Do you need light meters ?

If I'm going to shoot with a single strobe (AB's 800) and the rebel xt, I'll be using the trigger/receiver wireless set up.

I most likely will use Av priority so will the camera know the shutter speed just from the modeling lght? or will it even get the exposure right?

never done this so any help would be great.

Always use M when shooting with studio lights. AV looks and meters for 18% grey. You want to have total control over how that light comes out and the overall scene. Ilaways shoot in M in studio/lighting situations.

Av meter meters 'ambient'. Model lights cast 'ambient' (in a sense) but your flash outputs a brief burst of light that the Av meter will not read at all!

You can shoot with studio flash solely with trial and error and a lot of chimping the LCD and viewing the histrogram. Horridly slow process, though!

okay thanks.
This helps and forces me to do manual shoot.
But it's the cost of a meter that gets me right now.

I'm going to spend $475 on AB's lights etc and approximately $200 on a backdrop support with three seamless backdrops
so a touch tight on $$ at this point.

I always shoot Manual (M) with studio strobes.

I also use a light meter, as it makes life that much eaiser.

StealthLude wrote in post #2819404
I always shoot Manual (M) with studio strobes.

I also use a light meter, as it makes life that much eaiser.

I think it's obvious at this point that shooting M mode is the only option and dropping cash on a lghtmeter is mandatory - ouch

hannaxt wrote in post #2819395
okay thanks.
This helps and forces me to do manual shoot.
But it's the cost of a meter that gets me right now.

I'm going to spend $475 on AB's lights etc and approximately $200 on a backdrop support with three seamless backdrops
so a touch tight on $$ at this point.

Light meter is pretty important to me. I bought my light meter, BEFORE buying any studio strobes, or backdrops, or anything like that...

Since you can use your light meter with any type of shooting, landscape, ambient light, flash... I like getting incident readings when shooting portraits outside... And when doing fill flash, it really makes it easy to figure out the ambient/flash % ...

You can get away with it, but a light meter is good peice of mind. But you dont need one to learn how to use your gear. Jut trial and error shoot and use your histogram. But I would advise that you get one eventually, even if its a cheap one, its better than nothing. But I do recommend an Sekonic L-358, its a great all around meter. But if you only use it for flash/in studio, then you can get away with less.

Do you know someone who has a meter you can borrow for an evening. If you could simply meter at a specific ISO at one specific distance, it can be computed the f/stop for any other power setting or light-to-subject distance when only one light is involved. From that one reading, you can derive other ISO settings, other flash-to-subject distances!

Wilt,
I can't say i know anyone who is into photography so no to that sadly.

StealthLude I would appreciate any recomendations for now on ones less expensive. I think outside of studio setting i would not really need one - for now any way.

I may have to evaluate my priorities here but I do need the lights.
I may also just do trial/ error ONLY for now though.
Time to shop for the meter no doubt - you've all been helpful and i appreciate it.

I just checked the Sekonic L-358, pricing isn't so bad! I thought these were over $300, but maybe i can do the Sekonic L-358! Thanks all.

Any thoughts on Sekonic L-308S Flashmate ? under $200 I mean I am a beginner and studio is all new to me.

If you have only one light, your histogram feature in your camera will be fine. You can get things done without a meter.

It may take a few test exposures to nail the correct exposure, but as you gain experience you will get the correct exposure very quickly.

If you have more than one light a meter becomes more necessary.

If you decide you want a meter, the Sekonic 308 is an inexpensive, light, compact, accurate, and reliable meter that would be just dandy.

If you want to personally interact with other photographers, look for a camera club in your area.

Enjoy! Lon

Thanks , it will be a simple set up and I've just read up on the flashmate. I think for now and sometime to come it ought to serve me well.

As londuck indicates, using the histogram only a the very beginning would establish the fundamental exposure, then all other shoots could be done simply with derivations from the original histogram result!

BASELINE
Get a gray card and set it up to almost fill your viewfinder.
Set AB so that it is a fixed 4' from the gray card.
Take a series of exposures of the gray card, using f/stops in full EV increments, at a known power setting, like 1/2 power.
Looking at the results on your PC, pick the 3 f/stops which best reproduces the gray card in brightness level. (for example, if f/2.8 is overly bright, f/4 is almost right, and f/5.6 is just a bit dark...)
Now take a second series of exposures using f/stops in 1/3EV increments, with the lightest and darkest of the best 3, to serve as the extremes.
Look at the results of the second series of shots and note the BEST exposure. (for example, maybe f/4.5 looks best).

So your baseline exposure is ISO100, 4 feet flash-to-subject, f/4.5

REAL SHOOTS

Let's assume you decide to set your light 5.5' from the subject. Shoot at f/3.2 (1EV wider aperture than f/4.5) with ISO 100 with 1/2 power! Or shoot at f/4.5 at ISO200 with 1/2 power. Or shoot at f/6.3 (1EV smaller aperture than f/4.5) at ISO200 at full power. Why do we know that?
Well, treat light-to-subject distances like f/stops! So changing the distance of the light from 4' to 5.6' is one EV less light to the subject. Changing the light for 4' to 2.8' is one EV more light to the subject. Changing the power setting from 1/2 to full increases the light by one EV; changing the power from 1/2 down to /4 decreases the light by one EV.

So you do not need to buy that meter right away! If you add lights, the meter becomes much more essential, since you start to set the intensity ratios yet the lights might be at two different distances to the subject.

Thanks Wilt, I like this concept and for now too it forces me to start thinking this way rather than rely on auto features. I do have a shoot in a couple of weeks and the purpose is to test some settings etc - I will have your post printed out and use as a guide.

This is great informtion for me!

Thanks

Very systematic and intuative method!

Wilt wrote in post #2819653
As londuck indicates, using the histogram only a the very beginning would establish the fundamental exposure, then all other shoots could be done simply with derivations from the original histogram result!

BASELINE
Get a gray card and set it up to almost fill your viewfinder.
Set AB so that it is a fixed 4' from the gray card.
Take a series of exposures of the gray card, using f/stops in full EV increments, at a known power setting, like 1/2 power.
Looking at the results on your PC, pick the 3 f/stops which best reproduces the gray card in brightness level. (for example, if f/2.8 is overly bright, f/4 is almost right, and f/5.6 is just a bit dark...)
Now take a second series of exposures using f/stops in 1/3EV increments, with the lightest and darkest of the best 3, to serve as the extremes.
Look at the results of the second series of shots and note the BEST exposure. (for example, maybe f/4.5 looks best).

So your baseline exposure is ISO100, 4 feet flash-to-subject, f/4.5

REAL SHOOTS

Let's assume you decide to set your light 5.5' from the subject. Shoot at f/3.2 (1EV wider aperture than f/4.5) with ISO 100 with 1/2 power! Or shoot at f/4.5 at ISO200 with 1/2 power. Or shoot at f/6.3 (1EV smaller aperture than f/4.5) at ISO200 at full power. Why do we know that?
Well, treat light-to-subject distances like f/stops! So changing the distance of the light from 4' to 5.6' is one EV less light to the subject. Changing the light for 4' to 2.8' is one EV more light to the subject. Changing the power setting from 1/2 to full increases the light by one EV; changing the power from 1/2 down to /4 decreases the light by one EV.

So you do not need to buy that meter right away! If you add lights, the meter becomes much more essential, since you start to set the intensity ratios yet the lights might be at two different distances to the subject.

Great tip! I just opened up my boxes from Alien Bee and also couldn't afford a light meter at the same time ( on next month's spending list though!).