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The Phoblographer Answers: Why Does My Camera Meter Not Meter With My Flash?

Chris Gampat
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10/11/2017
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat the Phoblographer Fujifilm X500 Flash review product images2001-200s2.8XF23mmF1.4 R 2

One of the biggest problems that almost every photographer has with flash is that they don’t know how to meter with it unless you’ve had extensive experience. And so today’s questions comes from a place where it honestly shouldn’t be a problem but it is. The situation: you’re shooting with a flash connected to the hot shoe and the flash is in TTL mode. The camera meter says that you’re underexposed but the image isn’t–in fact it’s overexposed in your eyes. Why is that?

The problem is with a variety of issues. It starts with, first and foremost, the fact that flashes in TTL are designed to read your camera’s ISO and your lens’ aperture setting and meter both off of those. If it’s beyond ISO 1600, chances are that the image is going to be incredibly bright. If you bounce it off of a surface, then you’re cutting down the light output just a bit anyway. So with that said, the exposure settings on your camera more or less are tuned into what’s in front of it–the ambient exposure.

Let that sink in: your camera’s light meter is reading the ambient exposure. Not your flash. Your flash is reading that exposure and trying to compensate.

Then you need to consider how lighting and a camera works when flash output is added to the scene. Here we go:

  • Shutter speed controls camera shake and the amount of ambient light in the scene.
  • Aperture and ISO control the flash output

That’s it. That’s really all that there is to it. So what do you do about it? Typically, if you’re shooting in TTL, it’s best to use a light modifier of some sort and not have the flash so close to your subject. But if you’re in manual, then using a light meter or messing around is the best way to go about working with the scene. Of course, one of those options is far more professional than the other.

camera meter flash images manual TTL
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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