Off Camera Flash Settings Without a Light Meter: The Breakdown with Miguel Quiles

[@richardmendoza4389]

Miguel, great breakdown video. You make me feel as though I'm not in front of an intimidating presence, but more like a good friend showing me the ropes without all the jargonistic language. As in, approachable. Thanks for that. Keep up the fantastic work!

[@bjarnejohannsen573]

Awesome - I have been a fashion & portrait photographer for 50 years (most in my "analog time") and i daily learn a lot off You to day - specially abouth the modern digital gear, but also abouth modern photography. So hereby: Thank You! - with many regards from Denmark.

[@PQPhotography]

Great video and although I have a light meter I honestly don't use it.. I get the lighting the way I want it and do so pretty quickly indoor and outdoor. It's definitely your taste. Thanks for educating.

[@barkyvonschnauzer2188]

As always you truly are the professor of recipes. 😎

[@uhhaher]

Thank you so much. As someone who is new to studio lighting, it answered a lot of my questions. Most of this is what I already thought, but it was super helpful to have someone reiterate and reinforce the information. I found it super useful to know once you have killed the ambient light, to only adjust the strobe power. Much appreciated. This short video has potentially helped me to avoid some silly mistakes on my upcoming shoot.

[@albertw251]

Great tips! I follow a similar process. I don't arrive at it that fast. Then again, you said the more you do it, the better you will be at arriving at the proper power settings for your main and fill light. As always great video!!

[@stanc846]

Thank You for this video. Could you compare the difference outcome between using a clamshell diffuser and the setup you used in this video?

[@nowayjay123]

Flash meters aren't that expensive. But knowing how to do it without a meter is a must know skill. Thanks for the video.

[@ephre]

@@MiguelQuilesJr I watched another video, where the guy had 4 lights and metered from all angles, it didn't look half as nice as this.

[@imaginecreationz]

Great Miguel! Surprisingly, this is what I do for my studio portraits without light meter.

[@annettebowieab]

Love your teaching. Thxs for taking the time to be detailed with this video!

[@FabianoYohanes]

Thank You Miguel Quilles and Adorama.

[@truthsayers8725]

same way ive been trying to learn. had a Gossen Luna Pro once (not the F "flash" model) but obviously it wouldnt have done me any good for flash... i just play with it until i get it how i like it. im surprised you had to go to 1/6400 of a second. ive got a pretty bright living room and at ISO 200 i can get away with f4 and 1/500th. in your example at 1/5000, i couldnt see any image but i wasnt there... great video! you come across very clear and unpretentious!

[@dGr8Swalla]

Wow this was really well done. Simple and informative.

[@normankleinberg5525]

Really well explained, thanks. I follow a somewhat similar procedure for my (much less sophisticated) flash photography: Basically, set camera to "M" with flash off and adjust settings until the background is exposed to my taste, then turn flash and TTL on, take another test shot and adjust flash compensation on the body until the subject is lit properly. I don't believe you mentioned that the camera should be set to M for your "ambient light only" test (that may have been implicit), nor did you mention using TTL (which I guess there's no real need to do if you're going to be doing manual adjustments of light power, I just do it because it's quicker). Again, a logical procedure which is about as simple as it gets.

[@RickLincoln]

I often shoot with hair lights, rims and background lights along with a main and fill. Even when using a one light setup I'll move the light or change from one modifier to another. All of these things would take to long using the chimping method in your video. Also, I'm pretty keen on knowing right where the brightness of my fill light comes in to blend with my main. "I'll bring the fill up 2 stops" and other WAG's don't work for me. I'll stick with metering.

[@arieraharja3717]

Very nice tutor Miguel, i try it tomorrow at my studio.

[@dpk2inc]

Helpful video Miquel. I'm setting up a home studio and this knowledge will definitely come in handy once I start shooting portraits. Thanks!

[@eringervais1746]

Do you have a video showing how to do “option 2” using a light meter? Thanks

[@allendrexel7622]

So helpful, MIguel!! Thank you for sharing this invaluable info with us.

[@Jimmy_Cavallo]

💥 6:23 I’ve shot in lighting like that at 1/250 and had a completely black image. I’m surprised that you had to take your shutter speed so far to get similar results.

[@staceymiller5046]

Thank You Miguel.... Very informative.... Thank you for taking the time .... I also use the "Shot Result Preview" on a custom button so when a trigger is on your Sony camera (a7iii) you can see the real time exposure.

[@MrWillstauk]

How do you set this up?

[@IainHC1]

Brilliant! Thank you. I have a shoot tomorrow and, for some reason, forgot about loosing the ambient light in camera. Thanks for the reminder :-) Great technique though :-)

[@dexx2g]

excellent tutorial. Can a constant light be used as the fill light while still using a strobe for the main light?

[@be-do-have]

Thank you! It was very useful!

[@logansu1114]

Thank you Miguel for this awesome video!

[@NafisAhmed73]

vote Miguel Quiles for saving my business ♥

[@Ravencroft81]

This background music...I actually went outside looking for the icecream truck and came back really disappointed...😅 Great breakdown!

[@paigeofstylez]

He's speaks in terms thats easy to understand

[@herlingadventures]

thank you for this great video. I noticed that during testing each strobe the light was very warm did you change the light temp?

[@Orions_Journey]

Can you do a video where you compare and non photography monitor vs a photography monitor for editing. Does it make a difference when color grading. Thanks 😊

[@mhc2b]

Good informative video. While I see your point that you can certainly come up with a correct exposure by trial & error, it involves a lot of unnecessary time in the studio. It's certainly the ONLY way to go when you don't have a meter. But you can buy a new Sekonic L-308S-U for under $200. Ideal flash & ambient meter for the studio. It makes life so much easier on so many levels. And if you happen to shoot with Paul C. Buff strobes, their control module also houses a flash meter!

[@jasonbodden8816]

Not everyone has that budget. "Under $200" means just under most of the time, and a lot of people don't have that disposable income for a light meter.

[@ottawamountainman]

Nice demonstration of proper studio lighting. Personally I would have optimized image quality and slightly reduced strobe recycling time by setting the ISO at the camera’s base ISO rather than randomly at ISO 200. You have excess light output and excess shutter speed. Take advantage and set the camera to best image quality available.

[@jasonbodden8816]

Seriously? There's no image quality loss at ISO 200. That's still pretty low. Hilarious.

[@ezzathanna1]

Thank you learned a lot , What about the white balance?

[@billwendry]

Ahhhh.. now (finally) I get it. I wish I’d discovered your video earlier. I didn’t know that I should set the final exposure on the camera prior to flash use. Thank you!

[@tcvaldez]

Great video with great explanation. Thanks

[@pamelagarnsay3889]

When would you use grids on your modifiers using this setup and is there a youtube video on it...please share link in reply to this comment...how would you use this setup for a large group with two body length reflectors flagging each side?

[@TANZANIAFILMMAKINGTV]

Miguel thanks very much for the tutorial i learned very important trick shooting on studio

[@juliomfp3645]

Hi Miguel thanks for the video very interesting I want to know what I need consider to select the type and size of light modifier for in location out of studio photography .... thanks in advance

[@SushantKambli1]

Your way of explaining things are very simpler to understand. You don’t make things more complicated.

[@vimalneha]

How coyld you connect to the laptop? This is quite useful. Otherwise great presentation.

[@MrWillstauk]

Do you turn off live preview when shooting with the Sony and flash?

[@George51842180]

Very useful...But I would suggest the video could address: white balance, positions of main and fill and how it would affect the output. also the distance for the model and the background is also important,.

[@SuperQBAH]

In that shoot, was there any advantage in going for ISO 200 rather than 100?

[@jasonbodden8816]

Well, you start out with an extra stop right out the gate and your strobe doesn't work as hard (not that he needed it with this Profoto system in this situation at all. The lights can more than handle this situation just fine). Doesn't make a difference with the noise level anyhow. ISO 200 is noiseless. No perceptible difference between 100 and 200 for 99% of cameras out there.

[@tonyharris8889]

As you were standing underneath the main light source would it affect the amount of light falling on the model if you changed your position? Great tutorial by the way.

[@cobblegilll]

I'm new to Sony. What settings are you using in camera? Ambient and flash? How are u setting your white balance? Are u using portrait mode? I have three 60 GN speedlites by godox. I'll have a 300 WS strobe tomorrow. And thanks the video is great!!

[@susheeltm]

Great video. Crisp and to the point. Thanks.

[@InMission]

Amazing Miguel, I love the way you explain things with simplicity, so we really get to learn. My question is, if you are in a budget (we had a break in to our house, everything is gone, that means my camera, computer, everything) so I'll have a A7III next week with the 70-200 mm f/2.8 ( I love 135mm for portraiture) and I'm buying 2 Godox AD200, I want to learn artificial light, all my life I shoot with natural light only, can you give some possibilities of what kind of result I can get out of it? By the way Miguel, your website is not working....

[@speterlewis]

Very helpful workflow.

[@PimpnBass]

Would the same tutorial instructuons apply if you were outside? Or is there a different or better process of doing this.? I need some basic guidance please. I had to step away for a few years from learning what i knew before and im completely lost regarding lighting. I now own a D750 and a dual S1 HSS light kit and im having a heck of a time trying to figure this out again. Im willing to connect with anyone who can help stamp this in my head. Its taking me too long to set up and troubleshoot when im doing my shots. I know it has to be simple. I just need that spark from someone. Thank you.

[@arbull7264]

what type of tirgger you had on the lens that control the firing power of the strobes? Can something like that be used with monolight and speed-light combination?

[@Unitedkurd1982]

Thank you so much for your very useful tip ❤️❤️

[@trollfiddler]

The thing with light/flash meters people mention below. Back in the 1970s when I started you HAD to have them. Many cameras had no meter or if they did they were pretty useless. But you had a roll of film in the camera and couldn't see the results of your shots for days or even a week or more. Film was expensive so you didn't waste it. If you wanted any chance of your flash images coming out well, you had to use a meter unless your shooting situation never changed from week to week. There was no way to see what your flash was doing to the pic unless you wasted money on Polaroids and they only gave you the faintest idea of what was going on. Now you can shoot as many digital shots as you like for no cost and see the results on a screen. It's as easy as using a meter. You could use a meter on a light and then go and adjust the flash. You could do the same with no meter by looking at the screen. There's no difference in the procedure. You can walk around 5 lights with a meter or you can look at 5 images with a screen. Unless you have no experience at all with lights you should be able to see easily what adjustment you have to make to any one light just by looking. If you have no experience it may take you slightly longer, but learning ratios from a meter is not easy either. I'm willing to bet you'd get it right faster with your eyes than trying to figure out stop ratios on 5 lights with a meter. I had a hard time coming to terms with this after decades of using meters and I hung onto 600/800 Euro meters for ages. But I'm glad I gave them up (kicking and screaming) in the end. I like to use my eyes, it takes me less time now than using a meter did and it's more fun.

[@Graham1904]

Good vid. You are standing in front of the main light, does this not cause any shadowing effects?

[@m.sifflet9443]

Now that I have a Flashmeter, I prefer to use it, but this technique is very interesting! What software do you use to view your shooting live on your computer?

[@mikeagresta]

Thanks, this works great.

[@xavierguy10]

How do you acquire focus when your image is completely dark?

[@Leonx584]

Hi! Do you shoot with your lens in manual or autofocus??? How do you focus in dark? Please answer to this question! Thank you so much!)))

[@jonathancopeland6240]

Thanks for all the tips!

[@john3Lee]

This is exactly how I have been setting up my Profoto lights, but with addition of interpreting the results by analysis of the histogram.... In my view, a more scientific way... Good video btw :)

[@kc65oq]

What sort of metering mode should be used, spot, evaluative or center-weighted? Do these modes even matter in manual?

[@llg4958]

For the stand with the D2 and 5ft Octa: did you pair it with a mini boom (Kupo, Avenger, Matthews,) or did you have to go bigger with a Junior boom to rig it safely?

[@ericharrisonjr.510]

Is there a reason you why after killing the ambient, you didn't do a TTL and then convert to manual using those TLL settings as a starting point for tweaks? If I'm honest, I was expecting you to take that route given how Profoto likes to trumpet this feature with their latest Air Remote. But you're right,... a couple of ways to kill ambient and set light without a meter. Nice video.

[@jasonbodden8816]

He didn't do that because the video has to appeal and be of use to photographers that don't have equipment with that capability. Not all strobes have that feature. The whole point of the video is to get your exposures by eye no matter what lighting system you're working with.

[@webmaster4ZLCB]

Good episode. Thanks!

[@roni_sidhu]

Great tutorial, thank you.

[@4rroby]

Well done! Why not just use a reflector for fill?

[@bobtpapa]

Great lesson with details! Question: What "CREATIVE STYLE" are you using on your 7riii? Standard, Portrait, Neutral, etc? Any adjustment to them with Contrast, Saturation, Sharpness? I just got an riii. Thanks, Bob

[@KosherBeycon]

Thank you for a great tutorial! I know this was posted a while ago but hopefully you can answer anyway. Is it possible to do off camera flash with speedlights and with high speed sync? I know it works on camera but Im not sure how to apply it when using of camera. I Shoot with Canon 5D mark III, canon 430ex III and an octabox from Godot. Usually its not a problem and I can work around it but I still feel like I want to be able to shoot at lower fstops like 2.8 or 3.5.

[@jas_bataille]

My mentor, 30+ years in photography, let all of his flashes to the lowesr power-settings so that he doesn’t have to wait for recycling time. Period. That being said, he uses 4K watts strobes, and he’s the type to have 4 of those to lit a group (well he did up to 200 people not kidding) and hire an assistant to hold a small strobe for events. But that’s what he told me to do and that make sense to me. He does hwve a flash meter, but no light-meter.

[@yorl-kng]

If you're using a light meter do u do the reading by flashing both lights at the same time to get the aperture ? Or each light is metered individually, coz if done individually im wondering what happens if each light meters a different aperture then which one do u use,, if that makes sense (am a rookie)

[@fahaddanawala5213]

Can I use a Canon 50 mm 1.8 lens to shoot portraits in a home studio.

[@ejikeonwunabonze]

Thanks Miguel for the video. Its basically you and Joel Grimes (and other few) i can really call the Masters of Light.

[@The-Tall-Photographer]

So, you were still at 1/6400 shutter?

[@asalgarut]

What the distance between a model to the background?

[@MontyVideo969]

If you're tethered you can take a test shot of a grey card (10 bucks), look at the RGB numbers on the image and adjust the power setting of the flash more or less exactly and re-test until the numbers are around 128,128,128. Seemples. Which pro photographer doesn't have a light meter???? Also, if you don't want to spend thousands on pro studio flash and be able to shoot in High-speed sync, draw the curtains/backouts in the studio to get darkness, it always works for me.

[@Eduardo_Aguirre]

I'm 100% sure he got a light meter, if he doesn't Adorama can give one to him in a heartbeat, in my opinion this is for the ones that "can't afford" a light meter and can have the work done without one. @miguelquiles can't afford a lightmeter?? lol

[@jasonbodden8816]

Countless pros don't use light meters. You might try not being so elitist. MANY pros don't even own one. This comment is hilarious at best.

[@jcrodriguez1]

Great video...thank you!

[@fostervf16]

I think I have a good question. I understand that room light can come in at slower shutter speeds and lower aperture. But the flash should still overpower them. Making them unnoticeable. Don't you think that would be the case? Some people don't have high speed sync, or in this videos case, a camera that goes over 1/4000th of a sec. How hard would it be to get the same results at let's say 1/200th of a second? It's nice to get that perfectly dark test shot. But is it necessary for the final result?

[@trollfiddler]

Depends how fussy you are. If you want an exact look then you don't want ambient mixed into your flash. It will be there. You might not notice it at the time but when you come to post-process you won't want to find tungsten or warm/cold daylight on certain planes of your model's face or hands or clothing. And you definitely don't want it in a product shot where colour matters. It's a real pain and more work for you to fix it if you can. To get the same results with slower shutter speeds all you can do is make sure the room is blacked out and no light is leaking in. That way you can get rid of the ambient without resorting to HSS.

[@ScottWilliamsPhotography]

Very useful. Thank you :)

[@michaelnilsson_personal500]

How do you achieve focus (for instance Eye AF), when you've exposed for ambient light (turning everything dark)? Especially if either you or the subject moves around...?

[@qiyuxuan9437]

There are enough ambient light to use AF, he just used a very high shutter speed to make it look dark without flash.

[@nashrulyaacob173]

With what software are u tathered with to laptop?

[@mattyanderson1938]

What software are you using on the computer?

[@luuk441]

Very nice i do first one in TTL than go to manual...

[@BjrnRemseth]

Very nice! Do you sometimes mix colour temperatures between the strobes, or are they always the same?

[@robertgordonphotography]

You mentioned you took it up +2, Are you using TTL?

[@fotowalo]

I expose to the right, controlling with the histogram...fast and easy......outdoor, indoor, with flash or daylight...or both....

[@charliefarley74]

Thanks for the tips 👍🏼

[@msfphotography4857]

Great video

[@melissahall7009]

Very helpful. Thank you!!!

[@altes5901]

Useful video, thank you very much but that background music is totally distracting. It took me a while to figure out where that repetitive electronic sound (or noise) was coming from. I checked around the house to see what the noise was and finally discovered it came with the video.

[@luuk441]

nice i use this method all the time

[@anthonydean7011]

I don't understand why you needed to use HSS in your studio to get rid of the ambient light. I've done that at iso 100, f/4, 1/250th sec

[@GRJCLyon]

Because shooting at a much higher f stop like f16 may cause defraction and you lose quality in the image. It also depends on how much "ambient" light inside the studio you have and can actually shut off. It may be super bright and everything is on one switch so you have to keep it on and the ambient is now crazy bright.

[@jasonbodden8816]

He literally said pretty clearly why he used HSS at 3.5. The studio lights and the back lights were impacting the shot even at 1/5000 sec. Even if he was at ISO 100 he'd still have to be in HSS to get a completely black picture at 3.5. He has different circumstances than you with more light to cut out than you did so you saying that you've cut all ambient light in the room at ISO 100, f/4, 1/250 sec. before makes precious little sense because it's highly obvious you had much less ambient light to knock out than he did here. Just sayin'.

[@kallanet]

Hi, what type of laptop you are using?

[@manoharmgr8235]

SUPER ,CONGRATULATIONS,*** நன்றாக இருக்கிறது வாழ்த்துக்கள் R.MANOHAR-CHENNAI

[@adeelcyril3339]

Superb!!!

[@terryyu3832]

Good video, thank you

[@KasperHeisenbaconDavies]

Why did you chose to shoot ISO 200? I thought it would always be the aim to keep it as low as possible?

[@Jstnelson]

Heisenbacon : K. Davies I was going to ask this as well because I see people shoot at 200 or 400 iso very often with high shutter speeds. But I realized, in this case, he wanted to be at f3.5 and even if he had gone to 1/8000 ss, he wouldn’t have been able to get the same exposure he used at 100 iso. I personally would have just been at 1/8000 and iso 100 and dealt with the tiny bit of extra ambient exposure but, in reality, he’s not losing anything going to 200 iso. I think professionals just learn a lot and stop concerning themselves with the technicalities of things like iso 100 vs 200

[@katharinedeveise9632]

I have a question. When I lose all the ambient light my camera can’t find a focus point. How do I fix this?

[@antoniodelgado-noriega1063]

Use manual focus

[@antoniodelgado-noriega1063]

Use manual focus

[@michaelnilsson_personal500]

@@antoniodelgado-noriega1063 If either you or your subject moves around, it isn't really feasible to use manual focus. Let's say if the model moves around, whips her hair or similar.

[@cybergen2K]

9:00 That really, really, really should have been mentioned earlier. It makes understanding what is about to happen difficult to understand.

[@PeterSzaban]

It would have been nice to see the histograms of the image with the key light only, and the image with the fill light only. Thanks for showing us how you work; it does help!

[@tinowildenhain2324]

In fact using the histogram would make things much simpler if you don't have a calibrated screen to look at. With the camera unteethered this is a very effective method for arriving at the best settings without wasting too many shots.

[@babymarshmello1]

At least I know I've started out cirrectly. Lol. Great tips.

[@tomcorbett5508]

That's all well and good for studio photography. What about if your doing event photography with a speed light on camera in TTL and you only have 1 shot to get the exposure of your flash right?

[@shifteleven]

If you're at an event, get there early and plan. Take test shots before hand so that when your "one moment" happens, your prepared. That's what I've done anything it's helped.

[@reoflex]

Practice shooting in similar environments. Isn' t TTL supposed to do that for you automatically??? I think so dude. Be sure to put a Gary Fong Light Sphere on your flash to eliminate harsh shadows, and red-eye. TTL will get the exposure correct enough that you'll be able to tweak it in PS or LR in post. There's no substitute for hands on practice.

[@ejikeonwunabonze]

Tom Corbett For fuck sake, who is using light metering in a dance hall or an event? Master your lights pal.