Getting Flash Exposure Fast

Kerry Garrison from http://cameradojo.com shows how to dial in manual flash settings quickly and easily.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Photography
• Lighting
• Flash
• Strobe
• Strobist
• YN560

[futuremtt]

What if I wanted to control the depth of field in the picture. Say I wanted to really blur the background. Wouldn't I have to then manually adjust the strobes?

[kerrycgarrison]

@futuremtt Exactly correct. If you close down the aperture you are physically limiting the amount of light that can enter the camera which you would need to compensate with by adding more light.

[Timefreezers1]

Yeah. But how do i know that the exposure is spot on without using light meter? How to tell how many stops up or down by reading histogram?

[kerrycgarrison]

@Timefreezers1 You can't be entirely accurate without a light meter but I don't go into a shoot thinking I want an exact ratio, If I dial in my key light I know I need to turn down my fill light by two stops of flash output to get the desired effect.

[rekez2]

very interesting thank you.

[stijnderd]

this is really interesting information! Thank you!

[mariokluser]

@kerrycgarrison

I see, thank you very much for this information.

[kerrycgarrison]

@mariokluser usually high speed sync is only available with Canon speedlites.

[mariokluser]

@kerrycgarrison

Thank you very much! I have to to see if my studio strobes suppord high speed sync.

[kerrycgarrison]

@mariokluser if you have a flash that does not support high speed sync and you are shooting faster than 1/250 of a second you will get black bands on the image. This is because at speeds above 1/250 the second shutter is closing before the first shutter is fully open so the flash goes off and only exposes a portion of the sensor. At speeds of 1/250 or slower, the first shutter is fully open, the flash goes off, than the second shutter starts to close ensuring a proper exposure