Exposure metering problem

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Cobbler72

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I am new to studio flash having invested in some Lencarta smartflash units at Christmas. I was reasonably happy with my first attempt but after taking advice on here I have invested in a flash meter, the Sekonic 308S.

Yesterday I spend ages taking pictures of my daughter but I think every picture is underexposed and I am at a loss to understand what went wrong.

All the jpgs look horrible and underexposed and when pressing 'auto' on the raw conversions, all the images have 1.5 to 2 stops exposure added to them to make them look presentable.

I metered my key light and adjusted it so I was F8. I metered my fill light and adjusted it until it was F5.6. I then metered again with both lights and usually this was F8. I then set my camera to F8 (or whatever it said) & 1/250 sec (its a Canon 60D). All the meterings were taken in front of her face.

I can not understand why the images are so enderexposed. I have checked that I set the flash meter to 1/250 sec and 100 ISO. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.
 
Did you have the white sphere on the Sekonic? Have you got the Sekonic reading in 1/3 stops
 
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Are you sure that the same ISO was set on both the meter and the camera?
Were you taking the reading from as close as practicable to the subject, with the meter dome pointing towards the camera?
 
Yes I am sure I was right on both those.

I have spent all evening trying to work it out and I am wondering if its my camera.

I have a just photographed the White side of my Lastolite with my built in flash from about 12-18 inches away on ISO 800. Surely the histogram should be all to the right?

It is all only about 2/3 of the way to the right. I then dialled +2 exposure compensation and it went to the right. I have checked and checked my camera settings and can find nothing wrong.

Does it look like my camera is underexposing by about 2 stops?
 
White dome on, facing camera from subject position.

Double check ISO and set 1/125sec shutter speed. Prolly won't make much difference but max x-sync speed is only reliable with speedlites.

That should get you close, but there are other (usually small) variables that the meter doesn't know about so if you want to be optimum set final exposure from checking the LCD/histogram/blinkies. That cannot be wrong, but shouldn't be more than one stop different to what the meter says.

Re you last post, no, the camera meter (reflected reading) will always try to put whatever tone around the middle of the histogram. It doesn't know the subject is white.
 
Cheers HoppyUk. I was being a bit thick there, that was the reason I bought the Lastolite balance in the first place to stop grey snow etc.

Its been a long evening....

I noticed yesterday that, on the occasional shot, I was getting the "edges" of a black band on the edge of the shot, like you do when you shoot faster than the sync speed. I thought it was because I was perhaps too close to the edge of the soft box? Maybe it was the 1/250 speed?

I still think I had everything else right. It was my first time with the meter and I was thinking everything through.

So far, all I have is to try again with 1/125 rather than 1/250. But not tonight - its doing my head in!

Am I right in thinking that if I DID have it right, pressing Auto in Photoshop Raw convertor, would have made no noticable difference to exposure and certainly not 1.5 to 2 stops?
 
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So you're positioning the meter correctly, with white dome over the sensor? Double-check everything - 1/125sec, ISO, meter set for flash (not daylight) etc.
 
I will do a test again later in the week but as far as I am aware I did everything you suggested.

One other thing. I had a lens hood on (I dont normally indoors but did yesterday but dont think that should matter?) and a UV 'protective' filter. Surely irrelevant?
 
Cobbler72 said:
I will do a test again later in the week but as far as I am aware I did everything you suggested.

One other thing. I had a lens hood on (I dont normally indoors but did yesterday but dont think that should matter?) and a UV 'protective' filter. Surely irrelevant?
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Definitely filter off and lens hood on (though that's not your problem here).
 
There is another thread just started where someone has the opposite problem with a 308s were everything is overexposed. One more thing to try is check there is no exposure comp dialed in on the camera.
 
apollo said:
There is another thread just started where someone has the opposite problem with a 308s were everything is overexposed. One more thing to try is check there is no exposure comp dialed in on the camera.
Click to expand...

Camera must be in manual, so exposure comp doesn't apply.
 
apollo said:
Ok im not familiar with Canon but it does on my Nikon D800 even in manual
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On some cameras, exposure comp will adjust the meter reading in manual, but it won't change the actual exposure settings - in manual they're locked, which is the whole point of manual.
 
Yes. In manual the meter is just giving you a suggestion for settings. The actual exposure is what you set regardless of the meter reading and any compensation it i expecting.


Steve.
 
HoppyUK said:
On some cameras, exposure comp will adjust the meter reading in manual, but it won't change the actual exposure settings - in manual they're locked, which is the whole point of manual.
Click to expand...

Off course your right, I was testing it with the built in flash which obviously adds the compensation which wouldn't happen when using the flash manually.
 
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