The OP has a flash meter.
"I recently bought a Sekonic 308-X and am aware of how to use it and have been practicing with it, but whenever it comes time to use it I start to get confused."
His problem is that he does not know how to use it to determine the light ratios.
@CDA, as with most anything new, you need to be methodical, patient and practice.
First, determine what lighting ratio you want. Then determine what the f-stop difference is for that ratio. That is your target.
- 8:1 is 3 stops difference.
Set up an empty set, with the lights (in the modifiers) 10 feet from the subject (a dummy subject for this exercise).
- Note1: You MUST make the measurements with the light modifier on the flash. The modifier you use will affect the light from the flash and change the light level on the subject. So if you change to a different light modifier, you have to do this exercise all over again, for that modifier.
- Note2: The 10 feet distance is just a convenient starting point, that happens to be part of the guide number formula. So just use whatever distance works for you.
First we do this for each light separately:
- Measure the KEY light only.
- Adjust the power level or distance, so that your meter reads f/11
- You may have to raise or lower the ISO level on the meter so that you can get the meter to read at f/11.
- You have to set the ISO on the camera to the same level as you have the meter set to.
- Note: f/11 is not carved in stone, it can be higher or lower, but it NEEDS to be high enough to allow measuring 3 stops lower for the fill light.
- Measure the FILL light only.
The difference between the lights is your exposure ratio, in stops.
Then do as Derrel said, adjust the power level and/or distance from flash to subject to get the ratio to be what you want it to be.
To make it simple, just adjust the power level or distance of the FILL light, so the meter reads f/4 (3 stop down from f/11).
If you used a different f-stop target for the KEY light (ie f/5.6), your FILL target should be 3 stops lower (f/2). This is why you have to have the key light high enough, to be able to measure 3 stops lower for the fill light.
NEXT. Use BOTH lights together.
Depending on the subject and light angles, the two lights could/will spill over and mix, so you would get less than the 3 stops as determined in the individual light test above.
- Aim the meter at first the key light then the fill light, determine what the 2-light mixed ratio is.
- Then adjust the power level or distance of the FILL light to get back to your 3 stop difference.
Note: After you adjust the power/distance, you will have to measuring each flash again, to determine the ratio. This is because of the spill and mixing.
Now draw a diagram of the lighting setup, record what light modifier is used on each flash, the power level of each flash, the distances of each flash to the subject, the angle of the flashes from the lens axis, and the height of each light above the floor.
If you do the diagram correctly, you can recreate the setup starting from a bare room, and get your 8:1 lighting ratio.
Once you get comfortable with this then you can progress further, such as adjusting/moving both flashes, example if you need a higher or lower level of key light on the subject, or different light ratios.
- 1st adjust the power level of the key flash to get the f-stop exposure you want.
- Then adjust the power/distance of the fill flash to get the fill level you want. In your case 3 stops lower than the key light.
- Remember that there is interaction between the key and fill flashes due to spill, so you have to meter and adjust both flashes.
gud luk
