Manual Flash Metering

grim8634

grim8634

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Graeme
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Hi All,

This is a bit of a lame question sorry! I've been using manual metering for a lot of my shots for some time now. However I can't seem to get the hand of metering when using manual flash, how much power is required in the flash as well as the ideal aperture/shutter on the camera.

Does anyone know of any good books or online resources I can use to get me going?

Thanks a lot!
 
internal flash requires shutter speed: 200 i guess
 
I'm not using internal. Sorry should have pointed that out. Using a speedlite 430ex. Primarily off camera.

Will check the link out though. Thanks d_pipa.
 
Are you using a flash meter?

Assuming you're taking indoor shots, you can drag the shutter to 1/(focal length) or whatever speed you feel comfortable handholding and let the ambient light contribute, metering the background so it's 2 or 3 stops underexposed. You should try an orange filter on the flash, if the room is lit with "warm" fluorescents (get the gel samples from Lee Filters). Something conservative like f/5.6 or 8 is what the flash would expect.

My camera/flash combo needs +1 stop compensation for most bounced flash, using the camera's metering, but none when the flash is using its own sensor, in the old Auto setting.

The cam/flash combo may over quench the flash if there's anything highly reflective in the scene.

Bear in mind the metering limitations of the cam/flash -- you can't expect good results with wide apertures at close range. You'll have better control metering manually and can use an ND filter on the flash to further cut its output, if necessary.
 
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