Light meters are hugely underrated in photography. Pros love them, but amateurs and enthusiasts find them a bit of a redundancy, especially with all the on-board clever metering modes in modern DSLRs. So, does the humble external light meter stand a chance facing the deluge of modern DSLRs? Yes it does, and for the simple reason that it meters incident light instead of reflected light. Daniel Norton from Adorama shares some important pointers on how to use a light meter to improve your photography:
There are two basic ways to use a hand-held light meter:
1. General Ambient Light Reading
You are shooting outdoors and you need a general meter reading. Just point the white dome toward the camera and take a reading. The reading may not be precise, but it should be OK for most situations.
Using the light meter to get a general ambient reading
2. Incident Light Reading
You are using external lights and need a more precise reading to adjust the exposure. Point the dome toward the light source and take a meter reading. This will give you a neutral reading for the light source in question.
This is how you would point the meter to read external lights.
In situations where there is a lot of light or when you are using two or more lights and you don’t want the test reading for a specific light source to be corrupted by light coming in from the other sources, lower the light sensitive dome inward like this:
Light sensitive dome lowered for reading in multi-light situations
This helps to get a more accurate reading of a specific light source. It works best when you want to set up multiple lights in specific power ratios.
Working Modes
On the top left are the three modes in which the light meter works, ambient, corded, and non-corded flash.
Ambient, uncorded and corded reading functions
Ambient mode takes an overall reading, corded requires the meter to be connected to a flash, and in non-corded mode—which is the wireless mode basically—the meter waits for the flash to fire and then gives a reading.
Spot Metering
Most hand-held light meters can also be used as spot meters. Turn the labelled dial and the meter is now ready to be used as a spot meter.
Using the hand-held light meter in spot meter mode
Spot metering works well when you need to read off a small spot in the frame or when you need a neutral reading off of an 18 percent gray card.
Do you use an external light meter? Or do you prefer to stick with the camera’s built-in meter only?
Go to full article: How to Use a Hand-Held Light Meter
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Article from: PictureCorrect
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