I set the flash to:

A mode

f/8

14mm

- 2 exp

The exposure reduction coupled with the aperture reduction was critical to not having the gradient while still properly exposing the scene. The result was that I could get a shot like this:

Of my son and his great grandfather eating together.

A much better tool in this kind of light is a dslr or some other camera with reasonable focusing abilities. However, since the dp2m could fit into one pocket of my coat and the flash the other, this was a much more portable rig, especially since I was dealing with children and couldn't have a hand given over to carrying a camera.

Metering can be a bit tricky; things near to the camera will almost certainly blow out, as in:

Note the hands in the foreground.

But anyway-- here you have it.  If you don't mind using a flash that's way bigger than the camera itself, it gives good shots, because the flash is far removed and comes with a diffuser that seems to be doing quite an excellent job.  I also shot in raw to attempt to fix any mismetering.