I spend roughly about 30 minutes messing around with my flash and camera (I don't have any off-camera stuff yet, unfortunately. Picking some up soon though, hopefully!) trying to figure out what settings will work, and how to properly expose an image. It wastes batteries and such, and I'd rather not have to go through that. So, I'm just wondering, how do you get the settings right the first time, or close enough to it? I have to guess at settings out of the blue, and it seldom works.
For example, this photo:
I figured out that if the light was bounced off the wall to the left (which is white), with the chandelier on above me, it exposed perfectly every time, and I got a very nice warm image out of it. However, I want to be able to get this effect any time, any where.
I tried doing something outside at night, and I figured that I'd need an off-camera flash setup to be able to get the effect I wanted, but I don't have one, so instead, I got something like this:
As you can tell, it's rather harsh. So I figured a white umbrella would work better for something like that, but once more, I'd need something off camera.
Anyway, that's besides the point... How would I be able to properly judge what settings I should use in what situations (in terms of lighting) accurately, so I don't have to guess around and waste time for so long?
