Female: Okay Paul, what’s first?
Paul: Okay, well first of all, we’re gonna try and get a, a high key lighting effects, using some very cheap and simple equipments. Basically we’re gonna use a reflector and a window to get the effect. The window that we’ve got has got bars on so obviously those are gonna show up in the photo. But if you wanted a pure white background, you just make sure you find a window that have not bars on and it would be fine. So when, first of all, we’re gonna use a light meter.
Female: Right, and what’s that for?
Paul: The light meter is gonna tell us what settings we need to use on the camera. And the way it works is first of all you program the light meter with the ISO setting that you’ve got in your camera and with the shutter speed that you think you’re gonna wanna use. And the light meter will work out the aperture that you need to use in that situation. So, what I’m gonna do first, because we’re trying to get a difference with the background, we want it to overexpose and we want her to expose perfectly. We’re gonna meter for the background, just to see what that’s coming up, and that’s coming up to F4…
Female: Yeah.
Paul: So, then what we do is we meter… do you wanna just hang, if you grab the reflector and just get it into position.
Female: Here?
Paul: That’s great, and then we meter for Amy’s face. And that’s coming up at F2.8.
Female: Right.
Paul: So…
Female: What would you do, say if you hadn’t have a light meter?
Paul: Okay, yeah, you don’t need a light meter. A lot of people don’t use one anymore, and I personally don’t use one anymore. Obviously we the advent of digital, you don’t, you don’t really need it, so. What you do is set your camera to the TV mode…
Female: Yeah.
Paul: Which is where you set the shutter speed in the first place and the camera works out that. It’s the same as we did with the light meter.
Female: Yeah.
Paul: And obviously, if we just get a reading of that, yeah, it’s reading the same as the light meter. And then if we take a reading…
Female: Here.
Paul: Literally just, try and pointing it at Amy, yeah that’s giving us F2.8 again. So what I’m gonna do is, I’m gonna take, if you hold that, getting on the sake, take a quick shot and just see how its, great shot, and just how its, how it’s coming out. So ready one… two… three. Okay, that’s great.
Female: Oh yeah, really nice.
Paul: Okay that’s coming out perfect, and obviously if it’s coming out, if it’s coming out too dark, you can just change you aperture or your shutter speed accordingly and you know to get the desired result and that’s, that’s the great thing about it.
Female: Fantastic, so, can you tell us what would happen then if we didn’t have a window and it was dark?
Paul: Okay, well that’s another story, so come with me and we’ll sort that out.
Female: Let’s go.