 Ben F |
Hand held meter help? Hi all, Just a bit of a question relating to hand held meters. I am currently using an xpan (centre weighted metering) and shooting all landscape work, and im finding that it gives alright exposures, but I think it could be better... I mainly do low light, ie dusk n dawn, sunsets etc, but also do some day time stuff as well. i am looking at buying a hand held meter but im not really sure what im looking for..(spot, incident or all?)) Im wondering if hand help meters are better equiped/more capable of averaging subject brightness ranges to give better exposures all round.. Any advice is gratefull,
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Jon Close |
In-camera through-the-lens meters, like that in your Hasselblad XPan, measure light reflected off the subject and scene elements. The meter cannot distinguish colors, just shades of gray. Light reflected off white looks brighter to the meter than it actually is, reflected off black looks darker. The meter is calibrated to a mid-tone gray ("18% gray"). A centerweighted averaging meter works well in when a scene with a mix of colors/tones, but doesn't always get it exactly right. A reflected light meter will tend to underexpose a predominantly white scene (beach, snow), and overexpose one predominantly black (moon in night sky, tuxedos, black dogs/horses, etc.). Thus one may need to adjust by appling exposure compensation to the meter reading. A spot meter works the same way, but because it is measuring a very tiny area the photographer can know exactly the tone being measured and adjust exposure accordingly. An incident meter directly measures the light falling on a subject and so can set exposure more accurately. An incident light meter needs no adjustment for a subject being lighter or darker than 18% gray. The meter reading must be taken in the same light as the subject, which can be a problem for distant subjects, or if the subject is in shade and the photographer is in sunlight (and vice versa).
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Ben F |
Thanks Jon for the info, much appreciated. Can you reccomend the best type of meter I should buy for landscape work??? And what should be my method of using this? Thanks again
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