Chasing Little Ones With The E-M5 II

Lumedyne Flash and E-M5 II

Well, I was off to Gainesville TX. to see some grand kids. No sense and missing an opportunity to try using manual flash outdoors while chasing some high speed little girls. TTL flash would have been a little easier, but you gotta use what you have.

Normally, with a little more planning, I would put something in one place that would hold the girls attention a little longer than 2 or 3 seconds. But, I did not have enough time allotted, because the girls where fearful that the Big Skeetoes would get them.

So, it was time to rush through the problem of balancing ambient light with flash. I reviewed in my head the max camera sync speed for the M5 II which is 1/250s. I quickly set up the light stand, the Lumedyne 200 w/s flash and the shoot through umbrella. Flash output was set to 50 w/s and at about 5 ft. Was giving me F 5.1.

First Image. 1/200 at F 5.1 E-M5 II

2nd Image: 1/125 at F 5.1

3rd Image: 1/125 at F 4.1

4th Image: 1/80 at F 4.1

I set the shutter speed to 1/200 and the f stop at F 5.1 to match the flash output. The shutter at 1/200 would underexpose the ambient light about 1/3 of a stop and darken the background to my taste.

So, the first shot was taken at 10:39 in the morning. I quickly checked the image in camera and decided to lighten the background a little more so I set the shutter to 1/125 which would give me a little less than 1 stop of extra ambient light. At 10:40 and 6s I snapped another picture and then bang, Tessa pops in for a quick sting your tongue out moment and at 10:40 and 10s I snapped another picture. You’ll notice that the skin is starting to look a little overexposed. I had opened the shutter up to F 4.1 to allow a little more flash in and the result was not to my liking.

Then, 13s later I snapped another image at F 4.1 but this time I moved the shutter to 1/80s which allowed more ambient light in. You can tell, that the next image is even more overexposed. And then, the girls were gone in a flash. It was time to shut the flash off and chase them around using only ambient light. The “Skeetoes” were attacking and they had all they could stand.

Here’s the take away from the images and the description of the event. When using manual flash outdoors you are exposing for 2 things. The ambient light and the flash. The ambient light is controlled mostly by the shutter speed and the flash is controlled mostly by the F stop.

In the above images you can see that as the shutter is slowed you get more of the ambient light in. You can also see that as the F-stop is opened up you get more flash onto the subject. Running all of this through your head can be very distracting when chasing little girls who are being harassed by “Skeetoes” so you have to take the time to practice in your spare time. So, when crunch time hits and the “skeetoes” are causing your subjects and you to get stressed you can get the job done.

The past couple of years have really helped my development in photography because I have committed to dragging a camera with me more often. It helps to have something small, light, and versatile like the E-M5II. No, this is not an Olympus advertisement. But, in my opinion, cameras are sometimes like a handgun. The best one to have is the one you are willing to carry most often.

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Chasing Little Ones With The E-M5 II