Incident metering for studio flash

Techniques

24 October 2007 14:46

Studio flash doesn’t offer automatic exposure like on-camera flash and you can’t use your camera’s built-in meter, so you have to use a separate lightmeter to get the exposure spot-on.

The most reliable way to meter in the studio is to use a technique called incident light metering, where you measure the light falling onto the subject, rather than the light reflected back like a normal in-camera reading. You do this by connecting the meter to your flash units using the same cord as you would normally use for the camera. You will also need to position a small white dome over the cell of the meter to take this type of reading.

You then place the meter in the same position as the main subject and point it straight back towards the camera and fire the flash. The meter will give you the right aperture to set on the camera.