Tips for consistent exposures with your digital camera & Qflash

Always do a custom white balance
before shooting.

Pre-programmed white balance settings in the camera are for the camera manufacturers flash. The Qflash flash tube has a different color temperature, plus lighting can vary at each photo shoot. Doing a custom white balance will save you time and money whether you use photoshop or a lab.

When shooting TTL use Aperture or Shutter Priority or Manual camera exposure modes.

In Aperture or Shutter Priority and Manual TTL you are more in command of your photos. You can choose the Aperture, Shutter speed or both. When using Program TTL the camera gets to decide Aperture and Shutter speed and this only works for ideal situations. Remember the camera doesn't know whether you want depth of field or not, nor whether you want to show motion or stop motion.

When metering a subject area with a camera use center weight or partial metering instead of matrix or multispot metering.

When using matrix(pattern) or multispot metering the camera looks at the whole scene through the lens to determine exposure information. If there are highlighted and shadow areas in this scene the camera can be fooled into making an incorrect determination on how long the Qflash should stay on leading to an over- or under-exposed photo. Using partial or center weight metering will help you read just the subject area for a proper exposure.

Learn about Quantum QFlash with useful tips and guides in this video featuring Will Crocket. »

Your Qflash is 150 watt-seconds compared
to a 50 watt-second shoe mount flash,
when shooting 5 ft. or closer, at ISO 200 or greater, with a wide open F-stop you must always diffuse otherwise your subject
will be over exposed.

At ISO 200 or greater, lens opening set to F2.8, F3.5, or F4.5; with Qflash reflector in normal position any subject closer than 7feet will be over-exposed. At ISO 400, closer than 10 feet and a subject is over-exposed. When you use maximum diffusion both are no longer over-exposed. To get up-close and personal with your subjects the best course of action is maximum diffusion to prevent over-exposed subjects.

When using Qflash in Auto/Auto-Fill mode we suggest that you use the Sensor Limit Option, this gives you better control of the amount of flash reaching the subject area.

In Auto/Auto-Fill the Qflash sensor is used to read the scene. The sensor determines when the Qflash will shut down. With ISO 200, F5.6 chosen the minimum to maximum distance (area that the Qflash will try to evenly light) is 4.5 to 40ft. This means that the Qflash will try to deliver an even amount of light from 4.5 to 40ft. To produce an F5.6 at 40ft, with a subject at 10ft. causes the subject to be over-exposed. Setting the Sensor Limit Option to a distance just past the subject, in this case 15ft. eliminates this problem.