Sekonic Lighting webinar series

Thanks for the heads up
Dave
 
An excellent video and I look forward to the next few being done. I had not realised that Seconic have several other videos already. Thanks for the notice
 
I tuned into watch the second one , missed the end as I had to go out sadly .
I'll have to watch it again once it's been uploaded . From what I did see it was and most of the questions raised in the live chat it was all pretty basic stuff .
 
Some of the questions were alarmingly basic, and repeated frequently. The problem is that the questions are a bit of a free for all and answers, when given, come from random people and end up interleaved with other discussions going on.

But all in all it was pretty basic, made far easier to understand if you already have experience of a flash meter and are quick with your f-stops, but possibly a little tough to follow if you are a total noob. For example, the number of times people asked how you get the flash % figure was frightening. If you have a Sekonic meter you know it is displayed by default. If you don't have a meter I don't think it was ever properly demonstrated during the video. Mind you, I may have missed something while trawling through the chat room.

The nub of it was - set a manual exposure that sets your background exposure as you would like and then add flash to your (shaded) subject to taste, probably not exceeding more than 50% flash when shooting with a bare Speedlite.

One thing that did puzzle me, and I asked about it at the end but received no reply, is that I'm sure he said he was metering towards the position of the flash and not back towards the camera. On several occasions it looked that way too. I don't understand why he was metering in that way or why he recommended it - unless I got the wrong end of the stick.
 
he did say that he was metering to the flash so not sure . I don't have a light meter but are really considering one now as I think it would save me a lot of time and get more keeps to shot ratio . He did say about the meter giving you the flash % after the question was raised a few times . Also how many times was it asked " Can I do this with my triggers as I don't have pw's ? " simple answer YES .
 
Hi Tim,

I am no way an expert on this but having the same meter, I believe that the metering towards the flash with the dome down, is the way to asses the light from that unit only. After metering the subject normally, dome up, you will then know what the flash itself will ADD to the scene. The background light metering, via the camera in this case, showed what the light was in the background and you can then assess what strength to set the flash at to add sufficient lighting to the subject without blowing out the background.

Anyone can please correct me if I have that wrong.
 
Last edited:
As I understand it, dome down would work for metering only from one light source, but since he was aiming to measure the ratio between flash and ambient on the subject he would surely need the dome up, since ambient would be coming from all directions and not only the direction of the flash. Mind you, I'm no expert either. ;) Either way, it was very unclear to me what his metering technique was. Indeed, at times it appeared he was quite cavalier with the aim of the meter. Of course, being a few degrees off is probably neither here nor there, especially with the dome out, but when you are trying to present techniques to "students" it would seem best practice to always do things properly.

I think I will re-watch the episode without the distraction of the chat room and see if I can make more sense of it. Thanks for your thoughts. :)
 
With the dome down, only the direct line of sight would be measured and the flash would overpower any ambient light. The dome needs to be up to measure the ambient light reaching the subject. Watching the video again will help you to see this.

The videos are quite good, although the sound is often out of sync, but perhaps the video operator/editor was unable to get sync for some reason. Although distracting, the overall message was to use a light meter, which I agree with.

I have the Sekonic L358, an excellent meter, but I don't have the pocket wizard insert. I use an additional trigger to the one on the camera when my lights are being fired. That way I can trigger the lights when using the meter without a problem, or having to use the Sekonic cord.
 
I have only watched the first video, I am a noob.

What i did not understand was the point of taking a reading from either side of her face, as he only metered his camera to the last reading which was from the front.

I am a noob so can someone explain why could he not just spot meter off her white shirt, black top or her face?

Is it the norm to use a light meter?

I liked the look of the colour passport checker look like a good bit of kit.
 
Hi Nick,

The point of using the meter was to get a correct exposure as the camera meter can be fooled by the overall area it sees, rather than the light from the face.

Metering from both sides shows the variation, which 'ideally' does not want to be more than 2 stops for portrature, unless you are trying for specific low lighting effects. This is why the reflector was used to bring up the lighting on the side opposite the window.

It would be a good idea for you to photograph an object, or person in similar settings, so that you can see how much the camera differs from the setting shown by the hand held meter if you have one. Possibly another way to do this without a meter is to take a reading as close as possible to the subject, filling the frame. Then step back to normal shooting position and take the reading again. You will find that there is a difference, but you can still take the two shots, one using the aperture value shown by the camera in normal shooting position and the second in manual mode, using the setting shown from the close up reading. I think you will find that the reading from the close up setting will be more pleasing because it will not be taking in the surrounding area of the subject.

I hope that is not too much information for you. Get out the camera and try it out.

The second video will expand on this using flash lighting.

Malcolm
 
Last edited:
alexam said:
Hi Nick,

The point of using the meter was to get a correct exposure as the camera meter can be fooled by the overall area it sees, rather than the light from the face.

Metering from both sides shows the variation, which 'ideally' does not want to be more than 2 stops for portrature, unless you are trying for specific low lighting effects. This is why the reflector was used to bring up the lighting on the side opposite the window.

It would be a good idea for you to photograph an object, or person in similar settings, so that you can see how much the camera differs from the setting shown by the hand held meter if you have one. Possibly another way to do this without a meter is to take a reading as close as possible to the subject, filling the frame. Then step back to normal shooting position and take the reading again. You will find that there is a difference, but you can still take the two shots, one using the aperture value shown by the camera in normal shooting position and the second in manual mode, using the setting shown from the close up reading. I think you will find that the reading from the close up setting will be more pleasing because it will not be taking in the surrounding area of the subject.

I hope that is not too much information for you. Get out the camera and try it out.

The second video will expand on this using flash lighting.

Malcolm
Click to expand...

Thanks Malcolm

I will give that a go and have a look at the results.

would spot metering not do the same as filling the frame though?
 
Try it all. Nothing better than actually working with the equipment yourself. Then it would be good to add to this thread with your findings.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top