In this video I show the basics of using a light meter, and the science and practical use of using your histogram and gray card to set perfect exposure. Get the full series free at www.soocscience.com/off-camer...
A RU-vidr without RGB lights and "yo what's up!" Where are your new videos? You deserve more subscribers and likes. Thanks for your nice explanation. And kudos to your model.
Right to the point and accuarate video. Use of the gray card to set the correct flash exposure in combination with the histogram, is so useful. There's no need for a light meter or for guesswork. Thanks for that.
Dude, I've seen so many videos on RU-vid and yet your video was the best so far. Very well explained and gave me the answers I was looking for. Thanks for your time!
That's tough because I didn't even know that I'd like to see this video before I did :D But since you asked, I think a lot of people, me included, don't have a studio and several lights etc. That's why I'd like to see how to setup a single flash with softbox in small places and get the best results.
@@mdg7890erfect! That's exactly what I'm going to be showing soon, I shoot single light a lot in my home studio. It's 12x19 but even smaller spaces can work fine. Thanks for the feedback!
That was a great video I never use a gray card I'm new to off camera flash after seeing his video I probably will get one... so why did you adjust your white balance and how did you know what to automatically put the white balance to
I wish I had been able to record that part. When you set custom white balance on a Canon it brings up your playback menu, and you select what frame you want to use. So I use the frame of the gray card, or even better, the white balance side of the card. This tells the camera - "this is neutral" and it sets that as your white balance. Nikon and Sony are slightly different but same idea. I typically set exposure and wb with the other side of the card, but that will be another video : ) Alternately you could import the shot of the gray card into Lightroom or ACR, use the white balance eyedropper, and then paste those white balance settings to your other photos.
Depends on the situation, best answer is probably sometimes. If you're shooting in open shade and move deeper into the shade both your exposure and your white balance can be affected, so in that case you'd want to use the card again. If you stay in the same spot but your subject turns 90-180 degrees they're likely facing into different light. And if you shoot anywhere near golden hour or blue hour, the white balance and exposure shift REALLY fast. It seems nitpicky to constantly set this in the field, but the payoff is that you can basically one click edit your entire gallery with your own presets, preset of your choice, or by editing the first image in the series and using 'previous' for the rest of them.
Do you ever get people telling you that this doesn’t work or that it is wildly inaccurate? Every time I suggest it to someone who’s looking for an alternative to buying an expensive light meter, other people dog pile me in the comments and tell me it doesn’t work. It’s awkward for me because I use this method literally every day. What have your experiences been?
every day... they I just send them my 1 hour video on my channel about histogram ... if even so they question... I just dont care... they just need to study more lol... I have two flash meters on my drawer... my 7 dollar grey card gets more use than them lol
Yah usually follow up with how gray cards are meant for white balance anyway. I just show them my sooc shots. Sometimes in the studio I'll use the meter but if I'm outside I shoot a lot of HSS and it's gray card all the way. Over the last couple years I've taken to using the white side of the card for both exposure and white balance to speed up the process, the spike is just in a different spot : )
In your example the light source remained stationary, how would this work if your out in the field with your flash mounted on camera and bounced of ceiling or something else, as your distance to subject changes so does your light source?
Hey Noel depending on your camera this could be very easy or very difficult to do. On Canon cameras you need the gray card to fill a good portion of the frame to make a definitive spike. Since you might have to move to do this you wouldn't be able to get an accurate reading since your flash is moving with you. On Nikon cameras the histogram actually changes when you zoom in on your images, so you can zoom in on the card from where you're standing to view the histogram from just the card. Really wish my Canon did that haha.
Such a great video, thank you, but there was something very 7mportant that I didn't understand... at 8:52 you say that you set the correct White Balance but I didn't understand how you set our WB! Would you be so kind as to explain??! Thank you so much in advance!
Thanks Anna! This is going to vary by camera make & model, but essentially what happens is you take a shot of a white balance card, and then tell your camera -"this is white," and the camera uses that shot to calibrate a custom white balance. I shoot Canon, and on my EOS R "Custom White Balance" is in camera menu 4. I use it so often that I also put it in the #1 spot on my star menu. When you select the menu item the camera prompts you to select the frame you want to use, and then provides a friendly reminder to switch your white balance to Custom in the Q menu if it isn't already.
@@jpegsarenottheenemy thank you so much for your answer! I do know now to do it, but I thought you were doing it at that momento and I didn't realize how! Thank you!🙏
Like many things in photography, best answer is it depends haha. I probably would not in the studio, 3 clicks of aperture = 3 clicks of light power. Outside though I most likely would, as an aperture change affects both ambient and strobe exposure. Also if you're in high speed synch territory will almost always have to repeat as the strobe power isn't usually linear across stops once in HSS.
@@belleboca5997 it's my favorite one so far. Both sides are spot on for their intended purpose. You can use the gray side for WB if you need to but it does give slightly different WB results than the white side. The white side is an exact match with my xrite color checker, and once you learn where that spike goes you can use white for exposure also.
@@belleboca5997 probably not in any useful way, unless maybe you shoot Nikon. On Canon platforms you need to fill the frame pretty well to get a good spike. Nikon lets you zoom in and the histogram only shows the zoomed portion. Even then I think the passport is a little small to be useful for that, but I'd be happy to be wrong : )
Каждый раз подбирать мощность вспышки по гистограмме - это не профессионально😕. Любой измеритель можно откалибровать именно под твой объектив. Один раз проделай эту работу, а дальше пользуйся измерителем одним нажатием😊.
