One of my favorite photography tools isn’t a lens or even a camera, it’s a light meter. People thought the light meter was a thing of the past with auto exposure and the advent of digital photography, but that can’t be farther from the truth. Despite all the advances by Canon, Nikon and the other major photography brands, there are still a number of situations where the auto exposure meter of the camera is off, sometimes completely.
Why Use A Light Meter
For general, standard photography such as quick snaps of the kids, a day at the beach, and even sports photography, a light meter would be difficult to use because of the high speed pace, there wouldn’t be much time to meter before taking a shot. You’ll end up missing more shots than it’s worth.
So where do light meters shine? Portraits, mainly. We at Bui Photos shoot a lot of our portraits outdoors and with flash strobes off-camera. Because of that, it’s far easier to photograph in the Manual mode exposure because we know exactly the look and feel of what we want to achieve whereas our camera doesn’t. In case I’ve lost you, unless your camera is broken in Manual mode, there is no auto exposure metering because you have to set the shutter and aperture yourself.
So how do figure out what shutter and aperture to use in relation to the power of flash and ambient lighting? What if you want more flash power than ambient? What if you want to balance ambient and flash? Unless you can meter the scene with your eyes and translate it to a f-stop and shutter speed values, you’ll have to do what many people do: guess and chimp. By guessing, you would set your shutter speed to your max sync speed (1/250 on a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, 1/200 on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II) and set your flash power to half or quarter power for faster recycle times and guess an aperture of f/5.6 or something and take a shot. Then you review on your LCD to see if it looks good or not. Repeat and make the changes as necessary. Terribly inefficient wouldn’t you agree? And even if you think you nailed the exposure, wait until you extract those images on your computer, you’ll find you were still off. Look how much time you are wasting on the technical aspect in setup and post processing! I don’t know about you, but I rather be spending time being creative. Also keep in mind, unless you are using one the new fancy cameras with their high resolution (920,000 pixels) LCD screens, the LCD screens on your camera are not good tools to judge color or exposure because it’s not accurate! You can use the brightness histogram which will be a bit more accurate, but in certain lighting conditions, it won’t help you much.
This is where the light meter comes in to ensure that you don’t just have good exposure or close to perfect exposure, but perfect exposure. After you’ve properly calibrated and learned to use a light meter, you’ll find that you’ll trust the values from your light meter more than what you see on your camera’s LCD. When I use the light meter, I put my model where I want her to be, put a strobe based on how I want to light her, pull out my meter and set it to my max sync speed and ISO and do a test pop and it tells me the exact aperture and how much flash power versus ambient. I can either bring my light source closer to the subject or dial up the flash power to get less ambient lighting or lower my flash power for more ambient lighting. Set those values in camera and start the creative process!
By getting perfect exposure and setting custom white balance, everything is properly exposed and the colors just pop. Not only that, when I extract the images, instead of wasting time correcting color and white balance issues, I’m spending time selecting keepers and cropping.
You’re probably wondering why a light meter is more accurate than the camera’s built-in exposure meter, the answer is simple. The camera’s built-in meter works off reflective metering which functions with the camera metering light reflecting off the subject. This works well for the most part, but in situations where lighting is all over the place, the camera can be tricked and meters off the brightest part and under-exposes the entire scene. In a case of a forest with some light beams coming through, the camera might be confused with the light beams and try to expose for it which would make the entire scene under-exposed. With a light meter, usually used as an incident meter (you can get light meters that are incident meters with reflective meters built in) which measures light directly as it would fall on the subject and gives you a very accurate metering of the scene. In addition, you can move the light meter to meter multiple sources an average all the readings for a proper exposure. An example would be a portrait shot where you have your key light, hair light, and fill light. Each of the light sources are pointing in various directions and with a light meter you can read the output of each light.
Light meters also work extremely well for ambient metering for the very same reason. Even if you’re not using strobes and shooting only with ambient lighting, you can meter your subject and dial in a precise aperture/shutter values to get perfect exposure.
Which Light Meter Should I Buy?
For the most part, any light meter will work plenty fine. I personally use a Sekonic L-358 with RT-32 remote trigger module because we are heavily invested in the PocketWizard system and the L-358 lets us remotely trigger the strobes when we press the measure button. If you don’t use PocketWizard, but some other wireless trigger technology, you could still use the L-358 and just not buy the optional remote trigger module and trigger the strobes manually. The second biggest reason I like the L-358 is because it tells you how much flash power is being used versus ambient. This is a real plus because you don’t have to guess at values if you want more ambient than flash or more flash than ambient; a very powerful tool that I use very often.
One of our other staff photographers uses a Gossen DigiPro F and likes it for it’s slim profile and no-nonsense use. You can’t really go wrong with either Sekonic or Gossen. It really comes down to what your needs are and which light meter offers what you need.
Conclusion
Getting perfect exposure doesn’t have to be difficult or pain-staking. It doesn’t have to even be done in Photoshop or Lightroom. It’s much faster and less destructive to get the exposure at the time you take the image as opposed to fixing it later. One of the best investments in this area is a light meter, whether it is a Sekonic or Gossen, you don’t need a $600 light meter. The entry level Sekonic or Gossen do more than plenty for many people and saves you time and saves your sanity, it more than pays for itself. Be on a look out for how to use a light meter in a future post.
[...] Learn more about the benefits of using a handheld light meter. [...]
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Hi Richard. Good article on meters. My question is, I shoot film. I have a Hasselblad 500cm. When I go to meter, and I get a reading of f/6.8 or f/10.2, this is good and all if you're using a digital camera, but for film, how would I read the meter (L-558)for a correct exposure. Do I change shutter speed until I get a correct f/8 or f/11. Or, do I use the light to get a correct f/8 or f/11. As everyone knows, that, on a Hasselblad, you're selecting full f stops or half stops, when you move the aperture ring. How do I resolve the problem. I just got my L-558. I want to become a certified photographer with PPA. I need to submit photos, to show my creativity. I want to make sure that I read the meter correctly. One more thing. Is there a easy way to calibrate my meter to get the correct exposure. Thank you for you're time.
Dennis,
Sorry for the delayed reply. I think the best thing to do is to configure your L-558 to do full f-stops. If you look at the online manual (http://www.sekonic.com/products/doc.asp?ID=1), on page 32, it tells you how to set it to full, 1/2, and 1/3.
Give that a try and let us know if you have problems! BTW, good luck on joining PPA!
I have an L358 Sekonic lightmeter but never use it.
It is either me or the lightmeter but I found it was way out and always under exposed images shot with its recommended settings.
How much does it costs
Vipul, it cost $259 from BH without the wireless transmitter.
I just recieved this in the mail. I was still unsure how to use it, but a professional photographer suggested I buy one. After reading your article, I can now understand its use, advantages and even basic use.
Thank you for sharing.
-Ricardo
I am thinking of selling a couple of older meters I have and buying an l-358. Looking at the specs I see it is the same length as my ancient Minolta flashmeter III, which surprised me because I thought technology had moved on a bit in that sense!
Have you ever found the l-358 awkward to use on location due to its size? In the studio it doesn't bother me but I sometimes pack my handy 308B when travelling simply because it is never a problem to find a space in the camera bag or even my pocket.
In one review I read, somebody complained about the grey body and white text on the l-358, saying it was sometimes difficult to read the writing in bright light, which does sound like an obvious design flaw. Has that ever been a problem?
Thanks
Ashley
As a quick follow up I purchased an L-758D. I started looking at the specs and I just couldn't resist it…
Thanks for your reply Richard, the new meter should be here on Monday I think and assuming it isn't a complete disaster I'll be selling the old Minolta Flashmeter III and the Gossen Sixtomat because four light meters has to be overkill for just about any photographer!
The purchase of the L758D was a real impulse that was largely influenced by a particularly good $$ deal and I would be the first person to admit there is absolutely no reason why you can't work perfectly well with a more entry level level meter. As a concept though I do believe that hand held meters are important and a whole generation is now shooting without understanding the way they can improve image quality and help a photographer to understand light. I hear many photographers saying they rely on the histogram but in my view that just doesn't cut it.
Ashley: thanks for visiting and commenting! I have not found the L-358 to be bothersome or cumbersome. It's a little big, but nothing so bad that it's a burden. Normally I carry it on my belt using the supplied pouch and that works nicely. I haven't had an issue with the display, and I know I've worked in harsh, direct sunlight before.
Good luck with the L-758D! You didn't waste anytime, LOL! Let us know how it works out!
The L-758D arrived today and I have very mixed feelings about it. I love it and I hate it at the same time but I think I need to use it some more before I can reach a more balanced conclusion. It may well be case of choosing the 308B on certain occasions and the L-758D at other times.
In normal light it delivers exactly the same readings as my smaller and much cheaper Sekonic that I have owned for the last ten years i.e. they are both correct. The new one is large and more complex though with a plethora of options, so you risk missing an image while you are fiddling with options.
On the other hand the new meter is clearly a bit special. After every flash it zeros itself automatically and if you hold down the meter button and move across a scene it measures continuously, so it feels like a meter that is better thought out for real professional work. It has a true built in spot meter that I am unlikely to use much but it's also weather proof and can be profiled to your individual camera sensor; telling you exactly where the limits are on each exposure. I need to sit down with the manual and play a bit but my suspicion is that it's an incredible meter if you know how to exploit it properly. I am going to sell my old Gossen and Minolta now but keep the two Sekonic meters.
[...] Learn more about the benefits of using a handheld light meter. [...]
I've been using the L-758D now for 3 weeks and during that time I've had a chance to put it through its paces on several shoots, so I can offer a more informed opinion now.
I'd say that if you are a casual walkabout photographer who is already reluctant to use a meter then this is overkill and you'll be happier with something like the 308S, which is much less cumbersome. On the other hand if you have professional aspirations and really want the ultimate light meter then look no further. Everything has been thought out to give you the edge and just provide that extra versatility.
Overall I am sure I would have been satisfied with the performance of the L-358 and used it quite happily for professional work, but the L-758D was a no brainer at the price I found. I have also somewhat surprised myself by using the spot metering more regularly than I imagined. You definitely have to spend some time with this meter and learn when to use spot or incident metering though.
Whether you go for something very basic or highly advanced any hand held light meter is likely to provide you with a consistently higher percentage of perfect exposures than the camera itself and images that may look burned out on the LCD are perfect when you open them in Photoshop.
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