Meter question

[MDJAK]

I have the 20d. When I'm in manual, using my 550ex flash, shooting indoor wrestling, 1600 ISO, 70-200 F2.8 IS, I leave the aperture at 2.8 as the lighting is poor. Sometimes there's a large ring light above the wrestling mat which casts a bright light in a very small area. When I'm adjusting the shutter speed up and down, should I be trying to keep the meter in the viewfinder in the middle or as close as possible?

If the meter is on the right side of center, the picture will come out darker, right?

If the meter is reading on the left, towards the plus sign, the picture will be lighter, right?

Which one of the above is consider over exposed and which is under exposed? I'm trying to follow threads and need to know that nomenclature. Thanks for your time.

[Citizensmith]

Yup, to the right is overexposure, to the left is underexposure.

How about leaving it in Av mode and letting the camera figure it out for you. You can use the review (and histograms) to see if it is getting it right, and it should speed things up alot. If you are trusting the exposure scale anyway why not just let the camera take the step of changing shutter speed instead of you having to do it.

[tim]

Point the centre spot point at the part of the pic you want correctly exposed and push the * button. It meters for that small area and ignores the rest of the picture.

[MDJAK]

The reason I don't use AV mode is that I need the shutter speed to be as fast as possible or the pictures come out blurry, even with the flash.

I was also wondering, and perhaps this should be another post, will the 135 f2 give that much more light? If the needle is in the middle, let's say, at 2.8 and 200, what could the shutter speed be at 2.0 and the needle still be in the middle?

Also, when I looked at my friend's Rebel, he is able with a custom function, I believe and may be wrong, to set the flash sync faster than 250. Can we?

[scottbergerphoto]

It's premature to answer your question without knowing what you want to be your primary light source, ambient or flash. If the flash is your primary light source, you have to first check to make sure that the aperture you select will give you adequate flash distance. Then you can decide how much ambient light to capture by adjusting shutter speed and aperture within the previously discussed limit. In flash photography where the flash is the primary light source, the shutter speed is not stopping the action, the flash is. The shutter is much slower (1/200 max) then the flash (1/10,000). You use the shutter speed only to determine how much ambient light to gather and keep the post flash blur down. Typically you would shoot with the speed at 1/30-1/60 to capture some ambient light. There is no need to increase your ISO above 400. The camera meter showing underexposure is irrelevant. You don't want overexposure.

If ambient light is your main light source and the flash is just for fill, then you have to get your shutter speed as fast as required to stop the action by increasing your ISO. In this situation you would have to use your flash in High Speed Sync Mode. This drastically reduces the distance the flash can travel. Your camera meter in this situation dictates what shutter/aperture combinations are acceptable as the ambient light is the main light.

In summary, first you decide which is your primary light source, and then set the exposure for ambient and flash lighting based on that decision. Depending on which you choose, the settings are very different.
Scott

[10Dennis]

Thanks Scott, that is very informative. I am having problems with flash photography as well and what you've shared is very helpful.

J.Dennis

[flyfisher]

The sticky at the top of this forum explanes flash and metering pretty well it might help you if you look at it,as for alot us flash is tricky and canon doesn't have the best system for automatic flash
IMHO.