Why’s my flash meter not working?

Why’s my flash meter not working?

There are no photos to look at in this post. No behind the scenes videos. No tips or advice. Just one simple nugget of info that will hopefully go out into the world and save someone a little of their sanity.

On the advice of Zack Arias and Frank Doorhof I decided to dabble in the world of flash meters and treated myself to a Sekonic L-306S.
Sekonic L-308s
Out of the box, in with the battery and I’m off and running, playing around metering ambient light. Being a typical bloke/geek I didn’t bother with the manual but the 308S is fairly self explanatory so I fired up a flash and set about trying a little strobe metering to make sure everything was working as intended. It wasn’t.

No matter what power I set the flash to or where I held the meter the display always read “EU” – the symbol for underexposed – not enough light to even register. Once or twice I got a reading but then back to “EU” it went.

I started to think the meter might be faulty so I took drastic steps and sat in the lounge and read the manual! I even checked the videos on the Sekonic website. My male pride was restored when I realised I’d made no stupid mistakes. I also noticed that the meter was displaying “0” as I’d expect and not “EU”. I turned it off, back on, switched modes and it was working fine so into the studio to test again. “EU” straight away – no reading!

And then the penny dropped. Cordless Flash Mode sets the meter to wait until it sees a flash and then meters it. Simple and effective but confused by my energy saving LED lightbulbs. The 50Hz flicker LED bulbs give off is like 50 very low power flashes every second which the meter was detecting. The bulbs in the other room are halogen – no flicker, no confusion.

So the lesson is, if your flash meter is not doing what it should, make sure it’s not because of your light bulbs!

Quick & Easy Location Lighting

Quick & Easy Location Lighting

I’ve learnt virtually everything I know about lighting from three people: Joe McNally, Zack Arias and David Hobby (aka The Strobist)

It was David that made me realise you could use lighting to lift your photography in any circumstances, not just pre-planned location shoots or studio work. Through his blog and DVD’s he made me see that with a combination of knowledge and using the right gear you can apply light in any situation.

At the time it was harder to source the right gear in the UK but eventually, and with some help from MPEX, I was about source what I needed: Two Manfrotto Nano 001B folding light stands and a pair of Westcott 43″ double fold umbrellas. With the addition of a strap and a ball bungy, you have all you need to fly an umbrella in seconds in a package you can throw over your shoulder and carry anywhere. Just add your flash.

As as case in point, let’s take the Autosport International show at Birmingham’s NEC. You never know what opportunities will arise, it’s busy, and the lighting in the exhibition halls is nothing short of horrific. The perfect place for a bit of nimble off camera lighting!

So here’s Faye, working for a client of mine at ASI2013, lit with my Strobist kit.

What we have here is a single Canon flash in manual mode, being triggered by a simple radio trigger. No ETTL cleverness here, I like to keep it simple.

So step one is to get a base exposure and there no science here. My camera was already at ISO640 so I left it there, shutter speed is 1/160th, just below my camera’s max sync speed and aperture is f8 to tame the horrible ambient light. Shutter speed was my only hard limit here – I could have traded ISO and aperture a little but f8 was a save depth of field and there’s no noise at ISO640 on the 5DMkIII.

Next up was flash power and the way I set this is even more low tech. I put my hand where my subject will be and take a shot. I have hundreds of photos of the back of my hand in various locations now. There’s a gallery show in it one day, I’m sure.

If it’s over exposed I drop flash power, under I raise it. That’s it. With enough practise you can get it dialied in with 2 or 3 tries. I think in this case I was at 1/8th power.

Now you have the camera and flash settings locked in, as long as you keep the flash the same distance from your subject, you can move around as much as you like.

Here’s a wider view to show the position of the flash. If you look towards the rear of the Lamborghini Aventador, where my flash isn’t lighting it, you can see just how yellow the ambient light was.


And a couple more :

And to wrap up the post, a little BTS video to give you a better idea of just what was going on.

It’s Definitely Not About The Gear!

It’s Definitely Not About The Gear!

rls

Ever heard someone else, or even yourself, using any of these excuses?

“It’s easy to take a photo when you have the latest camera and speedlights”

“If I had all the gear he had, I could take photos as good as him”

“Once I get that new *insert gadget here* I’ll start taking better shots”

Well slap that person round the back of the head, even if it was you, because quite frankly, that’s crap.

A good photographer can take a better photo with bad gear than a bad photographer can take with the best gear available.

If you are waiting until you can buy the latest and greatest camera body, or that new lens before you start pushing yourself, that day will never come. There will always be that next thing you tell yourself you need before you can become better. It’s a crutch and you don’t need it. Waiting for something to happen or making excuses won’t make you a better photographer – taking photographs will.

I think we are all guilty of hiding to some degree, myself included, so don’t let yourself hide anymore and stop making those excuses.

Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.

And to underline my point, here’s the Strobist, making stand out images with a Buzz Lightyear novelty camera and a cheap knock off flash!

5 Ways To Get Better Shots From Your New Camera

5 Ways To Get Better Shots From Your New Camera

Got a point and shoot camera for Christmas? Here are some easy to remember tips to help you get the best out of it.
compact

1. Turn off the flash.

The smaller your light source is, the harsher it is – and this thing is tiny! No one looks good when photographed with a compact cameras on board flash and it’s so weedy you need to stand close to you subject. Moon faces ahoy! Which leads us on to:

2. Stand back and zoom in for portraits.

When you turn on your compact camera it’s going to be at the wide end of its zoom range. For portraits, this is U.G.L.Y. A wide angle (aka a short focal length) gives people big noses and round faces. Take a few steps back and zoom in a little – instant improvement. And as a bonus, you’ll notice the background is a little more out of focus too making your subject pop.

3. Shoot. A Lot!

Digital is free so take lots of photos. I used to imagine the photographers I admired walking into a scene or onto a set, pressing the shutter and boom – magic! Photography’s dirty little secret is that you need to take a lot of images to get that great one. But be sure to…

4. Edit Ruthlessly.

Just because you shot 200 photos doesn’t mean you need to show all 200. Pick the best and share them with the world. If you have 3 amazing shots, don’t drag them into the mire of mediocrity by sharing 50 average ones too.

5. Have Fun!

The more you shoot the better you get and the more fun you have – so get out there and shoot. Take some time to learn the craft but make sure you practise what you learn as much as you can. Don’t sit at home fretting about the terms and conditions on Facebook or Instagram and don’t feel like you have to watermark everything. Shoot. Enjoy. Repeat.

Candice Collyer Cubed

Candice Collyer Cubed

I talk a lot of about being different on this blog. If you are just shooting and sharing the same images as everyone else , you’re are never going to elevate yourself above the background noise.

That’s all well and good if you are driving the shoot. If you have creative control and some sort of exclusivity. But what if you’re covering an event, in this case, for a magazine or website? Is it still possible to produce something that differentiates you from everyone else there with a camera?

Yes!

Candice Collyer

This is Candice Collyer working on the Victory Bikes stand during Motorcycle Live at the National Exhibition Centre. Nice motorbike, pretty girl posing for photos. Click. Job done. Picture in the can. Move on? Only if you want your image to disappear into the sea of literally thousands of similar images.

Now I am not saying this this is a unique idea. It’s not. Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir has been very successful with this type of ‘multiplicity’ image and her work has a much stronger story telling element. But is is different, certainly under these circumstances.

It may have taken some time in Photoshop (see the video below), but I’d rather spend an hour on a single standout image than post 100 unremarkable ones that could have been taken by anyone.

Gymkhana Grid Finals 2012

Gymkhana Grid Finals 2012

A couple of weekends ago, Ken Block’s Gymkhana Grid finals landed at Santa Pod. Winners form the four previous rounds in France, Germany, Holland and the UK came together to go head to head in a battle to face off against Vaughn Gittin Jr or Ken “This is my sport” Block.

Number 43, Ken Block's Ford Fiesta

I was lucky enough to be there trackside – Here’s a flavour of the hooniganery!

Luke Woodham finished runner up in the RWD class (And had some pare type he didn’t want to carry home it seems!)

Remmo Niezen was the man who beat him to first place and got his chance to go head to head with Gittin.

Vaughn Gittin’s RTR Mustang makes a noise the like of which I have never heard.

Rally Crosser Liam Doran was also on hand to slay some more tyres.


There was even a drifting truck.


While not quite on the same epic scale as the official Gymkhana Grid video, I put together some on and off car footage on one of the finalists, Jake Archer.

When the engines had cooled and the smoke had cleared I got a chance to get spend a little quality time with the cars. To go with Ken’s Fiesta at the top of this post, here’s Luke’s S14, Remmo’s M3, Liam’s DS3 and Vaughn’s Mustang.

RWD Runner up Luke Woodham’s Nissan
RWD Winner Remmo Niezen’s BMW M3
Liam Doran’s rallycross DS3
Vaughn Gittin Jr’s angry Ford Mustang RTR