Camera Settings- 1 light, Light meter and the Distance/ Angle/ Position of Light # Techfile

Camera settings - using 1 light (3 different lighting setup - Beauty Dish, Soft Box and Bounce lighting)

Equipments:

• A lighting stand
• A flash head
• A light meter
• Sync lead
• A beauty dish/ soft box
• A cable
• White Poly boards/ background
• Reflector

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/
Sekonic_401_309_L_308S_Flashmate_Light_Meter_368226.jpg
Light Meter

Light meter - It is an equipment used to measure the lighting (measure how much light come from the lamp on the flash. It helps to get the correct exposure and test the position of light.
Directions of using a light meter:

Remember after you have got the right setting, you need to stay at the same position as if you move to another place, the data/ setting on the light meter will be different.  

Setting: 

• ISO - 100
• f (Aperture) - f5.6 
• Shutter Speed - 1/125
• Must be on Flash C logo setting

Connect flash head and the light meter with the sync lead. 
When using the light meter, remember to push the white circle button to the left as left is for indoor (studio) and on the right is for outdoor. 
Place the light meter beside the model's head, facing straight, flat and towards the flash. 

Aperture: The lower the number of the aperture, the more blurriness the background is. (Background will be more out of focus) - Creates depth of field effects
The higher the number of aperture, the more clearer the background will show up.

In lesson, we have set up the aperture to f5.6.
To get the right aperture on the light meter, we adjust the flash power number to get the right amount of aperture on it. If the aperture on the light meter is too high, you will need turn the flash power number down and so same idea, if the aperture is too low, you will need to turn the flash power number up. 

1. Beauty Dish
Beauty Dish helps to create studio lighting and a more artistic finish. If you place the flash with the beauty dish on in high position, it helps to create bright sun effect.

You can see the photos on above, the lighting helps to create harsh and dark shadows. 

2. Soft Box
Soft Box creates a softer, diffuse and more natural lighting. It also create softer shadows.

You can see the differences between using a beauty dish and the soft box as soft box creates a more natural lighting and also the shadows at the models' back has got softer shadows.

3. Bounce lighting (using beauty dish)

Bounce lighting creates even more natural lighting than soft box and it creates soft daylight finish.
Use white backgrounds or two white poly boards and create a corner and place the flash pointing at the corner in between the two white poly boards. The reason why we use white background/ poly boards as white is good for bouncing light. 

By comparing to previous lighting, bounce lighting gives the most natural lighting finish. On this shoot, we have placed the white reflector under to make the skin look more glowy. 

Reflector:

• White reflector- Good for bouncing light
• Silver reflector- It creates more light bouncing and the skin will look more glowy. When you place the silver reflector under the model's face, it can creates a sea scene.