Allinthemind - Simon Young Photography


Fill-Flash and pre-flashing guide
Value of fill flash setting =>>>			4	Reflected light units, 2 stops under zone V metering
Value of Pre-Flash of film =>>>			1	Reflected light units, 4 stops under zone V metering


	Zone	0	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X
	Descrip.	Black D.Max.	1st Perceptible value lighter than black	very very dark grey	Fully textured dark grey	dark middle grey	middle grey	light middle grey	fully textured light grey	very very light grey	1st Perceptible grey darker than white	Paper base white
	Texture	None	None	Suggestion	Full	Full	Full	Full	Full	Suggestion	None	None
	Film Density (Tmax100)	0.02	0.11	0.21	0.34	0.48	0.62	0.76	0.97	1.18	1.33	1.44
	Zone	0	I	II	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X
	Reflected light units	0	1	2	4	8	16	32	64	128	256	512
	Fill Flash light units (-2EV)	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
	Combined	4	5	6	8	12	20	36	68	132	260	516
	Fill-Flash Zone	III	III	III 1/2	IV	1V 1/2	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X
	Pre-flash	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
	Pre-Flash Zone	I	II	II 1/2	III	IV	V	VI	VII	VIII	IX	X

What you can do with fill-flash:
Reduce high contrast by filling light into the shadow areas (things like eyesockets and shadows under chins etc.)
What you can not do with Fill-Flash:
Make black, non-reflecting surfaces appear lighter (Fill-Flash will only raise the relative brightness/zone on similarly reflective surfaces, like the shadows on skin). The light produced by a flashgun fades away pretty quickly, so you will not light people at twice the distance as the subject typically, inverse square law and all that.) Pre-Flashing a film works on similar principles to get the film over its minimum exposure to produce an image level. Normally you would expose the film to a flat plain surface for an exposure of "-4 stops" to lift the deepest shadows. ALTHOUGH THERE ARE NO RULES IN PHOTOGRAPHY, IN MY BOOK, JUST IDEAS.