Reply To: Help With Settings for Group Flash Photo

[cameraclicker]

I was just putting it out there as a fact, not as a value judgment.  I have an L-358 and when I complained to Sekonic about the lettering on the case, they responded they had just discontinued it!  Bless them!

Perhaps we should point out that not all light meters are flash light meters.    The difference being that the ones designed to measure flash record the peak light and lock that value away so you can see the effect of the flash independent from ambient light.  We should also point out that a flash meter is more or less important depending on the equipment you have.  If you have a single Canon or Nikon flash mounted on a Canon or Nikon body respectively, then you don’t need a flash meter, the camera can figure it out for you.  If you are using Canon or Nikon flash systems, again you don’t need a flash meter because the camera can figure it out, even if you are using a dozen flashes.  If you are using radios like some versions of Pocketwizard, the flashes can talk to the camera over the radio and the camera can figure it out.  In all those cases, a flash meter is of most use to determine the ratio between flashes, be it key and fill or kicker/hair lights.  Knowing the inverse square law, you could just set the flashes to the same power and use placement to adjust ratio in many cases.  Some studios are organized with series of dots at various radiuses on the floor to aid in light placement without the need to get out a tape measure.

Depending on what you are doing, moving a lamp a few inches can have a huge effect.  While being clueless is unprofessional, test shots while moving things around to get the best possible result is usually quite professional.  Frequently starting with one light then adding a second, then third, etc., is a good way to build.  If you are shooting portraits, have an assistant sit in for the subject until everything is ready, then have the subject sit/stand in the same place.  Sometimes a flash meter can speed the process but after you have been doing it for a while, you get to know roughly where to set lamps and how much power to apply.  Then you are doing test shots to fine tune things anyway.