I've always found metering light confusing and often times I develop my roll to end up disappointed with over & underexposure. Your video was helpful and concise and cleared up confusion I've had with the sekonic
Provided you can get the meter next to what you're photographing, an incident light meter can be incredibly helpful. That's also why I wound up selling mine. I was rarely close enough to what I would want to meter to make it worth my while. Additionally, modern digital sensors have a lot of dynamic range that can be used to get around that and bracked exposures do even more to work with that.
extremely helpful! I have a lightmeter but I've honestly avoided using my manual cameras because I never knew how to make it work. I appreciate the walkthrough
Even though I don't have this model of light meter, I find this very useful since you're doing everything without spot metering. My favorite light meter is actually an old Weston battery-less meter, which can be used both for reflective and incident metering.
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Super helpful thanks! I heard that using the light metre app on the phone is not nearly as good as one of these. Going to try it out at a shoot this weekend 🙏
In cordless flash mode, when you press the read button, it goes into standby mode and will wait for a flash. It doesn't have to pressed simultaneously with the flash trigger. This meter fits nicely in my pocket unlike my 758 that gets jammed in and I worry about breaking it. However that meter has spot, ability to record several readings and take average. The dome can be retracted. Also, I mind less breaking or losing a $200 meter than a $600 one.
I'm not sure if my sekonic L308X is even working properly when doing flash readings. The flash readings just don't seem to tally with the F stops set on the camera, giving strange readings or not showing a response even if the meter is placed a foot away from the strobe. I've reread the manual, watched a few guys demonstrating how to use the L308X to do a flash reading. It seems straight forward enough to do but the measuring flash function just does not seem to work on mine. I may have simply bought a dud. For normal incident light, it seems to work ok, but for flash readings, absolutely infuriating. I just feel like taking a hammer to it.
Good job. I would add this: the dome should be aimed toward the camera. The dome shape itself records both the shadow and highlight sides and averages them. Watch out for snow scenes-snow is about 1.5 stops more reflective than other surfaces.
Hey awesome tutorial! I 'm new to film and just received my L-308x-U. Do you know what it means when you measure the light and the reading for the f stop renders E.U?
As far as I know it means that there is too much light for the settings. If you are metering in aperture mode you either have to change the aperture or ISO. If you’re using film you might as well have chosen the wrong light sensitivity for the given conditions.
Yeah you right its not the most intuitive meter - LCD backlight? Here's on that is useful and took me awhile to find in the manual. To illuminate the LCD screen hold your hand over the lumisphere and press the ISO button - will stay on 10 seconds. In low light it should illuminate auto.
When using reflective metering I will always use the dome after and meeter the shadows too, otherwise youll end up with underexposed photographs in my experience. I will try to average the exposure being biased twords the shadows on color film. It all depends on your preference but i like color film rather overexposed than underexposed.
I carry an L308B because I found that some apps require internet connection to function and I've been out in the middle of nowhere'sville shooting abandoned buildings like a basic film photographer and been caught without a way to get a light reading.
Im wondering that i see that you point the meter towards the camera but ive seen in one of Willem Verbeeks videos he points the meter at the subject from the camera to the subject not subject to camera
TYSM for this! Great explanation! Quick question? Is there a way to use it without any of thr priority modes. What if i want to get a reading for both shutter and aperture? since if im using priority mode, i would have to manually set one of then Im new to film photography so there might be some basic info im missing but def would appreciate an answer! Thanks
You kind of need two parameters (iso and shutter/ aperture) to get the third so it's not really possible to set neither. However, once you take the reading you can cycle through the different possible options of shutter and aperture with the arrows on the side.
Hi, how useful is the lightmeter in these days of reflective in - camera metering if a person is not doing studio shoots. Was planning to invest in one.Just wanted some advice on how much difference will it make to my work if i buy one.Thank you so much.
Hey Prashant - Depends on what you're using it for - if just for hobby work, imo it's not completely necessary. Your camera's light meter will give similar reads to a Sekonic, especially for landscapes since they're both reflective. The one exception is night photos - Sekonic is way more accurate. For myself, most of my film cameras don't have built in light meters (Leica M3, Mamiya 645, etc.) so I rely on the Sekonic for most of my work. Lmk if that helps!
Good job. I would add this: the dome should be aimed toward the camera. The dome shape itself records both the shadow and highlight sides and averages them. Watch out for snow scenes-snow is about 1.5 stops more reflective than other surfaces.
