One caveat: if you have a high powered strobe in a small place, you’re not going to be able to set your camera to something ridiculous like f/64. To get a correct exposure for this setup, you would just place your light source 8.25 feet away from your subject. It really is that easy. My tendency for studio portraits is f/8, so if you divide our previous example of 66 by 8 (66/8) you get 8.25. Calculating Strobe DistanceĬonversely, if you know what aperture you want to use, for a creative effect perhaps, simply divide the guide number by your desired aperture. For example, if you get a result along the lines of f/9.2, just round it off to the nearest full-stop for the moment and we’ll learn how to fine-tune the exposure shortly. Most guide numbers never divide so evenly into full stops. Your answer is your aperture for a correct exposure: f/11. For example a guide number of 66 with a distance of 6 feet between your subject and the light source would result in: 66 divided by 6 for a result of 11. Now divide your guide number by that distance. In these events, to calculate the aperture for a correct exposure all you have to do is measure the distance between the light source and your subject in feet or meters (whichever your guide number is listed as). In other circumstances, your strobe might be in a fixed position and it cannot be moved. Some lighting effects require strobes to be in certain positions, and distances from your subject and other strobes. You can choose your aperture based on the desired outcome of your photo and calculate where to put your strobe, or you can place your strobe for a desired lighting effect and calculate the correct aperture. There are two main ways to use the guide number, that will be useful to you. As promised, you don’t yet need to know why it works you only need to know how to use it at this point. This magic number is a rather complicated thing and steeped in the brain-wracking Inverse Square Law. The next step is to flip through your strobe’s manual and find where it lists the Guide Number (also check whether the guide number is listed in feet or meters this is vital). This is extremely useful for fine tuning the exposure in most situations however, for the purpose of this exercise, it is much easier to ignore them for now and concentrate on the full stop values as indicated in the chart below. Most of our modern cameras are capable of setting the aperture in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 of a stop. Finally, I recommend that you start to think in full stops, which I’ll cover in the next section.Have a calculator at hand will make things easier.(If you have an older model, or a film camera, then default to 1/60th of a second.) Settings: Set your camera to manual mode, your shutter speed to 1/125th of a second, and your ISO to 100.Have your strobe’s instruction manual at hand.You should know how to connect your strobe to the camera and make it fire by way of remote trigger, pc sync cable, slaved to your on-camera flash, or by way of an in-camera system.Setup your studio strobe on its stand, set it to full power and make sure it works.I am a firm believer in the idea that it’s easier to learn the why, when you’ve already figured out the how.īefore we start, you’ll need to do a few things in preparation: You can return to the theories at your convenience. This isn’t a crash course in complicated theories and physics our goal is to get you using strobes and creating photographs as quickly as possible. By following this tutorial, you can go from no experience with studio lighting, to getting a correct exposure on your first frame, without the aid of expensive and unnecessary light meters. Intimidated and confused, I shoved it back in the box where it stayed for six months.ĭon’t worry though, mastering exposure with studio strobes is easy in fact it’s probably one of the easiest of the photographic skill sets. When I got my first set of lights I played with it for half an hour. Do you find studio lighting daunting? Understandable.
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