Leah: The flash does have a manual full power mode, and so I can do
that without any trouble. I guess my next question is, Can you recomend
a decent, Inexpensive flash meter. I've never even seen one that I know
of, much less have one. I also have experienced what you have with the
shortening of the learning curve with digital, and thats the only reason
that Im trying this.
TIM
lea wrote:
Tim,
Beginner questions is what it's all about....
It assumes you are working in manual mode on the camera and with the
flash. You put your flash (IF it has the capability to do this, and it
may not) on manual mode at full power and fire it. Meanwhile, you are
standing where the subject will be standing. Using a flash meter, meter
the light output. If it reads f/11 you then set that as your f/stop on
your camera with a shutter speed of 1/60th or so (not to exceed the
synch speed of your camera).
Really, the best (and damn near only way) to get comfy with this is
simply by doing it. Set it up in your living room, garage, dining room,
wherever you can find space, and fire away. You'll learn quite a lot in
a very, very short period of time. Trust me, that's how I learned it and
now I have a full-fledged studio...prior to doing flash work digitally I
was scared to death of it and only did on-location and natural light
work. The beauty if digital is that you can shoot it and see it and make
corrrections on the fly. The learning curve is dramatically shortened
when you work digitally.
It may be that you'll do this shoot using auto on your flash and that
would be ok, too...just be sure to test it to make certain what you
think you're getting is what you're really getting.
Lea
