[Viking42]

Are all of you that use a light meter using them in the studio for portraiture? I can get that for a quick set-up and turnaround, but not for product/still life/advertising/food and generally static styled shooting.

Barry, I do not shoot studio but nevertheless use a light meter in outdoor situations. I shoot a lot of film with older MF cameras that do not have light meters, but even if they did I would still use a meter in certain situations -- i.e. old film camera meters are generally full-frame averaging type or center-weighted, which is not ideal for some scenes. Spot meters are incredibly useful in determining subject brightness range in high contrast scenes and ensure that the frame is properly exposed so as not to lose the shadows or blow out the highlights -- e.g. winter scenes, or street shots with strong shadows in direct sun. Incident light meters are used when I want correct exposure on a central subject and don't care about the background, where a camera's averaging meter would give the wrong reading. For film shooting, where every frame costs money, using a light meter is invaluable in upping the success rate

Regards,
Svend

[dms]

I was taught that as the way to use of the incident meter, at the subject, with the omnidome pointed towards the camera. The meter measures the same light mix as that incident on the subject. Of course, that is sort if hard with lions and such.


Steve

By double lighting I meant for example the scene includes a large area under a opaque canopy, and thus there are the usual 5-7 stops range outside the canopy, and under the canopy the light levels are much lower, a different 5-7 stops. If the canopy is small and/or somewhat transparent, one could use the incident in both areas and use the mean. As the two areas diverge (e.g, more the 10-12 stop range) one needs to decide which slice of the light range to capture.

---------- Post added 10-26-20 at 08:37 AM ----------

Viking42 you say "Incident light meters are used when I want correct exposure on a central subject and don't care about the background, where a camera's averaging meter would give the wrong reading."

That is the (usually) the case where the background is differently lit than the main subject, and far away so tones merge. And if it is you can:
1. often estimate the difference
2. also use a reflected reading of the background.

In most scenes in my experience (and I pretty much exclusively used incident meter for decades, with color negative and slide film). You still have the issue is the DR range such that everything will be captured well, and if not you may need to measure both to decide (for example) how much flash fill to use.

If you are doing B&W negative film, depending on the scene DR and what is important, the incident meter does not replace the (ideal) spot meter (or narrower angle reflected light meter)--but the incident meter is perfect if the midtone areas are to look like midtones. And you can recognize when to adjust the reading or use the other meter.

[stevebrot]

The vaporware claim regarding the KEKS is incorrect.

Thanks for the correction. Their Web site offers pre-orders and has minimal specifications, hence my conclusion. Is it safe to say that they still don't know their sensitivity specs? (For clarity, those are different than the range of possible display values.) That is pretty basic when offering a light meter.

Sorry to be so picky, but recommendations based on recent hype or "trending" sounds pretty sketchy to me. Google is fairly ignorant of all three of these products except for results from blogger circles and/or eBay*. I appreciate your role as a gear blogger and the economy of linking back to your article, but promoting products that are "not available in stores" that few have actually seen or used requires a response other than "cool"


Steve

* Oh, yeah...and PetaPixel, though they will post a paragraph on pretty much any product release where copy and photo are provided.

[stevebrot]

If the canopy is small and/or somewhat transparent, one could use the incident in both areas and use the mean.

Got it. How does one determine the mean between EV 16 and EV 11 (full sun vs. deep shade)? Halfway (13.5) will still sacrifice much of the shadow detail while potentially blowing highlights in clouds. For landscapes, I usually meter the incident light for the scene (typically with a gray card) and leave the shadows to fend for themselves. Cruelty of the highest order.


Steve

After reading a lot of comments and advice, I've come to a conclusion that 1, a GRAY CARD is a great idea, and 2, I will be getting a light meter. The SEKONIC L-308X, seem like a very good choice and works in low settings, which I want to be taking photos of.

Thank you so much everyone...

[gatorguy]

After reading a lot of comments and advice, I've come to a conclusion that 1, a GRAY CARD is a great idea, and 2, I will be getting a light meter. The SEKONIC L-308X, seem like a very good choice and works in low settings, which I want to be taking photos of.

Thank you so much everyone...

Both are very good choices. I'm glad our members were so helpful.

[beachgardener]

for an exposure meter I like and use a Gossen SIXTOMAT digital, accurate, easy to use for my preferred incident readings. The newer one is the F2, but the digital might be found on ebay.
SIXTOMAT F2 | Gossen
One thing I like about it is in the T setting, one can hold the measure button down and walk through a scene from low light to high lights, release the button and it will show you a range of exposures measured, this way one can work out where you want the exposure to be as such.

[John in OZ]

I recently researched this too. The Sekonic 308 is very effective for incident and reflected light, flash and movie. The cost break point is very good too. Used mine a fair bit. Just my suggestion.

[Jonathan Mac]

I'm a bit late but wanted to add a quick contribution. I use a cheap Sekonic but it works well. However, there are a number of shoe-mounted simple light meters now available to cater for the resurgence of film given that many of the old cameras are mechanically sound but their light meters are broken or the camera no longer has batteries available. I have a list of the ones I'm aware of and mean to do a comparison between them (specs only, I won't be buying them all!). I think one of them will be much handier than a hand-held meter for most shooting.

[Lhorn]

Are any those clip on light meters relatively inexpensive and work well in low light?

[Jonathan Mac]

Are any those clip on light meters relatively inexpensive and work well in low light?

I haven't looked that far into them, but the cheapest seems to be around $50. It looks very similar to the others but I haven't found a single review of it yet.

[Viking42]

Are any those clip on light meters relatively inexpensive and work well in low light?

Yes, they are inexpensive....about $100 or so. Here are some links to two makers:

OLED LIGHT-METER KEKS EM-01 Light meter - KEKS

Reveni Labs

As for low light, the Reveni goes down to 0.5EV which is excellent (most meters only go down to 2.0 or 3.0EV). KEKS does not state the EV range, which is odd as this is a basic bit of info one would want to know.

FWIW, a friend of mine in Ireland has been using the Reveni for a couple of months now on his 1930's Leicas, and is very happy with it. He reports it to be easy to use and accurate. Handy to have, as he doesn't need to carry another meter in his pocket.

Regards,
Svend

[rml63]

I use my light meter for landscape and flash . Even my camera light meter is usually ok, the hand held meter I find faster to use with less test shots. I really like the 1 degree spot meter function of my sekonic 858.

MIke