Exposure/Fill Flash/Sky metering help... PLEASE!!!! :(

[JeffieLove]

Ugh, I am apparently not getting this AT ALL!

So here is my SOOC image:

Here's what I did...

I was shooting at f/4 1/1000 for a shutter speed. I had my CPL on my lens because I wanted to keep the sky blue. I had metered off the sky. I had my camera pointed to the sky and adjusted the shutter speed until the camera's light meter said it was properly exposed... SOOO, then I used flash for fill. I used my vivitar 285 and I had it at it's highest power and BARE!!! No diffusers or anything... And this is what I got... WTF?!?!?!?!? What am I doing wrong? I know I can fix this in post, but I was really hoping I would be able to get it right in camera... Help???

 

[KmH]

What shooting mode? Was your camera set up to sync the flash on the shutter opening, or the shutter closing? The 285HV cannot be used in TTL modes.

When doing flash non-TTL, the in-camera meter is useless because it can't meter the strobed light.

Shutter speed controls the background exposure but has to be kept below the cameras x-sync speed. The lens aperture is used to control the strobed light exposure. Motion stopping is done by the flash of light from the strobe.

 

[JeffieLove]

Holy crap. That was an easy answer...

The sync speed is 1/200... so I need to adjust the aperture... Now I feel like a co mplete ass...

Anywho, to answer your other questions, I was shooting in manual.

I was only using the in camera meter to measure where I needed everything for the sky. My flash isn't going to affect the sky. I'm using it just as fill for the subject.

So, I'm going to take my son back out to try this again... This time remembering that the shutter speed needs to be less than 1/200...

 

[JeffieLove]

Okay, here's the new one, but it still looks kinda off to me... This is still SOOC... Is this better and more "acceptable"? Or is it still underexposed or is it over exposed at this point?

And I discovered that my flash did affect the sky... So how in the **** do people figure out how to use a manual flash? If you can't use a light meter, how do you know when it's right? Like if I went from f/4 to f/4.5 with this, it got too dark on his face...

There is still CA in this too... There's some green around the top of his head and his ears... I don't think I'm happy with the amount of CA I've been getting from this lens... I can shoot a kid against a sky with my 50mm and get NO CA at all... I guess I just don't get it and that's my problem and this is where I get frustrated and just put everything down for a while...

 

[Josh66]

Damnit... I just wrote a really long reply but I accidentally clicked the red 'reply to thread' button instead of the 'post quick reply' button ... which deleted everything I wrote...

 

[JeffieLove]

do it again!!!! Just don't click the reply to thread button this time! lol

 

[Josh66]

Anyway... You can use a light meter, just not the one that's built into your camera.

This looks better, but I think the sky could be a little darker. Trust me, your flash is not exposing the sky... Most likely, a cloud moved in the time between metering and taking the picture.

edit
There was more to it the first time I tried to reply, but that's the main point I was trying to make.

If your flash isn't powerful enough to get a good exposure, try raising your ISO.

 

[KmH]

He has racoon eyes (dark eye sockets).

Either you had your light way to high (judging from the shadows), or the flash is not syncing with your camera and the shadows are from the Sun. I don't really see any evidence of strobed lighting being used in that photo..

There is no way your 285HV can affect the sky (inverse square law).

Use 1/200 shutter speed. Set your aperture to f/8 or f/11. A bare 285 at full power should over expose your kid at those settings if the 285 is somewhat close to him.

Do you have the 285's zoom set to Wide - Normal - or Telephoto?

 

[JeffieLove]

Anyway... You can use a light meter, just not the one that's built into your camera.

This looks better, but I think the sky could be a little darker. Trust me, your flash is not exposing the sky... Most likely, a cloud moved in the time between metering and taking the picture.

edit
There was more to it the first time I tried to reply, but that's the main point I was trying to make.

If your flash isn't powerful enough to get a good exposure, try raising your ISO.

do all light meters cost in the $200 range?

And how do you use a light meter if you're using a flash? The meter can't read what the flash is going to put out... Maybe I just need to stick to this as a hobby... Or maybe I'm just too overwhelmed with life in general right now...

 

[JeffieLove]

He has racoon eyes (dark eye sockets).

Either you had your light way to high (judging from the shadows), or the flash is not syncing with your camera and the shadows are from the Sun. I don't really see any evidence of strobed lighting being used in that photo..

There is no way your 285HV can affect the sky (inverse square law).

Use 1/200 shutter speed. Set your aperture to f/8 or f/11. A bare 285 at full power should over expose your kid at those settings if the 285 is somewhatclose to him.

Do you have the 285's zoom set to Wide - Normal - or Telephoto?

wide...

I was using 1/200 this time and I had the aperture still at f/4 and the flash at it's lowest power.

I'll have more kids to experiment with soon. My son is tired of pictures...

 

[gsgary]

Your not getting it, when shooting ambient and flash you have 2 exposures. Your aperture controls flash exposure and shutter speed controls ambient, with a flash meter you take an ambient reading and then a flash reading to match, if you want to blow the exposure on the background you lower your shutter speed say you have a reading of F9 1/125 you can lower it a stop to 1/60 if you want the background darker set your shutter speed to 1/200 dont alter you aperture

 

[JeffieLove]

Your not getting it, when shooting ambient and flash you have 2 exposures. Your aperture controls flash exposure and shutter speed controls ambient, with a flash meter you take an ambient reading and then a flash reading to match, if you want to blow the exposure on the background you lower your shutter speed say you have a reading of F9 1/125 you can lower it a stop to 1/60 if you want the background darker set your shutter speed to 1/200 dont alter you aperture

Now I understand. That was a very good explanation of what seems to be a very difficult part of photography.

 

[gsgary]

Your not getting it, when shooting ambient and flash you have 2 exposures. Your aperture controls flash exposure and shutter speed controls ambient, with a flash meter you take an ambient reading and then a flash reading to match, if you want to blow the exposure on the background you lower your shutter speed say you have a reading of F9 1/125 you can lower it a stop to 1/60 if you want the background darker set your shutter speed to 1/200 dont alter you aperture

Now I understand. That was a very good explanation of what seems to be a very difficult part of photography.

No problem, thats not like me i'm usually crap at explaning in writting

 

[KmH]

do all light meters cost in the $200 range?

And how do you use a light meter if you're using a flash? The meter can't read what the flash is going to put out... Maybe I just need to stick to this as a hobby... Or maybe I'm just too overwhelmed with life in general right now...

No, they don't all cost in the $200 range. Good ones cost much more than that. Sekonic L-758DR DigitalMaster Flash Meter 401-758 B&H Photo

Most hand-held meters can meter strobed light (flash). The light is metered at the subject by pointing the meter at the strobe light as it is fired. When more than one strobe is used, each strobe is metered by itself to set the lighting ratio.

 

[gsgary]

Dull day F9 1/30 can you tell if there is flash ?