 Krystle Hill |
What is the prupose of a light meter? Disclaimer: I am very new to the whole studio lighting, and light meter thing. So please be nice... this is probably very stupid to most of you, but I seriously have no clue. Okay soooo my amazing hubby bought me an alien bee light for my b-day yay! In using it my pics were either over exposed or under exposed depending on my power setting. Or maybe it has nothing to do with exposure, maybe my subject is more chalky? and the colors are too birhgt? or the opposite? So having heard before how you need a light meter to shoot good pics I decided to cave and bought a sekonic L-308S because it got good reviews etc. So my question is... what was the point of getting one? I hook it up with my sync cord and with the shutter at 125 (what it was set on when I turned it on) and everytime I get a reading of f8, but it's not helping my pics. Am I just totally missing something? If it doesn't help me get my lighting right what is the point? Okay thanks for listening to me lol. Also sorry to those who have been kind in helping me thus far. Sorry I have been out of contact... we have all been sick blah, just now getting better.
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Michael H. Cothran |
A flash meter is absolutely necessary when using a strobelight such as your Alien Bee. And your Sekonic L-308S is one of the best on the market. So...Being as "nice" as I can, my first thought is that this finely made meter is simply above your "learnings" at this point in your photography. But that doesn't mean that you can't learn - it just means that you haven't enough photographic knowledge yet to comprehend. There are many inexpensive books available on studio lighting, and how to meter with a flashmeter. Visit some online bookstores, or better, visit a large, local bookstore in your area. Read as much as you can find, and practice & experiment along the way. I'd recommend using 1/60 rather than 1/125 sec shutter speed, but that's not the problem here. Are you sure the meter is set to "flash", and you are firing the flash from the thumb button on your meter in order to take a reading? Are you aiming the white dome of the meter directly towards the Alien Bee, from the subject's position? And finally...are you sure your camera is set to "Manual?" YOU MUST set your camera to manual (M), and then set the f-stop to whatever the flashmeter indicates (f8 or whatever), AND set the shutter speed yourself to 1/60. Try the above, and report back. Michael H. Cothran
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
The light meter isn't above your learning if you read the manual to find out how it works. After that, hook it up to one light and you'll familiarise yourself with most of the basics. Read about firing the flash with the light meter, and getting a reading by not connecting the meter to the flash. Then play around with getting readings at different distances with the same power setting.
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robert G. Fately |
Krystle, to answer your question, the point of getting a light meter (particularly for use with studio flash) is to get accurate readings to properly expose your subjects. But of course, you knew that. So first is the issue of where to position the meter when you take a reading. There are two possibilities - either you stand next to the camera and aim the meter (in reflected light mode) at your subject, or you stand in the subject's position with the meter ir incident light mode and aim the meter towards the camera (not towards the flash). The latter method will lead to more accurate readings, as it involves measuring the light hitting the subject. A reflected reading can change depending on the color of the subject - if your model is wearing white more ligh reflects back than if she's wearing black. Either way, a light meter (any reflected light meter) is set to assume that the subject is a middle grey in tone, so it will give you readings that will underexpose the white (to make it gray) or overexpose the black (to make it gray, too). As Michael mentioned, you should set your camera to Manual because it's metering system will not be able to control the flash unit. That is, the auto-flashes you might have seen that connect to the camera hot shoe communicate with the meter in the camera, which tell the flash unit when to stop emitting light. Since the flash may thus fire from 1/1000th of a second to 1/30,000th of a second you cannot tell the difference with your eyes, but it happens. So the studio flash unit just puts out X amount of light. You take the reading with the meter, which will be able to tell you what aperture to use based on the light it measured (shutter speed isn't an issue; with most focal plane shutter cameras you can just use the top flash synch speed - sound like it's 1/125th second in your case). I hope that makes some sense - and as Michael said - go practice bunch.
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Krystle Hill |
Now on to your comments: Micheal I wholeheartedly agree my learnings are not on par with it. Yes it was set to flash (cord flash), yes I'm firing the flash with the meter, yes I'm putting the meter where the subject is and pointing it at the flash. I do shoot in manual (thanks to help from people here), and yes I manually set the camera to the readings the meter gave me. Gregory I thank you for believing I have the intelligence to read the manual :) I fired it with the test button on the light and through the sync cord and got the same reading, I have not yet experimented with moving the light yet though. Bob yes that is what I thought a meter was to do, but after having issues with my pics I thought I had maybe misunderstood it's purpose. I read by placing it where the subject would be pointed at the flash not the camera, is that part of my problem? And yes I shoot in manual. So a few more questions... if done correctly should a light meter tell me how to set the camera to get the right exposure no matter how the lights are set? I mean as long as it gives me the values and not Eo or Eu, should the pics always turn out right as far as exposure goes? Or do I still have to learn how far or close to set the lights so I don't wash out my subjects? Does that make sense. Oh and of course what am I doing wrong that my readings are not coming out right? Thanks so much I really appreciate the help. It's hard for me to find time to do alot of reading, so BP is where I try to find some of my answers :D and everyone here is so great with helping.
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