Using old school studio flashes with D700, blown out exposures :(

[Steve Smith]

make sure your head is up to the viewfinder porthole too; light can enter there on some cameras and mess up the meter.

He's using it in manual.

I think I would close the aperture down all the way and take a picture at every aperture up to wide open to see which one is correct... then try to work out why.


Steve

[sully75]

what was your shutter speed?

[sully75]

I don't know why everyone is so quick to accuse Eric of overlooking something? The digital camera could be at fault ;-p

Computers don't make mistakes, Frank.

[sully75]

The only thing I could think is that you have more ambient light in the room, and you are used to syncing at a faster speed than you are able to get with a DSLR. So you are pulling in ambient that you wouldn't get at a faster sync speed.

Probably not that, but that's the only variable you haven't mentioned.

[lenser]

Eric,

I also use a D700 and meter my flash exposures with a totally accurate and reliable Minolta Flash III. All of my film work is with 100 speed products (tested with 100 speed Fujiroid) so I constantly have to remind myself that the D700 will only go down to ISO 200 or my shots are also completely blown out.

Having said that, I usually end up either powering the lights down or stopping down by as much as three stops just to get the "look" I prefer in my saturation. For my eye, the digital and film worlds just do not equate on how to make the exposures, so it is a constant juggling act.

As to the viewfinder shutter, the only way that effects exposure is if you are in a very bright environment in which case it may cause you to have underexposures (if you move your head away from the camera during exposure) instead of the blown out over exposures you are getting.

[Eric Rose]

Thanks Lenser. Yes your experience is consistent with mine. It seems that flash meters and digital cameras do not jive. I have to use a polarizer or a ND filter on my D700 to cut the light down enough to use larger than f8 apertures. Unfortunately my power pack doesn't have enough adjustment with respect to output power to make it a useful solution.

I bought my studio flashes way back in the day when I needed LOTS of power for shooting LF shots with very tiny apertures using slow film.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

[Sevo]

You guys are dead positive you haven't set the camera to TTL Flash, Auto ISO or some magical exposure compensation setting? Whatever it is, it must be something you did wrong (or didn't correct) - DSLRs have replaced both Polaroid and flash meters in just about every studio I know, so there must be a way to get that to work.

[Allen in Montreal]

I have not read they this thread so forgive if I repeat.
Many new highly electronic cameras don't like older triggers.

I can not use my dyna lite trigger on my canon 1d mk 4.

It may just be a trigger camera / compatiblity issue.

[Gene McCluney]

I have found-with other brands of digital cameras-not just Nikon, that even at identical ISO settings to film cameras,they DO NOT equal. Digital sensors do not have the same type of curves that film has, and will blow out, or underexpose (depending on the situation), where film will render a nice exposure. I always test and look at histogram specifically for my digital captures, even when I shoot film at same time.

But reallly, it can be a non issue, as long as you shoot a test shot, look at histogram, and adjust before shooting your keepers.

[lenser]

Sevo,

As for me, I only use flash with the camera set on manual. I have used it with both an old Hawk wireless remote system (yes, it has safe trigger voltage) and with direct cord to flash (White Lightning Ultra) and measure the light on my Minolta Flash III by both non-cord and attached cord methods. I also match the ASA speed on the meter to the ISO speed on the camera. I still get the blown out results and end up judging my exposure by observation on the display.

I also have several decades of lighting experience and know the qualities of ambient light, plus I usually shoot only in a dim studio environment except for location assignments; so the extra, extra bright ambient that would have to be combined with a very slow shutter speed required to produce this overexposure (and which would almost always throw in a color shift) is out of the question.

Nothing I've been able to do causes my readings to produce an accurate exposure without adjusting after visual examination of the display and either stopping down or more likely, reducing light output since I usually have a set f stop/depth of field that I am targeting in my work.