One Light-II
It has been a while, huh? I didn’t forget though. In this entry, we are going to cover the 3 areas of exposure. These will be flash power, flash to subject distance and ISO.
You didn’t come here, so I could rattle on like someone who’s most important decision of the day is apple sauce, or prunes (although there are some days where that looks like a good alternative).
Flash Power
A flashes power setting, refers to the amount of light it will produce. So, at 1/1 power, or full power, it will give you the brightest flash that unit is capable of. If you drop that power down to 1/2, it means that you have reduced the power of the flash to 1/2 of full power.
Flash power settings follow this model:
• 1/1
• 1/2
•1/4
•1/8
•1/16
•1/32
•1/64
•1/128
For each of the settings you go down, you reduce the flash output by one stop. So, by going from 1/1 to 1/2, you have dropped one stop. If you go to 1/8, you have dropped three stops.
Flash power directly relates to aperture. Let’s say to get proper exposure at full power; you need to set your aperture to f16. If you drop your flash power to 1/2 (dropping it by one stop), you will need to lower your aperture setting to f11 (one stop) to get the same exposure. The big advantages of using lower flash power is that it will recycle faster and not drain your batteries as quickly.
Well, I had the intention of combining the last three elements into one post, but I think I’ll break them up into separate posts. Each one will give you enough to chew on for a while.
The next part in this series will be Flash to Subject Distance (you will see why I decided to break them up).
