Sekonic L308S Light Meter

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hobgoblin

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Hi, I have been thinking about getting a light meter for setting up flash heads.
But i am having trouble working out if I can say decide to use 1/200 shutter and say f 5 aperture then adjust the power of the lights untill the meter gives that reading.
or will the meter keep adjusting the f numbers and shutter no matter what power output of the strobes are.
thanks in advance.
 
I'm not 100% with the 308, but the 358 you can set an ISO and shutter speed, trigger the flash and the power is displayed as an f-number. Simply adjust the flash output untill the desired f-number is reached.
 
Well that's a different way of doing it but it would work.

The normal way, is to set your lighting as you want, set the ISO on the meter, then take a meter reading and then set the aperture obtained on the camera in manual set your shutter speed to 1/125. If you want to increase or decrease the aperture you would have to adjust the power of the lights to suit.
 
EdBray said:
Well that's a different way of doing it but it would work.

The normal way, is to set your lighting as you want, set the ISO on the meter, then take a meter reading and then set the aperture obtained on the camera in manual set your shutter speed to 1/125. If you want to increase or decrease the aperture you would have to adjust the power of the lights to suit.
Click to expand...

Say when setting up a background, key and fill lights, how do you know what power to set each light to to give a balance as per your plan?

I meter each light individualy, altering the power for the particular function of the light ( normaly with the key light being f8 at ISO 200 and 1/200sec). If theres an easier way, I'm all ears... well, eyes actualy :)
 
The shutter speed makes no difference when using electronic flash. You just need to ensure that it goes no higher than the max x-sync speed for your camera, which is 1/250sec with a D300. You can set it to 1/125sec or 20 seconds but it makes no difference to the flash exposure. Check out how focal plane shutters work and you'll see why this is. The reason why you want to set it as high as you can is to minimise the effect of ambient light on the exposure but this isn't usually a problem unless the room has daylight flooding in, in which case it could wash out the flash, or at least dilute it.

Having said that, some radio triggers introduce a small delay and you need to set a slightly longer shutter speed to make sure you capture the flash, so maybe 1/200sec or 1/160sec to be safe. If you don't see a dark band at the bottom of the picture, the x-sync is fine.

To get the exposure you want, you can adjust either the power of the flash, or the ISO, or the f/number. Most people set the lowest ISO to ensure maximum image quality, then select the f/number of choice, then adjust the power output of the lights to suit.
 
I set the camera to give the correct exposure for my main light with the aperture I require to give the DOF I want, I meter each light individually, and set their power to give the ratios I require for fill, background, hairlight etc.
 
THe 308 and 358 work in a very similar way - the 358 has a few more features but will do what you is being desribed here.

You can change the power of the lights - or if you can't get the desired aperture move the lights forward/backward. The usual way as noted above though is to set the lighting and just set the ISO and the meter will give the required settings.
 
Thanks for the comments and advice,it looks like the meter will do what i want it to.
i want control over dof rather than the meter telling me to stick to F8 and an advised shutter speed.
 
hobgoblin said:
Thanks for the comments and advice,it looks like the meter will do what i want it to.
i want control over dof rather than the meter telling me to stick to F8 and an advised shutter speed.
Click to expand...

The light meter only tells you what the correct exposure is for the amount of light hitting your subject - you can't just change your aperture because you will then under/over expose the subject. An example

ISO100 set in camera
1/125th Shutter speed (just fast enough to block out all the ambient light)

You set the studio lights how you want them and turn the power on. Take a meter reading. It will probably say f8 because the other two exposure variables are fixed.

Now lets say you don't want f8 and want f5.6. You would need to turn the power down on the lights. you can't just change the aperture as this will lead here to a one stop under exposure. if you are at minium power on your flash and still not getting the f-stop you need, you have two options.

1. Use a filter on the strobe to block the light output or

2. You can move the light further away. Moving the light further away though may mean you get a much harder quality of light.

Remember shutter speed won't matter and you generally want the lowest ISO your camera can use.

Remember also that if your fstop is still to narrow, remove your flash trigger and just use the modeling light alone. You then get a wysiwyg view of the scene.
 
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