TO keep or not to keep....

[maytay20]

So through a friend I have acquired a Gossen Digipro F light meter. I almost just sold it on ebay. But I am and have been using my camera (40D) on manual settings only. I have learned a lot but am kinda confused on how to use the light meter. My question is ~ Is my camera light meter enough or should I keep this and figure out how to use it along with my cameras light meter. I have had it for a few weeks and been doing awesome on Flowers of course But I went to a baptism and the church had good lighting but the camera light meter seemed to keep the shutter speed to low and I got a lot of motion blur. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks, Mary

 

[Patrice]

Nice little meter worth in the vicinity of $300. If you ever want to do multiple off camera flash with any sort of studio strobe or cheap flash (strobist!) you'll appreciate having a flash meter.

As for the church pictures, did you have your aperture closed down a bit, maybe to f8 - try 2.8 - 3.5 - 5.6. How about your ISO? Will your camera give you reasonable results at ISO 800, if so give that a try.

 

[maytay20]

Thanks. I will hang onto it. Especially since I got it for free. The church was actually very bright so I am not sure what happened. Most of the photos were taken at f5.6 or f6.3 camera set the other setting at 1/10 or 1/8 and my ISO was 200.

 

[rdompor]

Despite how bright your eyes may have fooled you into thinking the church was, there is no way that ISO200 was sensitive enough for indoor shooting. You should have used the appropriate shutter speed and then adjusted the aperture and ISO accordingly rather than adjust the shutter speed based on aperture and ISO.

 

[tirediron]

Thanks. I will hang onto it. Especially since I got it for free. The church was actually very bright so I am not sure what happened. Most of the photos were taken at f5.6 or f6.3 camera set the other setting at 1/10 or 1/8 and my ISO was 200.

The "other" setting being your shutter speed. 1/60 is generally regarded as the lower limit for hand-holding when photographing still subjects, and if there's any degree of movement, 1/125 or higher. As was mentioned, it might seem bright to you, but even the brightest churches are more like ISO 600 territory, and more commonly, 800 - 1200.