Grandchildren at Christmas With Sony Gear

I tried a new camera and lens combination at Christmas this year.  I've had the Sony a6000 for two years, but the zoom I used on Christmas was a new addition to my Sony kit.  It's the full frame FE mount 28-70mm F3.5-F5.6  kit lens. On eBay I bought it supposedly "used"  for $250. If it had indeed been used it would be a surprise to me. It was pristine and the metal lens mount showed no scuffs or marks, which suggested to me that it had never been mounted on a camera. With an effective focal length of 43-105mm on the cropped a6000 sensor, it was the perfect thing for indoor family Christmas shots. 

I have reported in previous posts about how much I like the Sony a6000 (and NEX 5R and, prior to the a6000, the NEX 6) for flash photography. This is because of the little Sony branded Guide No. 20 fold up/down TTL flash that is small and barely noticeable, but which bounces light nicely off the ceiling.  (Unfortunately it does not swivel.) The model is HVL-F20M.  It’s not very powerful, but that is fine with me as it is small and light and has enough juice coming out of the two AAA batteries to create a well balanced (with respect to lighting) image, as long as the ceiling isn’t too high.

Flash is folded down in "off" position.

Flash flipped up to "on" position. Note slider for bounce versus direct.
I have always only used the bounce position.
This angle can not be adjusted.  Camera is aimed to the left.

The combo worked like this at Christmas: 

Using M mode, I set the camera aperture to F3.5 (wide open when zoomed out to 28mm), and the shutter speed was set to 1/100s.  Being a variable aperture zoom, as I zoomed in and out, the aperture varied between F3.5 and F5.6.  I set the ISO to Auto.  With the flash folded down in the “off” position, a typical ISO picked by the camera’s exposure meter was 3200.  But flip up the flash to the “on” position and the ISO dropped in half.  In other words, in this example, ISO dropped one stop to 1600. This cut the ambient light (i.e. light already in the room) in half and the flash “filled in” the missing half of light. This meant ambient light and flash was balanced in a 1:1 ratio.  All I had to do was point and shoot.

In summary:  In the above example, if I turn the flash “off” my exposure was 100% from ambient light and ISO 3200. If I turned the flash “on” my exposure was 50% from ambient light and 50% from flash at ISO 1600. 

I love this simple approach taken by Sony in-camera software.  Except perhaps to the most experienced photographer, the resulting images don’t look like a flash was used… at least in my opinion.  Yet the flash brightens the subject by directing (bouncing) light onto the subject. This improves the overall quality of the light, while at the same time improving image quality by reducing the ISO from 3200 to 1600.

A few of my snapshots from Christmas are below.  All were taken with a 1:1 balance between ambient light and flash.

Why I like my Sony a6000 more than my Olympus E-M1 (Part 3: The flash system-page 2: The HVL-F20M flash)

I headed out the door Sunday morning for our three year old granddaughter's birthday party. I grabbed the Sony a6000 and the HVL-F20M flash as I knew we would be indoors.  In my prior post here, I described how great this little Sony flash works on the a6000.

(I also own the new Nissan i40 flash with its guide number of 40. The i40 aims anywhere I want it, in fact swiveling 180 degrees in either direction, and of course angling from straight ahead to straight up. But on this day, like most days, I wanted to keep things simple and compact. The F20M shines when it comes to simplicity.)

Several product shots:

Folding the flash down like this turns it "off"

Flipping the flash up like this turns it "on"

Bounce flash versus direct flash.  I almost always use bounce.

Two AAA batteries.

Below is a sampling of the images of the party girl and her older sister. As always,my goal is to use a flash to get better light and also to get a higher image quality by the fact that a lower ISO can be used.  Each photo below was taken with the Sony 50mm lens (e75mm) at F2, 1/80 sec, and auto ISO. In all cases the flash was bounced off the ceiling. The ISO used was 400 to 2,000. The auto ISO required had I not used a flash would have ranged from approximately 800 a 4,000.

Depending on the monitor I think these might need a white balance adjustment. Perhaps a bit warm, but the room was indeed filled with incandescent light. 

Now, I'm not saying these are great pictures. They're snapshots, and they seem a bit soft to me.  Perhaps F2.8 would have sharpening things up a bit. But I think if I were to have increased the shutter speed, this would have helped, as half the light was ambient light. After all, even when little kids are stationary, they're always moving!

Older sister

Why I like my Sony a6000 more than my Olympus E-M1 (Part 3: The flash system-page 1)

To be fair there are also reasons why I like my Olympus better than the a6000.  They are both great systems but each has its pluses and minuses.

In this third part of "Why I like my Sony a6000 more than my Olympus E-M1" I am writing about the awesome way (IMO) Sony handles flash. I'm not talking anything fancy here. I'm talking about single, on camera flashes. I'm not talking about multiple flashes, wireless flashes, or remote flashes,or radio triggers or the like.

I've not read anything anywhere about using Auto ISO with a flash. But I'm a big fan of Auto ISO, and on the Sony a6000 (and the NEX 6 I owned before it) the flash plays very well with Auto ISO. This capability is what I like best about using a flash in the a6000.

I was delighted with how the Sony behaved when I first used the pop-up flash.  But because it's a bit under-powered (very noticeable when bouncing off a higher than normal ceiling or when using narrow apertures), I bought the little but handy HVL-F20M (guide number 20) flash.  This is

 my favorite flash. Ever.

Pop Up Flash.  I never use it facing forward like this.
The results are way too ugly.

It seems I frequently use a flash indoors, taking pictures of the family or food.  I like the challenge of using a flash to create a better image without it being obvious that a flash was used. I never aim the flash directly at my subject. That ends horribly: the classic deer in front of the headlights photo.  Instead, I bounce the flash off the ceiling.  The angle is up and forward a bit with both the in-camera flash and the F20M.  Unfortunate there is no option on either one to turn the flash left or right or rearward.

Operating the in-camera flash is a bit tricky if your want to bounce it.  The flash pops up easily enough, but to bounce it you must use your right forefinger to pull the flash back so it aims upward. It would be nice if it somehow clicked into place.  But because it doesn't, you must hold it back with your finger while triggering the shutter with your second finger.  That's what I mean by being a bit tricky. Having long fingers help.

My fingers are a bit contorted here because I am holding the Sony with my right hand,
while taking this picture with a Panasonic LX5 in my left hand.
But you get the idea:  the forefinger pulls the flash back to bounce light off the ceiling
and the second finger is on the shutter button.  It's awkward at first.

The F20M is a very well thought-out accessory, in my opinion. I've never seen a flash quite like it. It's rather small in size.  It requires just two AAA batteries. I use rechargeable batteries. There is no/off switch. The flash slips into the hot shoe, and turns off when you fold it down and turns on when you flip it up. This feature makes it very easy to alternate between flash "on" and flash "off". On the side is a slider adjustment that rotates the flash head into the bounce position.

Flash off.

Flash on.
You can direct the light forward or upward.
I always choose upward.

One criticism I read about on the Internet is that because the guide number is only 20, that you need to shoot with a high ISO. That may be true, but I do not see this as a disadvantage. Just the opposite. I like using a high ISO because this allows for a nicer balance between ambient light and flash. The resulting images look more natural, albeit with a bit more (but manageable) noise.

Here's how the Sony flash system works with Auto ISO (awesome):

Let's say that you are indoors and that with no flash your exposure is 1/80 sec at F2 at ISO 640. There's nothing wrong with shooting without flash in this situation as the camera can handle ISO 640 with no problem. But let's say you decide that the quality and direction of the light is less than ideal and that a bit of flash could help. Just flip up the flash. Be sure to bounce it. The camera will automatically adjust the ISO down approximately one stop, to about ISO 320 in this example.  This effectively underexposes the ambient light by one stop. In other words the ambient light is cut in half.  The flash then adds the other half of the light needed to make a decent exposure. The result is a nice mix of light as well as a higher quality photo because of the lower ISO. I love it.

If it seems that the result is over- or under- exposed, just use your EV compensation.  I suggest setting up EV  in the menu so that it moves both exposure compensation and flash compensation together (see image below). That way the 1:1 balance between ambient light and flash light can be maintained.

For the three images below I turned on the floor lamp (see gold tube on the right) which had a 100 watt incandescent bulb. This is on our screen porch and there was natural light coming in from behind me on a cloudy day.

No Flash.  F2, 1/80 sec, ISO 640

In-Camera flash pulled back and aimed upward to ceiling
F2, 1/80 sec, ISO 320
Note: ISO is cut in half resulting in less noise,
and the color is better IMO than without flash.

F20M flash bounced off ceiling
F2, 1/80 sec, ISO 400
Again, color is better than without flash and ISO is almost cut in half

__________

How the Olympus would work with flash and Auto ISO (terrible (IMO)):

The Olympus doesn't work as well in Auto ISO. In the same example as above, as soon as you slide a flash into the hot shoe the ISO moves to the base ISO of 200.  This means very little ambient light will register in the image. The flash then must make up the difference. The result is an image that is mostly flash exposed. This is horrible lighting. The use of flash will be very obvious. As best as I can figure out, auto ISO will come into play only after the flash has reached maximum output. At that point, if the flash can not supply enough light, the ISO is increased. It is nearly impossible for the photographer to balance ambient and flash light using auto ISO with Olympus. This does not mean that one cannot take great flash pictures. You absolutely can; it merely means that one must manually set the ISO.  In this case that would be 320 or 400.