Hi Everyone,

One month ago, I told you about getting the right exposure in all situations with a flashmeter. Let me explain today how to use it when you are shooting portraits…

Whatever lighting you are using, your camera flash, studio lighting, no lighting, your flash meter must always point in the direction of your lens. The “white ball” shall be out and right under the chin of your model.

On your flash meter, you should have a few modes:

- Ambient,

- Flash,

- Studio

In the case of the picture below, I used Ambient because I did not use any additional lighting except for the room’s downlights. I took this picture for the purpose of this post.

If you put your flash meter in flash mode, it takes the measurement when you trigger your camera flash.

In case of Studio Lighting, it’s pretty easy; my flash meter triggers my strobes. So it takes the measurement are this moment.

Do not forget, the ball must be outside to ensure that you are measuring the light coming in 3D, as it will be on the face of your model.

So the flash meter gives you the couple aperture and shutter speed. Like your camera, you should have an aperture priority and shutter speed priority mode.

Hope this post can help you to get your exposure right!

Cheers