I'm new to the craft of indoor and studio photography. Can anyone tell me about the following things?

Question

1. I just purchased a flash meter. I'm assuming it should work with metering any flash or flash unit, am I correct?

2. What is the relatioinship between an external flash and flash unit? How do I get one to work in conjunction with another and how compatible are they to one another?

Remember, I am a total rookie here. Please explain in the simplest terms possible.

Answer 1

1. If you have a handheld light meter such as the ones by Sekonic or Minolta, they work with any number of flashes or continuous light sources like hotlights. In terms of how you get the flash meter to work in conjunction with your lights, that all depends upon what kind of lights you have. If you have a set of strobes with a powerpack then you need to get a sync cord which attaches from the powerpack to the meter. Once the powerpack and the meter are connected you take the meter and walk over to where the subject of your photograph will be, and pointing the little white bulb on the meter towards the camera you press the meter button which will then cause the strobes to flash. During this whole process you have to make sure that your body isn't blocking any of the lights or else you wont get an accurate reading. If you don't have a sync cord or you have another system that doesnt use a powerpack then what you are going to need to do is switch your meter over to non-cord, or non-sync and then manually trigger the lights by depressing the test button on the light(s)
2. this is where I am confused a bit, and need to know what kind of strobe or flash system you are using, because it sounds like you are using something like a Quantum Q-flash or some other kind of external battery operated flash system and you need to know how to trigger the flash that is not mounted to your camera?

If you can provide me with just the basics in terms of the manufacturer of lights you are using as well as the type of meter I, as well as others could help you out. Also, just to let you know if you are working with strobes and powerpacks, just be cautious, it can be dangerous working with high powered capacitors which powerpacks are. Sometimes if you don't power these packs down properly they can explode and cause damage. I am and other photographers I know at one point or another, even working safely with packs have run into these dangers. Older Norman packs in particular seems to explode if you don't discharge the packs and shut down properly i.e, just don't unplug the pack while it is all charged up.

Answer 2

Welcome to a new world of photography!

1) Correct, a flash meter can read from any light source...whether it is an on-camera speedlite, off-camera strobes, or always-on studio lights. Most flash meters will have several modes to tell the meter when to take the reading:
- wired mode: the flash is physically cabled to your meter.
- wireless mode: the flash meter will be on standby and will record whenever you fire the flash...no special wireless hardware is needed...the flash meter will record whatever spike it detects (somebody turning on the room lights should not count as a spike.) You will most likely be using this mode.
- incidental mode - this is where you manually tell the flash meter when to take its reading by pushing the trigger, but this mode is more for capturing ambient and constant available light - it cannot be syncronized with a flash trigger. If you are using natural light or always-on studio lights, you will probably use this mode.

When using the meter, hold the globe by the subject's face pointed at the camera...have the subject hold the meter if necessary for the test shot.

2) Relationship between external flash and flash unit. I will presume you mean 'flash unit' to be the triggering device. In the Canon world, the triggering device may be a larger flash unit like the 580EX, or a trasmitter like the ST-E2...these devices act as the 'master' where they can trigger other flashes like another 580EX or a smaller 430EX (the 'slave'). A Canon or Nikon setup like this works through radio signals. With this setup, it is basically an issue of making sure the master and slaves are set to the same channels. The ST-E2 has the capability of establishing the lighting ratio between your main (primary) light and your fill light...e.g., let's say you want your primary light to be 3x brighter than your fill light.

A Canon setup can be expensive and may not be the best value. And since you have a flash meter, you will probably want more control...

A 2-flash setup like the Alien Bees flash units establishes your primary light as the master, which will trigger the secondary fill light via an optical trigger. When the secondary flash unit detects a pulse of light from the master, it with trigger will no noticeable delay...it works great indoors and there is no need to run cables from your primary to your secondary. In addition, you can add an unlimted number of external flashes like a backlight or hairlight as long as they have that optical sensor (even if it's a different brand.) You will probably need one wired sync cable between your camera and your primary...but that's all the sync cabling you'll need. This sync cable should come with your flash kit. If you want to be completely wireless, you will need to look into radio controllers (to go from the camera to the primary) such as the PocketWizard...but this is expensive.) With a PocketWizard setup, you can even take it one step further and have your flash meter trigger the flash units for a test reading if you install a radio transmitter on your flash meter (some of the Sekonic meters can do this)...but I think this is an expensive luxury that is not necessary.

The Alien Bee setup does not have ratio control like the ST-E2, but as you get more experienced, you will appreciate the manual control.

If purchasing Alien Bee lights or similar, I would finish off your studio setup by purchasing a set of medium to large softboxes that mount right onto the strobes. You can't do these with Canon speedlights. I prefer softboxes over umbrellas because of the softer light. You don't have to buy the softboxes from Alien Bees, but be sure the mounts are compatible if you go with alternate brands.

I would avoid any studio lighting setup where the primary flash is mounted right on your camera...this type of lighting is too flat.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

1- Yes, most flash meter, can measure any other flash unit; some old light meters can only read sun light.

2- The relationship depends on what do you want to do as a photograper, and which flash units do you have.

But may be you should read more and learn the basics; why to buy a flash meter when you are a rookie as you admit? Some colleges give short courses. Buy good magazines and books. And go to good photograpy sites.

Answer 4

Your light meter will read ambient light hitting your subject, and flash light from your flash heads.
You can get flash systems to work together by using slaves and a master either connected by a sync cord or by inferred.
If i were you i would look into doing a photographers assistant course where all this will be explained. It is quite difficult to get your head round metering and setting your camera to expose correctly.

Answer 5

You should take a class. Check out other photograpic studios in your area. In my humble opinion, don't go so fast. You are buying all this equipment, it sounds like, and need to experiment with the more simple aspect of photography. SLOW DOWN and have fun!