Solid advice Mark. Point to the camera or point to the light, whatever works for you is the right way but always be consistent... BTW, I'm still right 😜
Gavin, would you mind making a video showing the value of advanced vs basic light meters? Should I get an advanced one to "grow with" or is it better to start simple?
Darn you are ;-) ... In Gavins method we measure the maximum light so there is no risk of over exposure. Shadows can be revealed in post. In your method, we measure average light, so the there is a risk that there is overexposure in the lightest part and as we all know, that detailed information in overexposure is lost 4ever. In your image examples it doesn't matter that much and your explanation is very good, especially the separation with the dome down .
Finally found a source for studio lighting!! I'm a longtime photo enthusiast that just began playing around with studio lighting. Thanks Mark for giving me a reliable source of great information.
Hi Mark, I stumbled across your video's on lighting and light metering, and suddenly everything made sense with how to build contrast lighting into my shots. What a difference it has made, some of the shots I have previously failed to achieve, I now realise why. Love these videos so please keep up the good work.
"Please-Read" the learned debate below amongst super-professionals who have much important practical experience to offer. "Please-Read" and thank you, Mark Wallace, for initiating this inspiring debate...
Great explanation. About time someone went into more (accurate) detail. It is important to emphasize that it all comes down to a personal decision as to how we want to expose our image. And to that end, I would only point out the importance of "protecting" the highlights, especially in the digital age of capture. Which, in turn, leads me, personally, to lean more towards aiming the "open" dome at the light source rather than the camera. If more shadow detail is desired, that's where the importance of reflectors and/or secondary lights come in. Also, you did a great job of explaining the "flat" dome. Particularly when wanting to know the value of multiple lights and/or reflectors in a given scenario. Well done, sir.
Good to see two lines of thought on the way to use a light meter, but i am on the side of always point in the direction of the light source. It's far better practice to protect the highlights than the shadows. Once you overexpose and blow your highlights that's it, no way of coming back i would rather have a little grain in my shadows anytime.
Absolutely the best explanation ever, of when you should point the meter at the camera or at the light. And I have watched a ton of metering videos. :-)
Mark, I love watching your photography tutorials on this channel. I like your way of explaining things in a very simplistic way. Thank You, Mark and Adorama TV for helping me to improve my photography skills.
Perfect videos for beginners and it all makes sense to me now, thankyouu so much for making such an insightful video and hoping to see more of these 🫶🏻🫶🏻
Thanks for the great advises and all the invaluable teaching material & resources that you guys at Adorama TV put out, absolutely priceless! One question though: if you're pointing the meter at the camera (vs at the light), wouldn't it be better to point the meter sensor in the direction that light is hitting the lens, just to more accurately measure the average light intensity that is reflected from the subject and all surroundings and hits the lens?
I've done well managing exact exposures over my career by using the meter the way the instruction manual states - For portrait work, use with the Lumisphere extended, meter under the chin pointed exactly into the camera. Rarely do you ever need to retract the Lumi.
And ur highlights aren't blown out? I did that yesterday for a session and my model is light skin and the light was a bit brighter on her than i liked. Howerver, when i metered towards the light it was a bit better but damnit those shadows....lol
Coming from a commercial film (transparency) background, and a student, and dear friend of the late Dean Collins, I'll argue to point at the main light source. "Preserving Highlights". Is that not what you are suppose to do with digital? I could end my argument there. But, Dean would say, The "diffused highlight" is what our "objective" is when it comes to exposure. Shadows are "subjective". Meaning basically when metering, that your area if critical exposure (diffused highlight) will stay put but your shadows will change from shoot to shoot. Some shadows could be dark, medium or light. So if they are ever changing, then your meter reading will change if including the shadow side if pointed at camera. And so will your diffused highlight. Meaning the area you DO want exposed perfectly will change because of different shadow values. That is not what we want. We want a constant. So aiming AT the main light source gives us that constant then we decide how much fill we want without changing the value of the diffused highlight. Now if you add a fill light and have it near camera, yes, that light will "add" to the overall exposure and you will need to aim it so you do pick up that fill light. But only if it adds to the diffused highlight's value. Reflector cards usually do not.
Contracting and expanding in the zone system, for instance, are subjective by definition, so any reading in the picture is in the flux and relative. What the hell is the perfect reading of the diffused? Why can't we deviate from it? And why overall reading, with the dome pointing at the camera, can't be the PERFECT guide to start a shoot?
Once highlights are clipped, it's gone. So if shooting digital you expose for the highlights. If you shoot film you expose for the shadows as film color negative handles over exposure very well. Slide film: Better make sure you get the exposure correct every time. Every DSLR is different, so it's good to custom profile each camera's exposure.
Taking slides once highlight are gone no getting it back, when exposing film expose for shadow and develop for highlight. If wrong let me know, I never was a Ansel Adams but had a lot of fun with Black and white.
Hi Mark, love your videos because they're so informative and incredibly helpful! Quick question about metering for multiple lights, so in this example your key light was at F/4, does that mean that you metered and tweaked each light until they each gave you a value of F/4 as well? Thanks, Ren
Yes, Only if you want each light to be the same, giving you an even illumination across the board. If you are wanting more dramatic light, you still need to meter each light individually to give you the desired effect. Eg: edge light, back light and fill light.
looks like I been doing it right the whole time: aiming it at the light.. in the example... when aiming at the camera - while the shadow side is a bit lighter, the high lights are 1/2 stop over.. no big deal with digital and photoshop? no.. but shooting slide film it will make a difference
Good points but every time i see these things it always different. Some will say point the meter at the camera, others at the subject others at the lighting. Either in incident mode reflective mode. And i have an extra lumidisc so what is that used for. On a sekonic L308 Bii light meter. The lumisdome slides to one side and you fit this lumisdisc in its place. One being incident meter mode the other reflective mode metering.
Ok, but what do I do with that info? No one actually ever gets to that part. The light is spewing out a number 4.0 brightness... so what? I just don't understand what that means and every youtube video I watch never actually explains why that number matters or what to do with it.
So Jordan on the light meter you enter what ISO and shutter speed you are going to use. Typically in a studio this is you camera’s sync speed and native ISO for example 1/250 sec, ISO 200. Then you choose what aperture you are going to use for example f/4. You then dial in a power on your light, hit the test button on the trigger and this will give a reading on your light meter as an aperture. Adjust the power of your light until your meter reads the aperture you want to use, in this example f/4. That is that 4.0 brightness. If you were going to shoot at f/5.6 adjust the power of the light until the meter reads that and so on. Hope that helps.
Nice tutorial, I would also add to calibrate your lightmeter with your camera as the lightmeter out of the box gives you a reading in line with the iso sensitivity standards, however unfortunately camera manufacturers don’t exactly follow the same standard when assigning the iso values, i.e. the camera internal meter is calibrated to the sensor not the iso sensitivity standard, so different cameras, different manufacturers will have a slightly different metering values for the exact same lighting conditions, and very rarely any of this values coincide with a lightmeter ones
Hi 👋 I have a question. How do you set/tune a lightmeter for measuring the light/ highlights? It suppose to treat it as a middle grey at the result, doesn't it? Can't understand this. Thanks for your answer!
For the key, fill and back light - lumisphere down, point the meter at each light source, but still meter to the key light to figure out what my overall reading is. Correct?
In my opinion , at the begining we should define our project , for example. I take this photo with fstop 4 , ISO 100, shutter speed 1/160 and without any light this photo will be totally dark. After that we will adjust our main light with these preanalysed setting. Based on our thaughts we should adjust light depending ratio for fill light , hair light and also background light. At the end we will test or will do metering again, with all of these lights all together in order to achieve preanalysed setting , I mean fstop 4 , shutter speed 1/160 and ISO 100. if there is any little diffence we will fix it with ISO setting although after fixing one by one of each light we won't meet this problem. Am I right dear Mark ?
No cler explanation of the Meter being used. What would the meter reading be if the difuser was up or down in the same locaition. I think that meter might do averaging between each light.
So, dome out and point at Key light to determine exposure to preserve highlights, dome in and point to all the lights to determine lighting ratios. Is that about right?
Soooo, if you aim the meter to the main light source, the shadows will be darker. And if you aim the meter to the camera reading both the main and fill in lights, the highlights will be a little brighter. If however you aim the meter to just the fill in light, that area will be properly exposed, but the highlights will be much more over exposed. But now what if the difference between the lighted area and the darker area is great? For example: the lighted area is f/8, and the darker area is f/4...that's 2 f/stops difference. The lighted area is 4X brighter then the dark area. But what if you aimed the meter at the camera in this situation, how will things look? Of course now you can not properly expose for both areas correctly . One or the other has to be over or under exposed. If this were black and white film, and you were developing it yourself, you can expose for the dark area, develop normally, then print for the highlights. why ? If you meter for the lighted area, the dark area will have a low muddy look. But if you increase the contrast, then there'll be very little or no detail in the shadow area. So expose for shadows and print for highlights. But you must consider many things: the latitude of the film, and the difference between the dark and light areas, and how you want your photo to look.
If I'm balancing flash on a very bright day ( think high overcast but yet very bright or bright sun ), should my lumisphere be up or down when metering the flash? For example, let's say my ambient reading is F 6.3. Now I want to get my flash to fire at F 6.3. Should the lumisphere be up or down when metering the flash?
I am following your excellent series on lighting. However there is something I would like to ask. When after setting the Keylight setting in a three light setup doe you turn off the Key Light to set the Fill and Hair Lights?
The light meter you are using, i bought one three years ago and used it mabe about five times, but that's because i didn't know how to use it, this has given me some insight, still not sure about out side though, it seems it gives vastly different readings, especially in bright conditions, should you shield the dome with your hand point it at the sky, or straight at the camera, could you do a lesson outside, with natural light and flash please
I watched a tutorial recently that suggests setting your camera one stop lower than what the light reader suggests (when lighting skin tones). Something to do with the meter exposing for middle grey??
Great video! Have not used a light meter before and plan to get one (always used the reflective in the camera) Understand much more about incident light meters. Now, if you get F4 as your key light entry and set your camera to F4 and you get a different F stop reading from your hair or back light, what do you need to do to get a proper exposure of everything (camera setting, light adjustment, etc both continuous and flash setups) maybe i missed something, but can someone explain in more detail regarding this?
1. Leave the camera settings as is 2. Then adjust the (non) key light power and/or distance-to-subject until that light meters f/4 (same as the key light reading). Note that you may want the non-key to meter differently than f/4...it just depends on the look you're going for. I've just gotten a meter and will be practicing Mark and Gavin's methods in the next couple of days.
Question : if i want to use a Camera Light Meter for Aviation Photography which Model would you recommend me ? Please... is the Sekonic speedmaster L-858D-U the one i should get or something else ? Please
How would you use the same light meter if it’s outdoors and only using natural light (and when would you use a gray card to get a reading?). Thank you.
Am I missing something? At about 10:29 you show two images labeled metered toward camera, but you just demonstrated metering towards the light. What's what?
Never having used a light meter but would love to start using one, why meter the hairlight? How does that factor into your settings if the primary concern is overexposure as people state below? Do you average the hairlight into the main light's settings? Great video!
The reason to meter the hairlight (and any other non-key lights) is to see how it compares to the key light. For instance if you want a subtle hair light, you want it to meter at a larger aperture (smaller number) than your key light and vice versa.
Iam pointin the meter to my camera when Ian not using a flash, and when I using a flash then I point my meter to my flash so I can have info on how strong the flash is projecting.
Since apparently you have taken over the land of my grand parents for good, have Anabel take you to Sevilla and do a lttle video at El Parque de Maria Luisa; its unique. Hope this time of the year you can make La Feria de Sevilla. Ask her; she'll understand.
When I meter my lights I measure main , fill and reflected lights from my outside highlight strip or aux. lights A little can go a long way if you give it time .I try for fun things. No harm no foul. One might see something they like.
I think I understand about 90%. However, in watching this and several other videos about using light meters, I'm not noticing anyone reference the intensity of the light on the subject. Does light intensity make a difference? Is there a normal intensity value for setting the light? How is the meter determining the perfect exposure if the light intensity is varied?
There is NO such thing as a normal intensity. The intensity is part of the exposure triangle. All the light meter is telling you is the intensity of the light being measured. It is like a ruler telling you the length of the board being measured The ruler does not tell you how long the board needs to be. Please read up on the exposure triangle.
Mark, I use Flashpoint. Do I fire by shooting a picture? Or, can I just hit the test flash on my trigger? AND, what ISO and SS did you have dialed into your flash meter? Last, if your key was at f/4 and you shot at 3.?, wouldn’t you be blowing out your highlights? Thanks bunches.
Firing the flashes by hitting test, on the transmitter is the usual way of doing it. He would have most likely have been at ISO 100, and sync speed for the camera (probably 1/200th)..... But it's not really important here at all. He showed the resulting photos from shooting at both apertures, and you can see the difference in the highlights
