The first thing is to set your camera to manual! It doesn t matter how
clever your camera is, you can't use it on "auto" with studio
flash!
Set your shutter speed to the syncronisation setting for
electronic flash (see your instruction book). This will ensure that your
shutter is fully open when the flash fires. If in doubt set it to 1/60th
second as all cameras will sync at this speed. You can sync at any speed
slower than the recommended one, but if you go faster you will lose part
of your picture as the shutter blind will be in the way! When choosing
slower speeds it will get to the point where your shutter speed is so slow
that the ambient light will start to record -- and this technique is used
when mixing flash and daylight. For general studio work, to optimise
quality I would recommend you stick to 100 ISO. So now we only need to
find the correct aperture, and the flash meter will tell us this! |
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In this picture I have shown a typical flashmeter and its functions.
These will vary from make to make but most are similar in the way their
controls function. This meter also works with ambient light which is very
useful if you are combining flash and daylight. |
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There are basically two ways of
taking light meter readings with flash or continuous light (including
daylight).
1, Reflected Light Method. This is how the light
meter in your camera works. The meter, with the diffuser cover retracted
is pointed at the subject from the camera position. The meter simply reads
the light being reflected from your subject back to the camera.
2,
The Incident Light Method. This is a more accurate reading and is
normally used in a studio situation. In this case the meter is placed at
your subject s position pointing back towards the light (if using only
one), or towards camera if using multiple lights. The diffuser is used,
accepting light from 180o and gives a reading of the light falling onto
the subject. The power of the light is adjusted to give your preferred
shooting aperture, to which the camera is then set.
Flashmeter
Modes: Flashmeters generally have two flash modes. The first indicated
by just the flash symbol (a lightening bolt). In this mode the button to
take a reading is simply pressed on the meter and the flash fired
manually. The second mode is indicated with a small c next to the flash
symbol, meaning flash with cord . Plug the sync lead from the flash head
into the PC socket on the meter, when the reading button is pressed the
flash will fire.
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For this example let's assume that we are taking a portrait with one
light and we are using 100 ISO film. Hold the flashmeter in front of your
subject s face and point it at the light. Fire the flash and it will read
the light falling on your subject, giving you a recommended aperture. Set
this on your camera and fire away! It s as easy as that. Of course if you
require a different aperture, simply adjust the power output of your
flash. Should you find that you are getting inconsistent power readings
please check that you are not using a "Random Flash".
*Random Flash - very common amongst low cost flash units. Often
providing very erratic flash output and control. So please beware!
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As we have seen, taking a
meter reading from a single head is very simple. But what about when you
start using multiple heads? It is actually very straight forward. In this
example we are adding and balancing a hair light, and the same technique
would be used when adding a light on the background. |
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Suppose we are using two lights, a main and a second as a hair light.
The first step is to take a reading from the main light as explained
previously and set this as your aperture on your camera.
So if the
reading from the first position is, say f8, that is what you set on your
camera.
For a good hair light, take a reading from the second position and
adjust the power so that the reading is more than f8, about half an fstop
works for most people. Therefore the light reading from position two
should give you a reading of half way between f8 and f11. This will give a
highlight on the hair which will bring out the colour and texture and also
give better separation from the background. Tip:
If you run out of power adjustment on your flash, this can be moved closer
for more light or away for less, ----
--- Double the distance away = 2
f-stops less.
The same principal applies to background and back
lights.
- Easy isn't it?! |
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Wat
is het verschil? 
