Sinar F1 & Strobe

[elacanett]

Hello,
I have a Sinar F1 and have been using it...it works fine with natural light. However, I just tried it with Flash (elinchrom 400 lite) for some products. When I set the lens to the light meter reading ie. F16 at 1/60th, I set this on the lens with 1.5 compensation it comes out really underexpose. The polaroids is totally black. I resulted in using F32 at 8 seconds to get a decent exposure... I am new to this, but is something wrong with this. I just bought another light meter to double check my existing, but it reads perfectly.

Any advice?

[Sevo]

Nope, just a lot of questions... You do know the difference between light and flash meters? What meter did you use? How was it set and what did it read? How do you trigger the flash? Did you pull the slide?

[elacanett]

I used the sekonic light meter - and switched it to flash with cord, the sync cord was attached to my meter.

Is there a x on the Sinar... if so, I can't seem to find it. Does the room need to be fully dark? I had some ambient light... but that shouldn't matter should it?

[Frank Petronio]

The 8-second exposure is throwing us off, why would you do a long exposure with strobe light as the primary source?

You understand that strobe is "flash", it takes place in 1/125th or faster, correct? You need to use a Sync cord or triggering device with your lens to fire the strobe in sync when opening the shutter. Most people will set their lens to 1/60th or 1/30th when shooting flash, and the actual strobe flash occurs in a fraction of that time.

With a modern lens in a popular Copal shutter, there will be a PC Sync outlet, a small male extension that will fit into a female Sync cord running to a wireless transmitter or directly to the strobe itself.

The room doesn't have to be dark but generally the strobe will greatly overpower the ambient lighting and with a short exposure the ambient will play an insignificant role in the exposure.

In some cases you may want to combine strobe and ambient, but for learning purposes, master the simple one-step shots first ;-)

[jb7]

What size products?
Did you compensate for bellows extension?
oops, I see you did...

Maybe it's an old lens with a different flash sync?
Electronic should be 'x'

Take the back off and check that you can see the flash firing through the lens...

[elacanett]

Frank: when I set the fstop and aperture to what the light meters read.. my polaroids is pitch black. I've used the Cambo at school and it worked, but for some reason the Sinar is not working... When I press the shutter release - the shutter on the lens open and close, and the flash fires... Is there something wrong with my sinar?

Jb7 - I am new to LF so, I am not sure if it is new - it is Sinaron 210mm - I am shooting a tea cup. There's an X - that's where I 'plugged' the sync cord.. I will take the back off and see...

[Frank Petronio]

Determine whether the flash is syncing with the lens? You can do this by not putting a film holder in but otherwise being ready to shoot. Turn off the modeling lights on the strobe and also the ambient room lighting. Go behind the groundglass and put the darkcloth overhead, allow your eyes to adjust to darkness, grasp the bottom of the cloth so no light is getting in and look at the ground glass. Make sure it is really dark. Fire the shutter. The only light you see should be coming through the ground glass of the camera. If you don't see the flash, then things are not syncing between the lens and flash.

If you are getting a proper sync, then perhaps you are setting the lens incorrectly or the meter is wrong, most likely human error (no offense).

If you do not get sync then you need to investigate the connections. If you can get it to fire as you say, then check if your shutter has X or M settings for the Sync, you want it set to "X". Try a different lens/shutter to see if the probably might be a faulty shutter.

[elacanett]

frank - there's light coming through. There's an X next to the Sync cord 'plug', but I am not seeing neither and X or M anywhere else.. Where would I find it. I am probably doing something incorrectly, but can't figure what..

if I want to just use the modelling lights on the elinchrome (I think it is warmer), how would I be able to use it with Fuji chrome 100f?

[elacanett]

I love your photography btw. The quarries are awesome!

[elacanett]

I am using the sinaron s 210mm

[brian mcweeney]

Are your polaroids good? They are turning out black but is your film also? What ISO is your meter set at? If you have the meter set correctly, the ISO set correctly, the camera synced correctly, then your problem is the polaroids. Are you pulling the dark slide on the polaroid back?

[Frank Petronio]

If there is no switch between X or M then you have a newer shutter than only has the X sync, which is what you want. So don't worry about it.

Well if the strobe is firing and you see light coming through, then why not at least see if you can overexpose your Polaroid? Try the lens wide open, the strobe at full power, it should be blown out to white. In which case your Flash meter is either broken or being used wrong.

But the nature of your posts makes me suspect you are doing something unintentionally wacky. Can't you find another photographer to look at your set-up?

[elacanett]

I've just tried it - the polaroid is white. I've just set the meter to flash with cord - and flashed it .. it reads 1/125 at F22. I opened to 5.6F.

Just to clarify - I've set it to 1/60 at F32 to get F32 and then add the below, which gets me 1/30th at F32. Is this correct?

I do notice that the flash when fire (is bright at the corner and dark on the opposite lower corner).. does this matter?

[Frank Petronio]

No, do not change the shutter speed with flash, leave it at 1/60th for this. The speed is irrelevant, it is the only flash providing the light and it is nearly instantaneous. You will not be affecting your exposure when you increase the shutter's exposure time. It is only the aperture setting that controls exposure. So if your meter tells you f/32 and you have 1 stop bellows factor, open up one stop to f/22.

You only have to set your shutter speed to be slow enough to make sure it will sync correctly -- so most photographers will err on the side of going a bit longer, like 1/60th, although you could technically get away with using 1/250th in most cases.

If you are using fresh (not expired) Instant Film (Fuji) rated at 100 ISO, and also using traditional film rated at 100 ISO, then they should be close and appropriate for testing and proofing. I'd probably trust the Instant Film more than your meter.

Also, how you orientate and where you hold your Flash meter matters a lot, you can be 3-stops off if you are pointing it at the wrong place.

[elacanett]

thanks for all your help! It worked. I'm not sure how I did it... I think I did something funky with the light meter of sync cord... or something. The chromes is being developed now.. I will post it when I pick it up!
thanks again!