Staff note: This post may contain affiliate links, which means Pentax Forums may earn a small commission if a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase. If you would like to support the forum directly, you may also make a donation here.
Originally posted by pschlute With regards to flash I suggest you are missing the following....
1. Using a flash meter to measure Key and Fill lights means you can set up things before you bring the subject into the studio environment. I do a lot of amateur dog portraits, and can assure you I do not want to be taking a number of test shots and checking the histogram before I get the lighting right. My subjects get bored quickly.
2.If I am using an illuminated background such as a Lastolite Hilite, and I want to be setting that to a specific number of stops difference to the subjects lighting, I need a meter to tell me if i have the intensity correct. Eyeballing the image on the screen is not good enough.
Maybe with 1). But, maybe it's down to approach. I do test shots with a dummy (assuming neither of us has an assistant). A polystyrene head and shoulders, painted to be rough approx of likely tones suffices. Dogs are like children - they are not slow shooting so I wouldn't attempt them.
Puzzled with 2). I would set the background up and work from there. I find eyeballing on screen fine. The info panel allows me to read the RGB values and by building up the shots I can 'see' the relative key/fill ratio(s).
We're all different and there's no 'right' way...
---------- Post added 10-24-20 at 09:07 PM ----------
Originally posted by stevebrot You might be, particularly in regards to measuring incident as opposed to reflected light. The photo below was taken with my meterless Pentax SV. Note the full detail in the brightly sunlit snow with no highlight blocking. Amazingly, I was able to use my hand-held meter's suggested settings without doing figuring out how to estimate what might work. The magic was measuring the incident light striking the scene rather than the reflected light from a full range scene (potential for both blocked highlight and blacked out shadows). I knew the film was up to the challenge without me having to actively place exposure, not that I had time to. I took the meter reading and set the camera 15 minutes earlier and only had time to turn and bring camera to eye and take the shot when I saw the snow boarder out of the corner of my eye, moving about 30 mph.
...and his buddy following him a few seconds later, taken with the same camera settings...
The same would have worked just as well with my K-3. FWIW, bracketing would not have been an option, even at 8 fps.
As for flash metering...taking time to "build up" the lighting and and exposure settingsis a reasonable option over using a meter, assuming one has time to burn.
Steve
(...does not own a flash meter and burns lots of time as a result...)
Like you, I've time to burn :-) Photography, pays a few bills but I never push myself. It would spoil it. If the occasional job takes way longer than expected and I have to return, I do.
I see where you're coming from with the snowboarder. But, it's more to carry. I'd prefer to pack another round of sandwiches and enjoy watching them :-)