If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Newby back...need help for next step
Hi all
Ok...I have an alien bee on order...but have my flash meter now. As mentioned...its a cheapie, but shooting digital I just didn't see the need for a good one that I don't expect to use that much. Its a learning tool. I have come to expect little by way of documentation now-a-days but what came with this meter was pathetic. It merely shows what the buttons do. So...If I use 2 or 3 monos do I meter them one at a time? Crap...I don't even know enough to know which questions to ask. How do I get started? -- Thanks, Gene Palmiter (visit my photo gallery at http://palmiter.dotphoto.com) freebridge design group www.route611.com & Route 611 Magazine |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 07:37:56 GMT, "Gene Palmiter"
wrote: So...If I use 2 or 3 monos do I meter them one at a time? Crap...I don't even know enough to know which questions to ask. How do I get started? I don't know what type of meter you have but if it has a hemishperical dome you should meter one light at a time. If it has flat disk or a dome that retracts into the meter you can meter each light while the others are on, by aiming the meter at the light source. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Gene Palmiter wrote:
Hi all Ok...I have an alien bee on order...but have my flash meter now. As mentioned...its a cheapie, but shooting digital I just didn't see the need for a good one that I don't expect to use that much. Its a learning tool. I have come to expect little by way of documentation now-a-days but what came with this meter was pathetic. It merely shows what the buttons do. So...If I use 2 or 3 monos do I meter them one at a time? Crap...I don't even know enough to know which questions to ask. How do I get started? You can check individual output of each light to establish a desired lighting ratio but your final reading should be with all lights... A. from subject toward camera (if reading incident light) B. of subject (if reading reflected light) In the case of incident (which I preferred) you can vary the reading depending on goal or effect desired. For example, toward camera will give you an average; pointing toward main light will give you an exposure favoring the highlights (more low key effect); toward the fill will favor the shadows (more high key effect). -- dadiOH ____________________________ dadiOH's dandies v3.05... ....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Gene Palmiter wrote:
Hi all Ok...I have an alien bee on order...but have my flash meter now. As mentioned...its a cheapie, but shooting digital I just didn't see the need for a good one that I don't expect to use that much. Its a learning tool. I have come to expect little by way of documentation now-a-days but what came with this meter was pathetic. It merely shows what the buttons do. So...If I use 2 or 3 monos do I meter them one at a time? Crap...I don't even know enough to know which questions to ask. How do I get started? You can check individual output of each light to establish a desired lighting ratio but your final reading should be with all lights... A. from subject toward camera (if reading incident light) B. of subject (if reading reflected light) In the case of incident (which I preferred) you can vary the reading depending on goal or effect desired. For example, toward camera will give you an average; pointing toward main light will give you an exposure favoring the highlights (more low key effect); toward the fill will favor the shadows (more high key effect). -- dadiOH ____________________________ dadiOH's dandies v3.05... ....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
The meter is from that famous high-tech company ...interfit. Got it from
B&H. It does have a dome...and from metering one at a time I can come to some sense of the ratio.,..ok...that's a place to start. An I point the meter at the camera. Makes sense. Thanks "McLeod" wrote in message ... On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 07:37:56 GMT, "Gene Palmiter" wrote: So...If I use 2 or 3 monos do I meter them one at a time? Crap...I don't even know enough to know which questions to ask. How do I get started? I don't know what type of meter you have but if it has a hemishperical dome you should meter one light at a time. If it has flat disk or a dome that retracts into the meter you can meter each light while the others are on, by aiming the meter at the light source. |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
"Gene Palmiter" writes:
Hi all Ok...I have an alien bee on order...but have my flash meter now. As mentioned...its a cheapie, but shooting digital I just didn't see the need for a good one that I don't expect to use that much. Its a learning tool. I have come to expect little by way of documentation now-a-days but what came with this meter was pathetic. It merely shows what the buttons do. So...If I use 2 or 3 monos do I meter them one at a time? Crap...I don't even know enough to know which questions to ask. How do I get started? The most common way to meter flash is to take an incident reading firing all the heads at once. I imagine your units have built-in slave sensors that are active whenever a wired trigger isn't connected to them, so that's the easiest way to read the light; the flashes all *want* to go off at once anyway. -- David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/ RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/ Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/ Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/ |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
do.
So...If I use 2 or 3 monos do I meter them one at a time? Crap...I don't even know enough to know which questions to ask. How do I get started? The most common way to meter flash is to take an incident reading firing all the heads at once. I imagine your units have built-in slave sensors that are active whenever a wired trigger isn't connected to them, so that's the easiest way to read the light; the flashes all *want* to go off at once anyway. Right ...all have work as slaves. I plug one into the camera. I cannot see doing all this with a model present....just seems it might take awhile. OK....if I meter with them all going....then how does that show the relationship between them? |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
In article , David Dyer-Bennet
wrote: Say what? Not the main? If taken at face value this seems to me be guaranteed to produce exposure more than a stop off. Exposure is based on the fill light. That's the foundation you start from, then add the main to achieve whatever lighting ratio you're after...and then add whatever accent lights are desired. Now, I should probably qualify this. With film, you did densitometer tests to determine where the shadows should fall on the curve. With digital, it would be different. I haven't used my studio stobes with digital yet so I can't say. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
In article Nixld.978$063.56@trndny03, Gene Palmiter
wrote: This is the first time something here didn't sound right. The fill is usually less than the main? Oh...maybe you mean its determined by the fill....and adjusted from there. No...that can't be right...maybe you mean....if the main is the light by the camera then it fills the face...the fill then lights up the shadows....not....it must be brighter than the main....and casts the shadows? So by metering off the fill you are metering off the brightest light....is that how you mean it? In a basic two-light setup, you have one light (generally large and soft) that is the fill light - or the shadows if you will. The main light is what provides direction. For a basic 3:1 ratio, the main should be one stop brighter than the fill and both are on the same side of the camera. Short lighting is preferable for most people - where the side of the face to the camera is in shadow. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
In article Nixld.978$063.56@trndny03, Gene Palmiter
wrote: This is the first time something here didn't sound right. The fill is usually less than the main? Oh...maybe you mean its determined by the fill....and adjusted from there. No...that can't be right...maybe you mean....if the main is the light by the camera then it fills the face...the fill then lights up the shadows....not....it must be brighter than the main....and casts the shadows? So by metering off the fill you are metering off the brightest light....is that how you mean it? In a basic two-light setup, you have one light (generally large and soft) that is the fill light - or the shadows if you will. The main light is what provides direction. For a basic 3:1 ratio, the main should be one stop brighter than the fill and both are on the same side of the camera. Short lighting is preferable for most people - where the side of the face to the camera is in shadow. |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
help, new problem: can;t get the ground glass back on the camera. | [email protected] | Large Format Photography Equipment | 5 | September 23rd 04 07:15 PM |
Linhof Technica back movements | Mark Baylin | Large Format Photography Equipment | 32 | August 19th 04 03:09 PM |
Linhof Technica back movements | jjs | Large Format Photography Equipment | 25 | August 19th 04 04:34 AM |
Camera's built-in spotmeter as densitometer? | Phil Glaser | In The Darkroom | 22 | March 18th 04 12:41 AM |
Film holders for Graflok back for Nikon Multiphot | Edwin Barkdoll | Large Format Photography Equipment | 0 | March 9th 04 02:07 AM |