So, what are you saying? That the histogram looked like a far
right-winger due to all the white fabric in the scene? That you were
concerned the histogram was indicating overexposure but, despite that,
there were no flashies flashing? In any case, I'd have used the meter
too if multiple lights were involved. Glad it all worked out.
Chuck Norcutt
Ken Norton wrote:
>> Actually, I typically do use sync'd flash with a radio remote but that
>> still requires an assistant on one end or the other or else flash on a
>> tripod or lightstand. Chimping is just easier.
>>
>
>
> You've got absolutely no argument from me on that. I do the chimping method
> more times than not. However,.... (with me, there seems to always be a
> however)
>
> Two weeks ago I photographed this 6-month old child in the family home. A
> nice location shoot in which I hauled my lightstands, monolights and
> umbrellas up two flights of stairs and stuffed them in a dining room in
> front of the Christmas tree. It was so cramped I actually shot the entire
> series from UNDERNEATH the dining room table.
>
> Yes, insert visions of the Schnozz knocking dents in his head from the
> underside of the table.
>
> I used my wireless ebay flash trigger to fire one of the two strobes and the
> other was optically slaved to go off when the first one fired. Usually I
> hook the radio receivers to both, but the close proximity would have caused
> misfires.
>
> Before nestling under the table I used the flash meter to get my readings.
> As I failed to have my pc-sync to transmitter cable with me, I had to use
> the free-sync function. Worked like a charm. I dialed in the settings into
> the camera and fired a couple test shots of my daughter to make sure my
> shadows were where I wanted them. Two minor movements of the umbellas and
> one tweek of the output power of one of the lights and i was good to go.
> Under the table I went...
>
> One of the outfits was this white furry coat thing that just demanded to be
> puked on by a just-fed baby. The baby was also placed on a white blanket in
> her white coat with white hat. Christmas tree, little railroad and wrapped
> presents were behind her.
>
> During the shoot I chimped on occasion to make sure everything was Kosher.
> Unfotunately, with this particular outfit the view on the LCD was anything
> but pleasant. In fact, the histogram was in histerics. However, I did
> double-check for flashing highlights and there were none. Hmmm. So, what to
> do? Do I ignore what the histogram says and just stick with my
> incident-dome meter readings?
>
> Short answer is that without flashing highlights I was pretty confident that
> I wouldn't be in too much of a stranglehold--especially with effective
> highlight recovery in ACR or RawTherapee, so I left it as is and didn't
> change a thing.
>
> The end result was quite fascinating. I did shoot raw, but processed the
> files straight in Studio2 with ABSOLUTELY NO adjustments whatsoever. It was
> my default settings from the camera (CS2, customized white-balance, etc.,)
> but did save the file as a 16-bit Tiff in sRGB. The ONLY editing to the
> files were cloning and healing brush edits--nothing more. The files were
> saved as 8-bit JPEGs for sending to MillersLab. I requested NO color or
> brightness/contrast adjustments--just a straight output.
>
> Folks, the final prints were perfect. Absolutely perfect. I couldn't have
> improved on the tonalities, contrast or brightness if I tried. The white
> furry coat and the white blanket were perfectly exposed with just enough
> texture. Not a single blown highlight, not a single color shift, not a
> single false color anywhere. Even the shadows were perfect.
>
> The moral of the story is that the handheld flash meter has its place and
> when combined with a camera with sufficient dynamic range (which the E-1 has
> in spades), you can pretty well ignore the chimping and in fact chimping can
> get you in trouble. Had I adjusted the exposure based on chimping I would
> have needed to boost the exposure in post and while at it would have needed
> to shift colors to go along with the boost as not all color response of film
> or digital is linear.
>
> It also helps to be a mighty fine photographer too......, but until I reach
> that stature, I'll stick with metering and luck.
>
> AG
--
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