Flash and Metering Mode

anonymouscuban · April 30, 2009

Over the past months, I've read up on Nikon's TTL Flash and have practiced using my flash mostly for fill. I think I have a good understanding of how that works and how to successfully use it.

Where I am a bit fuzzy is using the flash during night shots where it is serving as the primary light source. I normally shoot in Aperture Priority mode but may sometimes go full manual. I have a few questions about metering in these situations.

Let's say I am shooting a party at night, random people shots, some group, some individuals. I will probably be shooting this in Aperture mode.

Do I use spot metering or center weighted metering for this?
I assume I would not use matrix metering since I don't really care about the background... Is that assumption wrong?

Now let's say I am shooting some portrait shots of people at the party and I decide to do so in manual mode.

What metering mode do I use?
Do a dial in the aperture, shutter speed and ISO that I want, without really considering correct exposure and let the flash compensate to get the right exposure?

I have a feeling in either scenario that whether to use spot vs. center weighted depends on if I am shooting one person or a group of people but maybe I am wrong.

Thanks,
Alex

Qarik · May 1, 2009

If these are party candids then it will be fluid environment where you don't really have time to adjust metering every shot. I would simply keep it in matrix the whole time. Spot metering can get easily fooled if you happen upon a white shirt or deep black hair. Center weighting would help that but I think the area is still too small. Also that means you are centering all your subjects in the fram...which you may or may not want to do.

For manual shooting with a flash..you just need to "get it close" and then let TTL take over. You will need check your pictures and histograms often because the lighting can change from room to room (ceiing heights, lamps, wall colors, etc). My approach is pick lighting situation..take test shots until you are satisfied with the results..snap snap snap! Then when you move to a new room or outside..make adjustments..snap snap snap! etc.

anonymouscuban · May 1, 2009

Qarik... I have learned to take test shots and rely on the histogram to tell me if I need to adjust. It's funny how simple things like that can drastically improve the quality of your shots.

Won't using matrix metering take in the entire scene, background included and then meter to try to expose the overall scene? That may not matter either way.

pathfinder · May 1, 2009

Qarik wrote:

If these are party candids then it will be fluid environment where you don't really have time to adjust metering every shot. I would simply keep it in matrix the whole time. Spot metering can get easily fooled if you happen upon a white shirt or deep black hair. Center weighting would help that but I think the area is still too small. Also that means you are centering all your subjects in the fram...which you may or may not want to do.

For manual shooting with a flash..you just need to "get it close" and then let TTL take over. You will need check your pictures and histograms often because the lighting can change from room to room (ceiing heights, lamps, wall colors, etc). My approach is pick lighting situation..take test shots until you are satisfied with the results..snap snap snap! Then when you move to a new room or outside..make adjustments..snap snap snap! etc.

iTTL, Manual Mode for the camera. Turn on second curtain flash as well.

If you shoot in Av the camera will choose a very long shutter speed to expose for ambient in the background. Unless you specifically want this, and expect shutter speeds too long for handheld shots, I would avoid Av indoors for candids. You can end up with shutter speeds of 1/2 second or longer. If you want to blur dancers, this can be great with 2nd curtain flash.

I like using one speedlite in one corner of a room, with a second speedlite in another corner, and then trigger them with a wireless trigger - Nikon Commander should do this for you easily( I only shoot white lenses

) You can dial you shutter speed up or down to control how much ambient light you pick up, and the flashes light your subjects correctly. This is cool!

anonymouscuban · May 1, 2009

Awesome... questions though.

When you say 2nd curtain flash, do you mean rear-curtain flash?

Yes... I've used commander mode before... it's freaking awesome. I only have one speedlight flash by I do have a $400 BestBuy gift card burning a whole in my wallet so maybe I will pick a second speedlight. I've been considering it but I am worried I won't get much use out of it.

So you recommend shooting in manual for these situations which make sense. But when it comes to dialing the aperture and shutter, what do you base the settings on? Meter or do you simply dial in the shutter speed you want and the aperture for the DOF you want without really caring about the meter and then let iTTL provide the correct amount of light?

pathfinder · May 1, 2009

Is it called rear curtain in Nikon land? I've always heard 2nd curtain, but yes, you want the flash to fire just immediately prior to the shutter curtain closing - which is the 2nd curtain.

When I shoot manual - yes - you get to choose aperture and shutter speed and ISO. So pick a combination that will give you the DOF you want, and the ISO that will give the best quality, for the light needed.

I usually try for an aperture of f4 or f5.6 ( wider aperture makes DOF of moving candids more challenging for me ), a shutter speed around 1/160th or so. Fast enough to minimize ambient light and stop most movement, but easily handholdable. If you really want no ambient light, raise the shutter speed to 1/500th but turn on High Speed Synch for that.

If you want some movement blur, drop down to 1/15th or 1/30th ( but your ISO will need to be adjusted higher and you may not be sharp if you cannot handhold at those shutter speeds )

Choose the lowest ISO that will let your flash not need to fully recharge with each shot. I usualy start around ISO 800 and go up or down as dictated by the size of the room and the ambient lighting.

I wrote a piece about using flash like this for the Canon readers here but the basic idea translates to Nikonian very easily.

Qarik · May 3, 2009

if you aren't going for something artsy and just wanted good, focused, well exposed shots...

I always start with aperture ..almost never wide open unless I know I am going to taking a wide shot or full length shots. I typically am dialed in f/4-8 through out the night and this will get you decent DOF for head, shoulder, torso shots in the range of 35-70mm or so (my typically zoom range in that situation).

Then adjust your shutter...never let it get slower then 1/100 or so.

Take a test shot..check your preview and histograms and adjust ISO as the last step.

time2smile · May 3, 2009

Check this site out for some info on how Nikon dual meters work.
http://nikonclspracticalguide.blogspot.com/
What I quickly learned was to use TTL when the subject is brighter than the background and TTL-BL when the subject is darker.

anonymouscuban · May 3, 2009

Great info guys. Very helpful. Now I just need to go and put this stuff in practice. I will post some shots once I do.

BrianH · May 5, 2009

First off shooting flash at night indoors, just set to manual mode, rear-curtain, iso 400-800, start at f5 and foof (bounce) your flash.

An easy way to think of it is Aperture controls the amount of flash, Shutter controls the amount of ambient light. moving them up and down according to what you need for a particular shot.

Flash and Metering Mode

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