When using an off-camera flash, how does the shutter speed and aperture affect t

Question:Right now I am having a hard time getting a good exposure. I use trial and error until I get a great picture. Right now, I am relying on the tiny monitor on the back of my SLR to determine if my picture looks good or not. I want to get the point where I really don't have to do that. I know that flash meters will give you a good aperture reading, but they are so expensive!

Do you guys know any alternatives to flash meters?

Also, don't forget the title of the thread question, When using an off-camera flash, how does the shutter speed and aperture affect the exposure? (specifically, how does the shutter speed, and how does the aperture)

Lastly, If you could, please refer me to a good place to study on this. (besides strobist.com)

Thanks,

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Right now I am having a hard time getting a good exposure. I use trial and error until I get a great picture. Right now, I am relying on the tiny monitor on the back of my SLR to determine if my picture looks good or not. I want to get the point where I really don't have to do that. I know that flash meters will give you a good aperture reading, but they are so expensive!

Do you guys know any alternatives to flash meters?

Also, don't forget the title of the thread question, When using an off-camera flash, how does the shutter speed and aperture affect the exposure? (specifically, how does the shutter speed, and how does the aperture)

Lastly, If you could, please refer me to a good place to study on this. (besides strobist.com)

Thanks,

The shutter speed can be used to control the 'bleed' in of background lighting.

Together with the aperture they are used to control the general level of exposure.

The aperture governs the amount of flash light entering the camera.

You need a digital camera if you are going to get away without a flash meter... shorten the shutter speed so your exposure isn't affected by the background lighting first. Shoot a grey card, and zoom into it - you should see your information balanced at the mid point of your histogram if your grey point exposure is correct.

Once you have your flash exposure sorted you can then adjust the shutter to control the amount of bleed you are getting.

You also need to bear in mind exposure latitudes and the print window, in summary:
JPEG and TIFF and images printed out have a 3.5 exposure range (in f-stops) between the white and black points.
Transparency - 4 stops.
Typical negative film - 4.5 stops.

DON'T rely on the preview image - you must use the histogram!

On or off camera is largely a non-issue... the same rules apply. Contact me off list for a good site that will teach you this and a lot more.

I hate using flash, too. I do find that the exposure is not always perfect--but am able to 'save' it by using Adobe Lightroom's "recovery" function (see below).

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2296/2293...

My camera does not have a built-in flash, so I have an external Canon mounted on the top.

I set mine to automatic (P mode), and in RAW format.

Not quite sure if I am helpful about this.

Just look in the Owner's Manual for your camera and find the section about Using Flash.

It would help greatly to know what camera and flash you have. Not knowing makes an intelligent answer all but impossible.

EDIT:

I've used off-camera flash since 1976 - when I bought a Vivitar 283 with an off-flash sensor that mounted on the hot shoe on the camera (the other end mounts to the flash). The flash itself lives on a Vivitar flash bracket. Back in those olden days TTL (Off-Film Flash Metering) hadn't been invented. I simply set the shutter speed to 1/60 (yes, abysmally slow compared to some synch speeds today), set the ASA (now known as ISO) on the flash and then chose 1 of 4 Auto Modes on the flash. Reading the scale, I could easily see that in Red Mode I'd be good to 30' at f4; in Yellow, 40' at f2.8; in Blue, 15' at f8 and in
Purple, 10' at f11. So I knew that if I wanted to use bounce flash I'd likely use f4. I had to learn all that by reading the Owner's Manual for the flash unit.

Later, after Minolta invented TTL, I bought a Minolta X-700, Minolta 360PX flash and the Minolta Power Grip II. Certainly gives more f-stop options.

Off camera flash can be quite tricky. The aperture determines the flash exposure, while the shutter speed controls how much of the background, or ambient light will effect the overall exposure. To determine proper FV, you need the GN of the flash you are using to know what power is needed to give a proper exposure given the distance from the subject and the aperture being used, that is if you are using manual mode (the hard way). This GN, or guide number is different from flash to flash, so consult your owner's manual. Many newer flash units can still use TTL with the camera off shoe, nikon for example calls this CLS or creative lighting system using IR signals to sync off camera flash from the camera, or you can use wireless transmitters that are TTL enabled (which is new, radiopoppers just came out with a set of transcievers that work with TTL). If you can use TTL instead of manually firing the flash, you'll have far less problems and you'll even be able to work in some flash compensation from your camera to tweak the exposure if neccessary. Otherwise you're stuck with single contact sync and all the work.