lecture 6

In today's lecture we looked at flash lights in the studio. Below are some notes from this session.

Using the flash units (points to remember)

1. When unpacking the equipment from bags remove lights unit BEFORE removing tripods so the heads do not get damaged.
2. Remove modelling lamp (bulb) before fitting the softbox (if this is the accessory you are using) or the bulb may get broken.
3. IMPORTANT - Do not put your fingers on the flash bulb (the horse shoe shaped one) as this will leave grease on it changing how it heats leading to failure.
4. Make sure the stand is stable – lights with accessories are top heavy. - put one leg in line with where the light is facing. 
5. Wrap lead once around the stand to prevent it be tripped over and knocking the lamp over.
6. Fit the remote control sender to the hot shoe of the camera and the receiver on the flash unit. One receiver is battery powered (requires 2xAA) and one is daisy chained on the mains lead.
7. If you are using a second flash unit set it to ‘remote on’. This will sense the flash of the first unit and go off simultaneously with no connecting lead required.
8. Check the shutter sped setting on your camera for use with external flash. On the Nikon D7200 the maximum is 200 hundreds of a second. 60th of a second is a good starting point if you don’t know what the setting is for your camera.
9. Use the light meter to set exposure (aperture). Remember to have the meter on its flash mode, press the button once then fire the flash taking either a reflected or incident reading. Use this as a starting point for your camera setting on manual e.g. 200 shutter and f4.
10. Make sure the ISO on you light meter is the same as on your camera Make sure the white balance is set for flash photography
11. There is no need to use a tripod for the camera as the shutter speeds are much higher than with hot lights. 

below are some screen shots of the controls and body of the flash lights.