138 Setting up a Home Studio
second chance (unless you want to pay a fortune in wasted fi lm). Flash
meters are much less important with digital cameras because you can
take experimental shots and vary your exposure settings appropriately
by trial and error. After all, there is no cost penalty. That is a key
advantage of digital capture.
There are some great and simple meters made by the likes of
Sekonic, Gossen, Minolta, and others. These can be used to measure
fl ash, available light, or a combination of the two. I use a fl ash meter
occasionally as a sense check; outside I use the same meter when
shooting large-format fi lm.
Figure 7.18 shows the photographer placing a meter near the
subject. The fl ash would then be fi red to measure light hitting
the subject.Slave Relay
If you use studio lights, they need to be fi red by a cable running from
at least one of the lights to the camera. The fi ring of one light then
sets off the other light by a photosensitive diode. It can be a pain
to have more wires to trip over, so consider investing in a device
that sends a radio signal to the fl ash head. The transmitter sits
in the camera hot shoe (assuming it has one—most do, including
the more expensive compacts). When the shutter is fi red, a signal
is sent from the transmitter to a slave unit plugged into one
of the lights. This, in turn, fi res the light. Slave relay is simple
and now relatively cheap, with prices starting below $100 for
budget units.Color Balance
Flash color temperature is similar to that of daylight. Your camera may
have a color balance setting for fl ash photography, but that will only
get you close, not all the way there.
In the studio, you need to measure and calibrate your camera’s
color balance so that your images are free of unwanted color casts.
This is absolutely vital if you are shooting using JPEG fi le format, but
it is desirable even if you are shooting raw. Consult your camera
manual and determine how to calibrate your camera’s color tempera-
ture and, where possible, to save these settings. You will need a neutral
gray card, such as the Kodak Gray Card or a Gretag Macbeth color
chart, to do the job properly, but you might get by with a piece of
ordinary color-free mid-tone card.