Need some advice please.

Evertking

How do I turn this thing on?
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Today I was at a sunflower feild and there was no shade at all! About 5pm so it was very very bright but still somewhat back lit situation. I got the wife and kids out, grabbed my ad600 and stand and position my family with their backs to the sun and was using the ad00 for fill. Now, I would have taken a ambient meter reading with my sekonic 308 and got the fstop I was looking to get and then measured the flash till I got the desired fstop again and shoot away, right?
Well, I didn't have the meter today and set my camera to spot meter and then eye ball the fill.. but the meter in my camera would jump so much it was hard to control the exposure. I mean it would jump all around. Am I doing this wrong, if I use the camera meter, should I use something other than spot meter? Thanks.
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Hi,
those images turned out nice. You´d have to use the spot metering on the face and then use AE-Lock to make sure it doesn´t change when you recompose your shot. Or even better remember the settings, and dial them in in manual mode.
However, in situations like these, if you don´t have no light meter, you might just as well eyeball the whole scene. I bet if you spot metered the face, the whole scene might have become overexposed. In fact, it is all a question of personal preference.
Whatever you do, make sure that your aperture doesn´t change (A-mode) - and also that your shutter speed doesn´t get higher than the max sync speed of your flash.
Just an idea: if you want to emphasize the golden hour look, you could use an orange gel filter for the flash.
 
Thanks for the help. I usually just use a handheld meter and get the apreture I want( let's say F2.0) then put the numbers in the camera and I usually will speed up the shutter a stop or so to darken the background. Then I meter the flash till I match the apreture mentioned.
This is all done in manual mode.
This is how much of a newbie that, I'm embarrassed to say it. Lol... Oh I had a laugh at this.. anyway.. I forgot about the AE Lock.. I would spot meter.. let's say over my wife's shoulder in the tree line and the meter would jump around like crazy.. I would constantly fight it and try and dial down the flash. So, I can spot meter the background, and underexpose it a stop and lock it in? :/
I'm confused here. I would expose for the background where I wanted it at about a stop or 2 under using the shutter speed. Ok then I would move the focus point to the eye. While doing this I can see the meter in the view finder jumping around. I think I'm making this much harder than it is and that I'm just seeing the meter move around but it's not changing anything. Now I have confused myself.. I hope some of this makes sense. I'm tired.
 
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The spot meter measures the brightness of a small circle (usually in the center of your frame) and adjusts the exposure accordingly.
If you switch to manual, what you might see jumping around is the exposure indicator in your viewfinder or display, but sice you are in manual mode that won't change your exposure settings. It might change ISO if you have set that to Auto.
I'll get back to you later with more details - have to run now ;)
 
I think the 1st and 3rd shot are right on with the 2nd needing a little bit more exposure on the model. All nice.

I'm not familiar with your camera model but can tell you how I'd do this with my Nikon. I usually am in "P" mode and spot meter. The spot will move around or I can point the spot at the place I want to meter, press the shutter release half way and the camera set exposure - then frame the shot and press the release the rest of the way. If on tripod the spot can be moved with the control on the back of the camera.
 
Am I right in my approach on getting the background exposure without the handheld meter? --set to spot meter, measured the scene behind my wife and then I will adjust that till the exposure meter reads correct?
I think what I'm seeing is, after I set the background exposure. Is the exposure meter jumping around as I compose my shot for my wife. What I was trying to do was, underexpose the scene by a stop and the use my strobe to bring her up to the correct exposure.
The camera I was using is a 6D.
Thanks for all the help. I know this will not be the last time I forget my meter and want to have this figured out instead of messing with the camera and missing opportunities.
 
Look up the Sunny f/16 rule. It's a great reference for working with natural light without a meter.

The rest of your procedure sounds fine, except that the reframing was also deceiving the spot meter since you were essentially sweeping it across the scene.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 
To me, your approach doesn´t help much. The spot meter will meter that single spot you point it at. You are writing about the background - let´s assume that is a forest and you are standing on a clearing. Spot metering that forest could mean doing it on the dark brown trunk of a tree in the shadow, or on fresh green foliage being lit by the sun. Both of these examples would give you very different results. All that within a very small distance. So whether or not you get a good result when spot metering the background for your shot depends a lot on the background. If it is uniform, it will work, if not it depends on which part you point the spot at.
Spot metering is usually used to expose a certain part in your image correctly.
  • That might be a person in the evening in backlight with the result that the background will probably be totally white. But if you wouldn´t use spot metering in this situation, your person would just be a silhouette.
  • The opposite example would be a light bulb in an otherwise dark room. If you use spot metering on the light bulb, it will be well exposed, but the background probably pitch black. If you wouldn´t use spot metering, you´d end up with a totally overexposed bulb, and a probably slightly underexposed, but still identifiable room in the background.
Does that help?

Am I right in my approach on getting the background exposure without the handheld meter? --set to spot meter, measured the scene behind my wife and then I will adjust that till the exposure meter reads correct?
I think what I'm seeing is, after I set the background exposure. Is the exposure meter jumping around as I compose my shot for my wife. What I was trying to do was, underexpose the scene by a stop and the use my strobe to bring her up to the correct exposure.
The camera I was using is a 6D.
Thanks for all the help. I know this will not be the last time I forget my meter and want to have this figured out instead of messing with the camera and missing opportunities.
 
Yes, and it does help and thank you. I think tomorrow I will try again and just use the spot meter and meter on her face in a back lit situation, and then just add the fill flash till it looks good.
I like OCF and the way the images look compared to natural light, so I started reading up on it and I have always seen "get you background exposure first" so... I took it as meter the background.
If you were to OCF in a backlight situation, how would you go about it?
Again, thank you for your help. I really appreciate it.
 
I do like that look too, and you´ve done pretty well so far! So don´t let all this technical stuff confuse you.
Exposing for the background first doesn´t necessarily mean you have to use spot metering. When I´m in a backlit situation, I´d usually eyeball it - take a test shot, and adjust accordingly. Since you are underexposing the background anyway and adding that OCF, it doesn´t make all that much of a difference if you are spot on or 1/3 - 2/3 stops off. I´m sure many people will hate me for that statement :D.
For the images you provided there is no right or wrong, since you are not going to create an image that will reproduce reality. It is some kind of artistic approach that has to finally please your eyes and the ones you want to impress with your images.

Spot metering on your wife's face, stopping down around a stop or a little more and then add the OCF should work well. You could make a test: spot meter her face, and then take an image 2/3 | 1 | 1 1/3 | 1 2/3 | 2 stops darker. Check the files you get and see what worked best for your personal taste. That should give you the best idea for the future PLUS: doing things like these will help you better UNDERSTAND what you are doing when taking pictures. It is all about understanding and practice.
 
Thank you for taking the time to help. I just missed a lot of opportunities that day with my kids and wanna get to the point where I can get out there and get it in a few shots. But like ya said.. practice is the only way to get the results that in after.
I have fallen in love with OCF.. It takes pictures to a whole different level and with that comes a whole different level of problems to solve and a learning curve.
 
looks like a beautiful image to me!
 
When I'm shooting this scenario I switch to manual, find the settings that properly expose the parts of the image that are naturally lit, lock them in, then manually add in flash to fill in the dark spots as necessary. Doing it this way, you don't need to rack your brain with math - you just move up the sliding scale until part 1 looks right, then move up the flash scale until that part looks right. Easy.
 

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