Balancing TTL flash and ambient light

[SRT201]

Recently picked up a clean, used FL-600r for my E-M1 ii. It works just fine in any mode. It's not a huge flash in terms of GN, but certainly adequate for my uses and the TTL exposure seems quite consistent.

My question regards balancing ambient light and flash contribution to exposure:

I can take full control in Manual exposure and flash modes and use aperture and ISO to control the ambient exposure while dialing down the flash power to control the flash contribution. This works as expected.

I assumed I could do the same with the E-M1 in A mode with the flash set to TTL Auto. Using flash compensation to control the flash contribution works just fine. However, I thought that I could dial in some positive exposure compensation to balance a negative flash compensation and it appears to do nothing regardless of the exposure compensation setting.

What am I getting wrong here?

Thanks for any help.

--
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[Toni Genes]

I am not sure if I understood correctly your problem.

Even in A mode, you will set-up a fixed aperture and you will probably have a fixed exposure time because of the flash (example : F/4.0 and 1/200s).

If you set-up a fix ISO value, the camera cannot adjust exposure, so it's like manual mode.

If you set-up ISO on AUTO, unfortunately the camera will use ISO-200 all the time, no matter if the picture is underexposed. So you have to compensate by increasing ISO, like in the M mode. Or you can compensate by opening the aperture.

PS - perhaps it will work as you expect if you switch the flash to high-speed syncronization (is it FP mode ?). But in this mode the flash is not so powerfull. But anyway, try ! Maybe it works for you.

 

[jrsforums]

Keeping it simple, TTL flash is two exposures. First, the normal camera scene exposure. Second, a TTL flash exposure where the flash does a preburst, the camera (TTL) measures the reflection across multiple points (relative to what it knew it was), and determines the flash strength amount.

both exposures can be adjusted independently. In ‘M’ (my preference for flash) you set aperture or shutter speed up or down for taste. In ‘A’, you would set the aperture, shutter is set by camera, and you would use EC to change exposure (shutter speed). The TTL flash can be adjusted using +/- flash EC, usually on flash.

’M’ mode gives you much greater control of the ambient exposure. In ‘PAS’, your exposure is prone to change as you move around the subject and view points…but better if you have variable scene lighting and want TTL to do ‘fill flash’

 

[Digital Dick]

Check the menu setting for Custom Menu F where you can turn exposure comp + flash comp to On/Off.

****

 

[SRT201]

Check the menu setting for Custom Menu F where you can turn exposure comp + flash comp to On/Off.

****

I had that set to OFF assuming that allows EC to adjust ambient exposure and FEC obviously for flash exposure alone.

 

[SRT201]

Keeping it simple, TTL flash is two exposures. First, the normal camera scene exposure. Second, a TTL flash exposure where the flash does a preburst, the camera (TTL) measures the reflection across multiple points (relative to what it knew it was), and determines the flash strength amount.

both exposures can be adjusted independently. In ‘M’ (my preference for flash) you set aperture or shutter speed up or down for taste. In ‘A’, you would set the aperture, shutter is set by camera, and you would use EC to change exposure (shutter speed). The TTL flash can be adjusted using +/- flash EC, usually on flash.

’M’ mode gives you much greater control of the ambient exposure. In ‘PAS’, your exposure is prone to change as you move around the subject and view points…but better if you have variable scene lighting and want TTL to do ‘fill flash’

So, maybe I've been fundamentally wrong in my understanding of TTL flash. I gather from your reply that TTL flash works in manual exposure mode as well. I always assumed TTL flash depended upon auto exposure being active in the camera body.

 

[jrsforums]

Keeping it simple, TTL flash is two exposures. First, the normal camera scene exposure. Second, a TTL flash exposure where the flash does a preburst, the camera (TTL) measures the reflection across multiple points (relative to what it knew it was), and determines the flash strength amount.

both exposures can be adjusted independently. In ‘M’ (my preference for flash) you set aperture or shutter speed up or down for taste. In ‘A’, you would set the aperture, shutter is set by camera, and you would use EC to change exposure (shutter speed). The TTL flash can be adjusted using +/- flash EC, usually on flash.

’M’ mode gives you much greater control of the ambient exposure. In ‘PAS’, your exposure is prone to change as you move around the subject and view points…but better if you have variable scene lighting and want TTL to do ‘fill flash’

So, maybe I've been fundamentally wrong in my understanding of TTL flash. I gather from your reply that TTL flash works in manual exposure mode as well. I always assumed TTL flash depended upon auto exposure being active in the camera body.

Auto exposure IS working. You should be able to see the EC (exposure) meter moving +/- as the scene brightness changes.

EDIT: some old(ish), but interesting tutorials/articles on basic flash photography you may want to review. While the cameras are different, the concepts and techniques are the same.

• Flash Photography Techniques - Tangents

Flash Photography Techniques ~ Intro page ~ Natural looking flash Flash photography techniques and tips As photographers we’re always looking for perfect light. And yet, the quality of available light isn’t always ideal. It is rarely perfect. But I feel that in using flash wisely, I’m able to...

neilvn.com

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