Is it time to dump manual flash?

[Ardy]

I am reading a few threads where good photographers are using TTL. Is the technology good enough to move away Manual flash and exposure?

To be honest I have tried TTL in a previous UW photographic life (Nikon) and found that manual was the only way to get decent images. Since then I have never tried TTL with my Olympus camera and my thinking was supported by many of you here.

What are the minus' of going to fill flash and TTL? Is there a better set up to use TTL?

 

[davehicks]

TTL does a good job on many Macro subjects. However I find it to be very negative for wide angle subjects. In practice you will get a full dump much of the time which just creates a lot of backscatter. It's pretty easy to control most strobes manually, and with just a few rule of thumb settings you can get great results in both Macro and Wide settings.

 

[Ardy]

Hi Dave - I do a lot of macro stuff and have never used TTL. Do you use it? and, accepting your strobe control statement - if you don't use TTL for macro why?
Just asking....

 

[davehicks]

Hi Dave - I do a lot of macro stuff and have never used TTL. Do you use it? and, accepting your strobe control statement - if you don't use TTL for macro why?
Just asking....

I don't have a housing that uses TTL anymore, so I'm all manual now. For many years I used Ikelite housings and strobes (still use the DS-161's) with TTL support. I would generally use TTL for macro, but quickly realized that it just does not deliver good results for WA. Ikelite makes it very easy to control Manual strobe power, or fine tune TTL so I used manual for WA all the time. When I switched to a Nauticam housing I lost the TTL support but found I didn't miss it much. I usually just set my strobes to 50% power and adjust as needed. It was great to have TTL as an option when I was learning, but the best lesson was not to depend on it in all situations.

 

[jd950]

I would not dump manual flash..there are certainly times and situations where it is preferable. However, I have been using Olympus micro four thirds cameras with Inon strobes for several years and generally find ttl to work very well. In reference to a comment on the other thread where you raise this issue, for me there are more situations in which I would lose a shot while fiddling with manual strobe settings than there are situations where the minute delay due to ttl causes me to lose a shot. I often hear people say that for macro ttl is fine but for wide angle manual is preferred. I generally agree with that, but think ttl can do fine with wide shots as well.

I would not really want to have equipment that limits me to only manual or only ttl. I like having both, but think ttl has come a long way over the years and usually works well if used properly and sometimes can let one "focus" more on composition, strobe placement, etc.

 

[davehicks]

I'll add one more comment about the TTL on WA issue. I do a lot of diving in the PNW where there is almost always a lot of particulate in the water and vis of 10-30 feet is common. In those conditions to get good WA results you need to be very conscious of strobe position, angle, and power levels. TTL does not provide the level of control needed and is generally going to overcompensate for the low light levels. As I said before, I think TTL is great for learning and some situations. Ultimately it's not hard to live without and going manual will be one more step towards taking the sort of photos you are planning.

 

[Ardy]

I would not dump manual flash..there are certainly times and situations where it is preferable. However, I have been using Olympus micro four thirds cameras with Inon strobes for several years and generally find ttl to work very well. In reference to a comment on the other thread where you raise this issue, for me there are more situations in which I would lose a shot while fiddling with manual strobe settings than there are situations where the minute delay due to ttl causes me to lose a shot. I often hear people say that for macro ttl is fine but for wide angle manual is preferred. I generally agree with that, but think ttl can do fine with wide shots as well.

I would not really want to have equipment that limits me to only manual or only ttl. I like having both, but think ttl has come a long way over the years and usually works well if used properly and sometimes can let one "focus" more on composition, strobe placement, etc.

jd950: My general thrust in this question is, is the technology good enough for us to focus on the image we want and let the technology do it's thing or do we need to stay with manual adjustments and live with it?
Like you, I find I lose more shots fiddling with the camera/flash adjustments, particularly when I look up from macro and something interesting is happening and I can't adjust in time to get the shot.
As an old photographer who grew up on manual, I am not wedded to the manual way of life and there are enough issues ie current, staying off the coral, sneaking up on things and deciding what is a pleasing shot to me! At my age I would like to make the process easier BUT I don't want boring shots either from a TTL looking for mid-grey. I can do plenty of boring on my own without technical assistance.

 

[Ardy]

DaveHicks, if you can take the photo's you want to at a speed that is fast enough with manual, then what reason is there to change? None, and I admire you for that. Having just turned 70 (Ha!) and my fitness can never be what it was, I am looking for ways to reduce the frustrations and just stop and smell the blood in the water!

 

[Luko]

Well, 5 years back I would have told you I would never switch to TTL and then I had to move from cable (Subal housing with NIkonos and Inon strobes) to optical triggering.(Nauticam with Inon strobes). I started to use optical sTTL it worked like a breeze for macro then on one of my friends' advice, I used it with wide angle, I would say that in 95% of all cases it does really fine.

Then you would certainly wonder why switching to sTTL when using manual it works ALL the time. My style of WA photo often involves sunballs, I am in heaven when I can shoot shallow water with plenty of light, in this case it is very hard to check whether your lighting power is accurate to counterbalance the ambiant light, most of all yo cannot see anything on a small LCD where the sun reflects. I have often had cases where I thought I was completely overexposed looking at the LCD underwater while in fact it was perfectly exposed using the sTTL. I would have had uneven lighting with manual control.

yet sometimes in other situations with fish schools you don't have enough time to tweak you lighting OK hence you just need to rely on your sTTL an dtake care of the light direction rather than the light power.

Hence I am now a firm believer into sTTL for both macro AND wide angle.

 

[Ardy]

Hi Luko, very encouraging and looking at your flicker page I was wondering, do you adjust strobe output in sTTL to give you low light effects or switch to manual?