I love photography but i bought an auto meter VF some time ago ,then i have no idea how to use it,I live in San Antonio Texas and the schools only have courses of basic photography and dark room.I have the lights, umbrelas, backgrounds,etc. Understanding exposure by Bryan Peterson would be a good place to start learning about how and why to use this tool. A basic photography course would also cover the use of a meter.
Your meter measures two sources of light: ambient and strobe. It can measure either as incidental or reflected light (with an attachment). In incidental metering, you are placing the meter near the subject you want to photograph and measure the light hitting it. In reflected light metering, you are pointing the meter at an object and measuring the light coming from it (the same way an in-camera meter works).
In ambient, you will key in your desired ISO/ASA speed, and then choose either a desired shutter speed or aperture size. The meter will then give you a reading for the correct exposure based on your given value. If you key in a shutter speed, it will tell you what aperture you need.
When measuring strobe, the same rules apply as above, except of course shutter speed no longer factors in directly (although some meters, like my Sekonic, will tell you what percentage of light is strobe vs ambient).
So assuming you're wanting to learn studio photography, you'll mostly be using the meter for strobes. Here's an example of metering to set ratios:
I typically set my fill light first, ballpark the power level, and then take a reading from wherever the subject will be posed. I'll then adjust the light until I'm getting the f/stop value I'm looking for (lets say f/5.6) on the meter. Now, I want a 3:1 ratio, which means 3 units of light are hitting the bright parts of the face for every one unit of light hitting the shadow areas. This is a very common ratio, good for a multitude of purposes. Every full stop you go up or down, your amount of light either halves or doubles. Light "adds" cumulatively though, so if we set the key to f/8 (one full stop higher), we are sending twice as much light from the key as from the fill. But since the fill light is (usually) hitting both sides of the face, 1 unit is hitting the shadows but 3 units are hitting the highlights. 3:1! So I either turn off the fill light or shade it from the meter's sensor, and then take readings from the key light looking to set it to F/8. Then I'll take a final meter reading to confirm the overall value at which I want to shoot.
As you can tell, productive use of a meter requires a strong understanding of the fundamentals of exposure. By your rejection of the "basic" courses, I've assumed that you have a strong understanding of photographic light, and are simply interested in learning studio lighting techniques. Again, the book I've recommended will help. I also recommend Light: Science and Magic by Paul Fuqua. Well you do have to learn only basic photography to get to where you want to go. It all builds one layer on another in a specific way.
After you have all the basics, then you can start using the lights, umbrellas and backgrounds.
Here is the deal. Once you have control over the camera and know how to "see" your image and how it responds to your lighting, you can figure out how to use your lights, umbrellas and backgrounds on your own. All you have to do is study images you like and with all your basic skills, duplicate them and the lighting. if you dont do the basics then your results with lights and umbrellas etc will be questionable
if you dont learn the basics, your like a builder trying to build a house without foundations.........just lots of expensive tools
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