Forgetting the simple stuff ...

[LBPhotog]

uugh! I hate it when I do this to myself ...

I was playing around with a lighting setup today and I had a friend who was posing for me (I let her borrow my lights to photograph her son so she posed for me).

I get everything set up, metered my AB800 at 1/4 power and set my SB-800 as my fill at 1/16 power (1:4 ratio right) and shot away ... stuff looked OK on the camera so I continued to shoot ... got home, loaded the images and there seems to be no fill at all .... then I realize what I did wrong ...

YES, 1/16 is 1:4 ratio if the OUT PUT of the sources IS THE SAME ... there is a HUGE difference between the out put of my AB800 at 1/4 power and my SB-800 at 1/16 power ... no wonder they are dark!

WHY don't I think of these things BEFORE the end of the shoot? Well, at least these weren't important .... ... lesson learned!

 

[Big Mike]

Even if you had two identical lights, you have to take into account both the power setting and the distance from the subject.

For example, you could create a 1:4 lighting ratio with two lights, set at identical power settings, just by moving one light back far enough.

Moral of the story; meter each light.

 

[JimmyO]

Moral of the story; meter each light.

This.

And just becuase a lighting scheme "should" work doesnt mean it will. Every situation is different.

 

[Phranquey]

Moral of the story; meter each light.

:thumbup:

Example: Keylight @ f/8, Fill @ f/5.6 or f/4, BG @ f/11, etc. If you just set your lights at 1/4 power and shoot, you don't know what you're really getting until you download. That 1/4 power could vary drastically, exposure-wise, depending on the distance from the subject.

 

[Derrel]

I'm not sure how it is that ,"stuff looked OK on the camera so I continued to shoot ... got home, loaded the images and there seems to be no fill at all"...

It doesn't quite make sense to me unless by "looked OK on the camera," means that you previewed an image for a couple of seconds and called it good and then just started shooting without truly evaluating the lighting ratio.

 

[Dominantly]

What did your histogram say?

 

[gsgary]

Thats the reason we use flash meters

 

[LBPhotog]

Yeah, I figured I'd take a beating in here, that's why I outed myself ... figured that if I flogged myself in here I might remember next time ... *lol* ... a little embarrassment goes a long way!

@ Darrell & Dom - is was a visual look at the image, "yeah, the exposure looks good let's keep going ... " never actually looked at the histogram.

:er: err, can I ask a question here ... I know how to read a histogram (left side shadows, right side highlights) is it as simple as looking for a nice 'bell curve" between the two, or is there more too it than that?

@ Gary - I DID use a flash meter, my main/key light looks great!


So, I just took a look at the images again; and, they aren't horrible, and the contrast in lighting actually lends itself to a nice B/W image than color ... I mean, it's not horrible.

How about a quick C&C on this ... from what I've read from you guys you all seem to know a lot about what you are doing ... not looking for a rookie review here ... I know she looks tense, she hates being in front of the camera; not looking for a critique of the model, just the lighting and the pose.
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