Are you a novice photographer trying to learn the tricks of photography? If yes, you may want to pay attention to a lot of details to snap photos that are not only professional in all aspects, but also visually appealing. However, many amateur photographing enthusiasts think that their camera meters should always give the same perfect exposure.
This is just not the right assumption because meters are pretty dumb. If not attended properly, you may end up with poor quality pictures. Proper metering is an art that requires a bit of thought. Here is how any photography light meter works and what to do to snap great photos.
What is a light meter?
It is a device used for measuring the amount of light. In the world of photography, light meters are often used for determining the right exposure for a picture. Usually, the meter will include an analog or digital electronic circuit, which lets the photographer decide which f-number and shutter speed should be used for optimum exposure in a given film speed and lighting situation.
How does photography light meter work?
A light meter measures the light objectively and breaks it down in accordance with the camera functions. There are mainly two types of light meters – incident light and reflected light. Reflected light is measured from the position of the camera, whereas incident light is measured from the object.
These measurements, consisting of ISO, f-stop and shutter speed, help you mentally connect perceived lighting in a given scene to the correct exposure settings on the camera, allowing you to generate the desired feel and look of the shot. This, in turn, promotes better consistency between shots. Also, it makes lighting easier as well as efficient.
The photography light meter in your camera is a great place to start, but it just takes the reflected light reading and provides insufficient data. It is here a remote light meter steps in to provide data from every spot within the shot. Many reflected light meters come with a spot option.
However, it is the perspective of the meter that presents more specific data. Figuring out the exposure of your background versus the foreground will let you assess where you are drawing the eyes of the viewer. This could be used for creating a mood with the lighting, and that mood could be utilized for increasing or decreasing the drama of the shot.
The photography light meter gives you control on how your camera functions to attain a particular goal. Have you ever heard of a flat shot? Such a shot is the one with even light throughout the picture. However, such a shot lacks the dynamics of light that create depth and texture.
The subject doesn’t arise from the background and the scene just lacks the interest. Adding contrast with the use of lighting creates more depth in the shot and makes it pretty dramatic. A light meter is an ideal tool for creating this drama. By using an incident meter, you could easily create contrast between lighting sources, thereby boosting the contrast ratio.
For example, let’s suppose that you have two lights (each mounted on two ends) for lighting up an interview with one person. If both the lights are started with the same power, there will be no contrast.
Decreasing one of these two lights to half of their power will make a contrast ratio of two to one. ?. Increasing the amount of light by one stop will actually double the amount of light. On the other side, decreasing the light by one stop halves the light amount.
You can subtract or add a stop of light to the exposure with one of the three adjustments on the camera – f-stop, ISO and shutter speed. Using a photography light meter for planning a scene lets you make choices on the basis of the light data of the space. It is essential to find out what data the meter will give you and how you should use it.
How light meters work as opposed to manual adjustments for exposure
Let’s understand this with a simple example of how you could find the exposure manually. Suppose you are shooting a fast moving object and wish to shutter up two stops to have less motion blur and more detail in the subject movement while maintaining the same exposure.
Let’s assume that you begin with an exposure of f2.8, ISO 400 and 1/60. To attain this, you will have to compensate for the change in shutter speed by increasing the ISO, aperture or increasing the light speed by two stops or a combination of both.
Here you may increase the shutter to 1/250, meaning you can increase the ISO to 1600 to make up the two shots. However, if the camera presents too much noise at ISO 1600, you may have to reduce it to 800 to make up the one stop and get the other stop with the f-stop leveling to f2.0.
Your final product will be f2.0 1/250 ISO 800. You would keep the same exposure with the above adjustments, but you are able to ensure how smooth your object appears when shooting.
If you want to make these same decisions with a photography light meter, you will first put in the most essential measurement for the scene. For instance, if field depth is the goal, input the desired f-stop.
However, if you need detail in the fast movement, you will need to adjust the speed of the shutter. Once you input one of these three points, the rest of the job will be done by the light meter, giving you appropriate settings for the other two points.
Bottom line
Using a light meter is critical if you want a professional result. Expressing your desire in terms of deliberate choices and with proper measurements from the photography light meter will certainly make things easier, and you will be able to see the benefit in the resulting shot.
So make sure you get acquainted with the working of light meters and use them accordingly, and you could be shooting amazing pictures like a pro.