light meters
- Thread starter drewdunnrespect
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They are independent of the camera. You enter your ISO, take the reading (incident, reflected or spot) and read off the Shutter speed/aperture settings and transfer them to your camera. Robert is then your mother's brother
You may be able to pick up a Sekonic L308s on fleebay for £60 ish, or there's a very good iPhone app for a few bucks
metering light when trying to shoot indoors around dusk because i am trying to get that studio finish look and my shot seem to becoming out just ever so slightly dark or light if i use flash two much now i have tried to slow flash down and make it less intense using exposure compensation and flash compensation but then it still isnt right
now what i dont want to do is use a post editing software due to i feel that photography is all about trying to do it all on the camera and yes i appreciate that its not always possible.
thanks for this i am now looking on flee bay and i dont play with fruit i have a proper fone sorry but i cant stand i phones
Good luck with that...
Photography is all about getting the picture and how you do that is up to you.
If you are serious about photography and you want real control over your pictures then you need to control the output as well.
A digital camera will process your pictures according to a set of criteria set down for the "average user" by a programmer in a back room of a Japanese corporation.
That programmer knows that the "average user" only takes snapshots of family and friends so that is what your camera is programmed to make your pictures look like.
It's like having a top of the range professional film camera and then sending your film to Bonusprint to see the results...
First of all, your camera contains all the metering equipment you need to do the job. The histogram mode is one of the most important function of your camera and if you have not yet learned to use that then a light meter will be a complete waste of money.
Next, you need to start shooting raw rather than letting your camera make all the decisions for you. That means you will have to use some form of image processing software.
Finally, if you want to get a "studio finish look" you will need to use off camera flash and learn about lighting. A flash on your camera is completely unsuited to that sort of effect.
The other alternative is to shoot outside, 9 times out of 10, studio lighting is designed to simulate outdoor light so the easy thing to do is go outside.
( I still own two top notch light meters that have not seen use in years. I keep them because if I ever use my film cameras again I will need them but for digital use they are effectively redundant.)
Good luck with that...
Photography is all about getting the picture and how you do that is up to you.
If you are serious about photography and you want real control over your pictures then you need to control the output as well.
A digital camera will process your pictures according to a set of criteria set down for the "average user" by a programmer in a back room of a Japanese corporation.
That programmer knows that the "average user" only takes snapshots of family and friends so that is what your camera is programmed to make your pictures look like.
It's like having a top of the range professional film camera and then sending your film to Bonusprint to see the results...
First of all, your camera contains all the metering equipment you need to do the job. The histogram mode is one of the most important function of your camera and if you have not yet learned to use that then a light meter will be a complete waste of money.
Next, you need to start shooting raw rather than letting your camera make all the decisions for you. That means you will have to use some form of image processing software.
Finally, if you want to get a "studio finish look" you will need to use off camera flash and learn about lighting. A flash on your camera is completely unsuited to that sort of effect.
The other alternative is to shoot outside, 9 times out of 10, studio lighting is designed to simulate outdoor light so the easy thing to do is go outside.
( I still own two top notch light meters that have not seen use in years. I keep them because if I ever use my film cameras again I will need them but for digital use they are effectively redundant.)
gary your advice once again is invaluble and thank you because between you and an artical i ave been reading in photgrathy mag i baught you have saved me money and the reason being is that the artical is all about how to use the historgam.
Also i have started shooting in raw and and manual mode and or apeture priority or shutter speed priority and am slowly getting better results and this is why i have baught an of camer flash and am waiting for it to arrive. Now i didnt realise how useful the histoorgram was or what it was used for untill i started reading this artical and well its quite interesting. Now this artical says that the historgram is useful as you do and that it works on dark, light and midtones. and that if i remember this correctly. That dark tones are on the left and midtones are obviously in the middle and that the light tones are on the right. and that if you have a mountain in the middle you suppoesedly have picture that has equal light right through out it. In that your shadows are not to dark and your light bits are not to bright.
but i still havent finished reading the rest so am going to continue and may have more questions if thats alright
drew
The important thing is to make sure it doesn't get stacked up at either end which means that the camera is unable to record the tones properly.
If you are forced to make a choice then particularly make sure it doesn't burn out the highlights.
If you are forced to make a choice then particularly make sure it doesn't burn out the highlights.
Eric_Methven
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
A tutorial on histogram use?
Good one here. http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/histograms1.htm
Gary's advice is excellent, and I agree a separate meter with a modern SLR is pretty much a waste of money. I only use a flash meter when I need studio flash set ups.
I was a newspaper and agency photographer for 20 years, working in Fleet street then Internationally in Paris for major agencies. We never used complex lighting (too heavy and cumbersome), but made sure what we had worked for the picture.
As Gary said get that flash off camera.. 45° and slightly above your subject will be great. You can get a specific cable for most modern flashes & cameras for a few quid, so you keep your TTL metering.
Otherwise bouce flash is a great second best. When I started in newspapers we used big Metz torch flashes, which while big and awkward were excellent for bounce flash as the heads pivoted on all directions. Coupled with a Lastolite reflector, you could get virtually studio looks with minimum gear. (It was easier in B&W as coloured ceilings & walls reflected that colour which when shooting colour was often a pain.)
So that would be my next tip, get a Lastolite... I've been shooting video over the last few years, and while I do use an on camera LED light for close up stuff in a news situation, when I can a reflector is a great way to add light and give that studio look, say for interviews.
So I'd say you don't really need a lightmeter if you have a modern SLR (they were from a past generation), but a good TTL flash that lets you bounce flash and a reflector to fill light, will see you get much better looking shots.
cheers
Gareth
I was a newspaper and agency photographer for 20 years, working in Fleet street then Internationally in Paris for major agencies. We never used complex lighting (too heavy and cumbersome), but made sure what we had worked for the picture.
As Gary said get that flash off camera.. 45° and slightly above your subject will be great. You can get a specific cable for most modern flashes & cameras for a few quid, so you keep your TTL metering.
Otherwise bouce flash is a great second best. When I started in newspapers we used big Metz torch flashes, which while big and awkward were excellent for bounce flash as the heads pivoted on all directions. Coupled with a Lastolite reflector, you could get virtually studio looks with minimum gear. (It was easier in B&W as coloured ceilings & walls reflected that colour which when shooting colour was often a pain.)
So that would be my next tip, get a Lastolite... I've been shooting video over the last few years, and while I do use an on camera LED light for close up stuff in a news situation, when I can a reflector is a great way to add light and give that studio look, say for interviews.
So I'd say you don't really need a lightmeter if you have a modern SLR (they were from a past generation), but a good TTL flash that lets you bounce flash and a reflector to fill light, will see you get much better looking shots.
cheers
Gareth
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Gary
Has this covered IMO
You may want to buy more mags to get the CD's to show you how to use photoshop or take a course. Beware of believong the bull**** about procssing photos in the likes of photoshop. To get the best out fo your camera it has always been necessary to process photos especially B&W. Dodginga nd burning and adjustings contrasting in post processing have always been done for over 150 years.
Has this covered IMO
You may want to buy more mags to get the CD's to show you how to use photoshop or take a course. Beware of believong the bull**** about procssing photos in the likes of photoshop. To get the best out fo your camera it has always been necessary to process photos especially B&W. Dodginga nd burning and adjustings contrasting in post processing have always been done for over 150 years.
In the old days of film, a skilled printer could bring out loads of extra detail from a neg, be it b&w or colour. But in this digital age, if you have not been very precise with your exposure you can be missing detail the camera never actually records. No photoshop in the world will be able to rectify that.
I always try to make my shots as good as possible in camera. I find you need to be as critical as with tranny film stock to get the best results. As I said, reflectors, bounce flash, fill flash, neutral density grad filters, polarizers are all tools to help you do this. Photoshop can help you tweak looks and colours, but it can'd add lacking detail.
The old maxim, rubbish in, rubbish out is even more true on digital.
cheers
Gareth
I always try to make my shots as good as possible in camera. I find you need to be as critical as with tranny film stock to get the best results. As I said, reflectors, bounce flash, fill flash, neutral density grad filters, polarizers are all tools to help you do this. Photoshop can help you tweak looks and colours, but it can'd add lacking detail.
The old maxim, rubbish in, rubbish out is even more true on digital.
cheers
Gareth
Very true, no amount of jiggery pokery in the computer can turn a bad picture into a good one.
Two things that irritate me when people see a decent shot are when they turn around and say either, "You must have a good camera", as if somehow the camera is responsible for composing a shot or waiting hours for the light to be right, or, "You can make anything look good in Photoshop"...
You still have to be there to get the shot and not be a total Muppet to record the image properly.
A tutorial on histogram use?
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/understanding-histograms.shtml
That is so true!!! My old picture editor used to say about getting the shot: "F8 and Be there!!"
Don't you notice that the better the photographer the luckier he gets with his shots!!
cheers
Gareth
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