Comments on: Why I do not use flash meter.. Do you?

By: thomas

thomas — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 09:12:16 +0000

I own a flash meter but I’m not really a professional photographer and only takes photo on occasions or when attending friends’ weddings. I just use the flash meter for objects or decorations where I want to adjust the lighting. :)

By: Sheridan Berry

Sheridan Berry — Mon, 23 May 2011 16:43:16 +0000

Hi! I think there’s one sole reason why you should use a flashmeter and that is because your camera’s own built-in lightmeter cannot be used to meter studio flash exposures. Reality check, you really need a separate flashmeter in order for you to measure the exposure.

By: Alex Koloskov

Alex Koloskov — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:24:33 +0000

Alan,
Thank you. Love your work: you’ve got an amazing portfolio (both of them :-)
Regarding light meter: a year after my original article I still can say this: it is useless for the food, products, etc: anything small enough. However, it might be quite handy in people photography, especially if you do not have much time and assistant to test the lighting setup. With the meter initial setup can be done faster.

By: orange county food photographer

orange county food photographer — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:23:32 +0000

Right on! I did the same exact thing. After being self-taught for so many years and knowing how to make the appropriate adjustments after viewing the image on my computer screen, I found my light meter useless. That is what I love about digital and being a Canon 1Ds Mrk 2 owner, I feel empowered to keep doing things MY way. The bottle line is how the shot comes out right? Like your trash can idea. Brilliant! I prefer life outside the box- especially when I’m shooting food photography. Great post mate:)

By: Alex Koloskov

Alex Koloskov — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:37:41 +0000

Carl,
Now, about a year after this article I think that flash-meter can help a lot when you shoot people, especially outside with combined lighting: it helps to set the lighting before the model came into stage. I can’t imagine playing with the ratios when celebrity sitting in front of you: meaning you should have it all ready, and flashmeter will help you a lot.
I do not shot people, and have no problem doing few test shots with product sitting in front of me in a studio:-) Also, I can’t imagine flashmeter use for a small product photography: there are too many light sources pointed at such small place that you can’t use your flash-meter there. You really do not need it if you shoot tethered as well.

By: Carl Chick

Carl Chick — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:24:43 +0000

Great discussion. I am relatively new to studio lighting. This has gone a long way in furthering my education. I use the Sekonic 358 often to meter natural ambient light, but looking to use it in-studio. This has given me alot of possibilities to think over.

Carl

By: Alex Koloskov

Alex Koloskov — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 02:41:19 +0000

Thank you, Alexis. I wish you the best luck for the business:-)
I think it will be easy to understand the light without a flash meter.. you may need it later, when will be needed to do repeatable setups..
I still do not use it, probably never will.
Alex

By: Alexis J

Alexis J — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:43:03 +0000

Well thanks for this blog it is very interesting and relevant to me. I am interested in photography but need to take clothing pictures for my website and have decided to invest on a home studio lighting kit. I am unsure as to whether I will need a flash meter as I will use friends and family for the shots… May be I can start without it and see how I get on! Thanks for sharing!

By: yuyu

yuyu — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:28:40 +0000

I suppose it all depends on what you shoot. Obviously a “dead” object doesn’t mind spending more time while you adjust your lighting, but when you have an (expensive) model for a fashion shoot or a time pressured executive you set up your basic lighting before that person arrives or while the model changes clothes or has her or his hair/make up adjusted and you want it to be as close as possible to perfect.
I cannot imagine working without a meter

By: admin

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:28:32 +0000

Mark,
I agree with you, with or without flash meter you need to feel comfortable and get job done well. I mostly shoot in a studio, so it was easier for me not to use it.
And regarding mac.. This is personal, but I do not really know Linux (latest Mac OS based on unix) that well, so it is hard for me to dig in it when I need tune up my system like I do on windows. Was on Windows for such a long time, and I am really experienced user I will say.
But the most I dislike about Mac is it’s price. You pay 30-50% more for what? For the logo? Now It has exactly the same hardware as any PC, but it cost a more.. Why? Apple laptops, for example… The flagman cost around $3K. I can get more professional (for photography) laptop, like Lenovo W700 series, for example. Better LCD matrix, faster CPU, built-in dual display (!), and cost around $2 K max.
I agree to pay for the performance, but not for the logo or nice look. This is a business, not a personal toy:-)

By: Javier G

Javier G — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:43:11 +0000

I know what you mean about shooting tethered, I wanted to do this and bought a laptop to do this but sadly my model is too old to be recognized by windows 7 and canon isn’t updating the drivers for it. So I have to take the photo connect the camera in a different mode, download, check the photo and redo again.

By: MTBTrials

MTBTrials — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:30:40 +0000

Great point and counterpoint.

I have a meter. I like it enough to pack with me on every “job”(wedding) and I use it frequently when on my personal projects.

I agree that anyone can work without a meter, but when shooting families (kids are the worst) I like to set my lights, get my aperture, get my ambient and shoot.

Perhaps one could look at a flash meter like a tripod. Some photographers use it when it’s not needed (think soccer moms with their point and shoots), some never use it, and others have one just in case they need it, and others use it for all of their work.

And what is wrong with Macs? I just replaced my PC with a Mac after the hard drive failed on me twice in one year. It wasn’t the eureeka moment everyone chalks it up to being, but I do like the operating system for it’s face value.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:03:26 +0000

Javier, Thank you, you've made really good points. I would agree, that flash meter will help to replicate the result for each photo session. However, I found that I adjust lights during the same product line shoot, because of darker and brighter products (like pens I did recently) requires light power to be changed to look good every time. I still relay on the end look of the product. Not sure if flash meter will help me in such situation. And again, I always have each image reviewed on a laptop screen, never relay on a camera preview screen. I always (well, 99% of time) shoot products remotely with camera connected to a PC. (yes, I do not like Mac, and would never use it. There are more professional and photographer oriented laptops and monitor on the market, most of them cost less then Mac:-)

By: Javier G

Javier G — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:23:50 +0000

The light meter topic always becomes controversial. Because in the end it depends on the taste of the photographer, and the necessities he/she needs to fulfill.
I started without working with a meter I chimped (looked at the camera’s LCD) and I still do. But if you want to get the right light ratios time and time again you need a meter. Also your line “if it does not take into consideration surface which will be reflecting the light? A bright one could be overexposed, dark may be underexposed, both with the same light output from the light source.” Is not completely accurate. The light meter will give you a correctly exposed shot if you’re photographing dark chocolate on a black background or white chocolate on a white one without over or under exposing. You do have to take into account the placement of the meter. Because you can have different readings depending on where you place it. The meter isn’t the “know it all” of tools, its just a meter, like the one on your camera its not “smart” so it’s dependent on the user, if there is user error the meter will not compensate for that.

Now talking about light ratios. For example let’s say you have to take 3 photos of a line of products but 2 of them you have to take them in the client’s place and only one of them is delivered to your studio. Let’s also say you’re doing a 3 light setup that has to be the same on all the products (key light, accent, and fill). You start in your studio and you do everything by eye. Then you go to your clients place and do the same, you either have to do it by the results you see when shooting tethered, or you record the different distances and use that to see if it looks the same. With a light meter you take a reading of each of the lights of the original setup and then on the clients place you only put the lights on the same position take a reading of each and then adjust the power settings so it has the same readings as your original one had, no need to chimp all that much nor do you need to position your lights to a certain distance.

There are also times that one chimps too much if you don’t have a meter, I’ve done it myself when I didn’t have a meter, I positioned my key light took a picture and then adjusted the settings until I saw that it was exposed to my liking, then I turned my second light and did the same until I had what I wanted. Now all I have to do is turn the light on take a reading of the key light and if I’m not looking for a particular Fstop I get then and there the fstop to correctly expose my subject. Then using the Sekonic 358 evaluative mode I can then take a reading of the other lights and adjust the light ratio to what I want, it won’t matter if I’m in the studio or If I’m on location.

As I said for me I do see the use of a light meter when I want to replicate light ratios, also I don’t usually shoot tethered so I can’t see the RAW histogram each time I take a photo. Since the histogram you see on the camera’s LCD isn’t from a RAW but from a JPEG tumbnail I can’t rely too much on that, so I rely on my meter. And I have found out that you need to experiment with it as well to get the results you want.