Lighting in a studio

donkeymusic

donkeymusic

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Hello,

Been watching a lot of video tutorials from Mark Cleghorn and have noticed he meters the key light at f8, but then moves the light around a lot during the shoot. but doesn't re-meter.

Need to test this myself to see what happens, but if the light is moved closer or further, should you need to re-meter?

Thanks for any advice offered.
 
donkeymusic said:
Need to test this myself to see what happens, but if the light is moved closer or further, should you need to re-meter?
Click to expand...

Yes. If you move the light closer or further the exposure will change. However if you move the light in an arc as if it were on an imaginary taut piece of string so the angle cof light to subject changed, but the distance didn't, the the exposure will be the same.

If he changed the distance but didn't mention altering exposure, then you are not getting the full story :shake:
 
isn't that the bloke that tells you to put a white background 2 stops higher than the subject to get a white background? ugh.


depends how much you move the light - a few cm won't make any difference, but if you in general try to get a constant distance between your subject and your light, you won't have to remeter. But for a whole new setup, yes, you should. If you want to get nerdy about it, it's called the inverse square law. Moving the light closer and further away should have more to do with the shape of the light than the power - start with your lights with some wiggle room either side so that you've got some wiggle room.
 
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itsdavedotnet said:
isn't that the bloke that tells you to put a white background 2 stops higher than the subject to get a white background? ugh.


depends how much you move the light - a few cm won't make any difference,
Click to expand...
Agreed, in most situations - but if the light is very close to the subject a few cm can make a massive difference - which is related to the inverse square law.
Forget the actual distance involved, think in terms of a % of distance. If the light is already travelling 4 metres, moving it 1/10th metre won't matter. If the light is at 4cm then moving it 1 cm closer will make re-metering essential.
 
As they say in the Apple adverts "some steps omitted and sequences shortened".....

Also to some extent it's going to depend what light he's moving. If it's a shadow fill then within certain parameters moving ti won't affect the overall exposure - just the whole look of the picture ;)
 
He has a light meter permanently on his belt and doesn't seem afraid to poke it in peoples faces every 2 seconds :) , saying that I've seen the videos and he generally moves the lights round on an arc to the subject so the distance isn't changed and if he does he tends to meter, chimp the first shot as a double check then shoots.
 
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