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What should I meter off with the in-camera light meter?

April 25, 2017 Neil vN 17 Comments

What should I meter off with the in-camera light meter?

What (or where) should I meter when using my camera's built-in meter? It's a question that mystifies many photographers when they start out, and first realize you can't just point your camera at the scene and hope for correct exposure. The incredible metering systems in modern cameras notwithstanding, it is essential to our growth as photographers to have a working grasp on metering techniques. Of course, an incident light-meter is always a great idea, but has become less necessary with digital photography when shooting  Read more inside...

How to overpower bright sunlight with on-camera flash

June 3, 2015 Neil vN 34 Comments

how to overpower bright sunlight with on-camera flash

How to overpower bright sunlight with on-camera flash

The photograph on the left shows one of the toughest lighting conditions you get to deal with. Your subjects are half in the sun / half in the shade ... and there is no way you could interrupt and change things in your favor. There is no way to have the flower-girls move. No way to bring in additional, off-camera lighting. You can't scrim the sunlight either with large reflectors. There are these times when your options are limited, but you still have to get the best out of this challenging situation. There is one viable option  Read more inside...

Flash photography tutorial: Balancing flash & ambient exposure

May 22, 2015 Neil vN 47 Comments

flash photography tutorial: balancing flash and ambient exposure

Flash photography tutorial: Balancing flash & ambient exposure

This topic - balancing flash and ambient exposure - seems to one that many newer photographers struggle with. The big hurdle seems to be the basic starting point - how do you decide on the exposure for each? I'd like to explore this topic a bit with this post. The trigger for this was a question that someone emailed me regarding an image in one of my books on flash photography. Instead of answering the question directly, I thought that a wider answer might be more illuminating. We're still on that perpetual quest  Read more inside...

Photography: questions & answers (FAQ) – Exposure metering

November 8, 2014 Neil vN 21 Comments

Photography questions & answers (FAQ) - Exposure metering

Looking at some of the questions about photography that appear via Google searches, I wanted to more directly answer some of the questions. This article is a selection of questions that I decided to amalgamate into one longer article. The questions mostly center around exposure metering and selection of camera settings. A related page looks specifically at questions about flash photography.  Read more inside...

Exposure metering: Under- / Over-exposure vs. exposing correctly

April 13, 2014 Neil vN 18 Comments

Under-exposure / Over-exposure vs. exposing correctly

When I posted this photograph of Peiwen & Eric's wedding in Melbourne, Australia, on Facebook, someone asked the question: how much did I over-expose this photo by? We have to be very clear with our terminology regarding over-exposure and under-exposure. This photograph is not over-exposed. It is exposed correctly! Did my camera's light-meter jump all the way to the right-hand side? Yes, it surely did. Does it matter? No, it does not. Why not? Because I exposed correctly. Not under, not over, but correctly. This  Read more inside...

A first-steps guide to using a light meter with manual flash

February 3, 2014 Neil vN 79 Comments

A guide to using a light meter with manual flash & ambient light

A question posted on the Tangents forum was on the topic of exactly how to use a light meter to get to correct settings for manual flash. This article covers that first tentative step in what exactly you should do with this brand-new light-meter in your hand. It will help you cope with that initial "what now?" moment. How exactly would you have used the flash meter (with the strobe in manual mode) to arrive at the correct settings to illuminate the model properly without changing your in-camera settings? Values  Read more inside...

Flash photography tip – Adding flash to ambient light

July 9, 2013 Neil vN 14 Comments

Flash photography tip - Adding flash to ambient light

When I saw the beautiful architecture of the Court House in Denver, CO, I knew that I wanted to use this as a backdrop for part of the mini photography workshop in Denver. In terms of composition, the imposing pillars and leading lines of the steps would simultaneously make a simple and classic background. Our model, Elizabeth, fortunately had this simple, yet elegant black dress as part of her wardrobe. For me, this photo comes together with the way the model (with her own style and styling), and the chosen location, complements  Read more inside...

Exposure metering for a backlit subject, using the histogram

June 20, 2013 Neil vN 10 Comments

Exposure metering for a backlit subject, using the histogram

When our subject is backlit, we have a number of options: expose for the background, and then either: -- go for a (semi) silhouette, -- add light to your subject to balance their exposure with that of the background. expose carefully for our subject, and let the background blow out. This is the "ambient-light-only" option. anything somewhere inbetween those two choices, where *we* decide how we want to balance the exposure between our subject and background. Exposing for our subject, very often gives us this  Read more inside...

Using off-camera flash on a photo shoot

April 16, 2013 Neil vN 19 Comments

Using off-camera flash on a photo shoot

Someone emailed me to ask a few technical details about this family photo session. How did you expose for the family photos? Was a soft-box used? Or did you expose for the shadows and use fill flash? For those who regularly follow the Tangents blog, the thought-process here should be familiar. Let's take a walk through the process. As described in the article, controlling bright daylight w/ direct off-camera flash, when trying to over-power the sun with flash, the best algorithm is usually: - maximum flash sync speed, - lowest ISO, -  Read more inside...

How do you meter for TTL flash & ambient light?

April 11, 2013 Neil vN 26 Comments

How do you meter for TTL flash & ambient light?

In taking these kinds of candid images, I set the camera so that there is enough light recorded on the test shots without flash. No real metering technique, but I judge by the LCD to see that there will be enough detail in the background. It is kinda the dragging the shutter technique, but not as specific perhaps. I just want some ambient light to register. Then I simply use TTL flash to expose correctly for any subject which is turned away from the main source of ambient light - the window. Without flash, these kids' features  Read more inside...

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