mattson wrote:Is there someway I can use the two in conjunction with each other, I mean there might be an instance where I'd like to use the fill flash and still meter a shot as well.
Pretty easy, really.
btw I use a 5d and 580ex speedlight.
That can be cured, you know?
There's couple of ways that this can be done.
I'm presuming here that you want to use the available light as your primary source, with the flash adding some fill for the shadows.
While a handheld flashmeter is useful, these days, with our ability to chimp and get a more than reasonable assessment of exposure in the field, the need for a meter becomes less of an issue. I did not use one at our indoor portraiture workshop last year, for instance. I started with what I thought might be a reasonable starting point, and within three exposures, we were there, and everyone else was then able to take a starting point from me.
Ok ... on to the specifics.
First of all, you need to decide what your baseline exposure will be. This is where you use your handheld or in camera meter to take a reading. If I'm using handheld, I'll take a couple of incident readings at the subject: I find that to be a far more accurate way of measurement.
On my meter that gives me an EV, which I can then translate to, for any given ISO,
a range of shutter speed and aperture combinations.
It's important to note that this is a range of values: there are choices I may make, and some of them may not be workable. My D200 has a maximum flash sync of 1/250: shooting with flash at greater speeds will be problematic, so I need to be aware of that limiting factor.
Also, bear in mind two other factors here - the quality of the light, and its value. If you're shooting in shade, you might need to consider wb issues, and you may also need to at least think about your backgrounds - if you're shooting under a tree, and the background is going to be in sunshine, it'll be blown. Is that what you want? There won't be much you can do about it (not actually true) so get over that part now.
Again, is the light very intense? Is it doppled? All points to bear in mind.
But at this point, you have a set of basic exposure settings that you can use. Let's say 1/60 @ f/8.
The next step is that we now need to bring the flash into the equation, and just letting the flash do its own thing is simply not going to cut it. We need to be in control
RTFM. Or at least acquire an understanding of how to set the flash into a more traditional A or M
mode. The goal is that you don't want to have full power - the flash is simply adding fill, after all - so you need to be able to turn it down.
Please, again, note my use of words there: you're adding fill - adding more light to the equation. If your exposure meter tells you that the available light is f/8, as we've selected, suddenly we're over that value again.
By how much? That's up to you, and that's where the fun begins.
Remembering that we want the available light to be the predominant light source, we therefpore need to back off the flash intensity somewhat. I'd suggest nothing greater than f/5.6 in A; play around with the power settings in M
mode on the flash.
Shoot, chimp, adjust flash intensity and/or aperture go adjust the balance between the flash and available light.
And you adjust your shutter speed too, up to your sync speed, in order to help bring in more, or less, ambient and/or background light.
HTH as a starting point for you.
g.
Gary Stark
Nikon, Canon, Bronica .... stuff
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