Flash lighting was a breath of fresh air compared to the tungsten lighting. I found it much easier to use than a speedlite and I feel that part of this was down to the modelling light. This small light gives you an idea of where the light will fall which is very useful especially when applying light shapers to your shot.
Where flash lighting differs is you need to use a light meter to get the correct exposure for your image as you can't rely on your camera's meter. This is because your camera can't give you accurate results for the flash of light.
There are two ways in which you can use the meter to read the light. You can measure the light reflected off your subject or you can measure the light source the subject is exposed to. I found the latter to be the easiest and most reliable to work with. If you are measuring the light reflecting off your subject you can get varying results depending on the colour of their skin or the clothes they may be wearing.
For studio flash you have to shoot with your camera on manual. I am glad all my hard work getting to know how to use my camera manually came in useful! The standard shutter speed used for studio flash is 1/125s as this gives the curtain enough time to stay open for the flash of light. Any faster and you run the risk of having one half of your image in darkness and the other half lit. When you use the light meter you input the shutter speed and ISO you are using and then take a test shot to get the flash to fire. This you do while holding down the reader button the meter. The meter will then give you the aperture you should use to get a correct average exposure. You may of course wish to vary this if you want to make your image lighter or darker.
Here are some of the images I tool using studio flash.
I think the light in these images is better than using tungsten. I found it easier to remove the harsh shadows using the reflectors.
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