For further photography-related information check out my tips for photographers.
I had the pleasure of photographing Sandra and Mathew's wedding at St Augustine's in Westgate yesterday. Their wedding gallery should be online tomorrow.
My website: Kent wedding photographers
My website: Kent wedding photographers
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4 comments:
Hi David,
I'm new to wedding photography and think a light meter like a Sekonic will help me out during group shots - so I don't have to experiment and delay people with guesswork.
I understand that they basically tell you what to dial into your camera, but what if I want to use a fixed aperture, can they work that way?
Many thanks for answering my maybe dumb question :)
Hi Jack,
There's very little advantage in using an external incident light meter rather than the reflected light meter in your camera - in fact I'd actively discourage you from buying one! Group shots in particular rarely make for challenging exposures. You may just need to make slight tweaks to exposure compensation depending upon the overall tonality of the scene.
You can dial in aperture or shutter speed with an external meter, in just the same way as your SLR.
All the best,
David
Hi David,
Sorry for delay. I appreciate your comments and understand your reasoning for doing without a light meter - with more experience I will also share your confidence.
For me, I really like the fact that the sekonic shows me flash ratios and I can simply pick my % of mix for say a 70/30 ratio of flash in an outdoor portrait.
Something I don't quite understand though, maybe you can clarify - but to measure flash with the sekonic you are asked to press the TEST button on the Speedlight to trigger the Sekonic. As I understand, pressing the test button on the speedlite fires it at either full power or 32nd power (according to the manual), but not at the actual power you've dialed on the Speedlite - how then does the Sekonic measure the real light? Did you ever wonder this too?
Hi Jack,
The Sekonic light meter was designed with studio lights, rather than Speedlites, in mind. Pressing the test button on studio lights gives you the light as it will be for your shot, allowing you to measure light levels accurately wherever you need to.
The Sekonic is great in the studio, when you've got time to tweak your set-up, but not so useful at a wedding.
All the best,
David
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