Hand Held Light Meters Digital Photography

Some smartphone apps allow you to take a picture and determine the exposure based on that image while other manufacturers are making actual devices to turn phones into handheld light meters.

Hand held light meters digital photography.

The sekonic l 398a light meter studio deluxe iii 401 399 is an ideal light meter for those who are doing still photography. It can also provide all the aperture and shutter combinations that match an exposure value. With in camera through the lens meters the angle of coverage is governed by the lens you re using or the metering pattern spot versus average etc. It is also favored by those in cinematography too.

The iso range on the meter is 6 to 12 000 with 1 3 step increments and thanks to the amorphous photocell there is no need to worry about using and charging a battery or having to use an external power source. Hold the meter in front of your subject with the white dome facing the camera. At its simplest it calculates an aperture and shutter value that you set your camera to for a correct exposure of a given scene. Handheld meters also feature many other dedicated functions and accessories including the ability to program for different camera models for increased accuracy.

In food photography using a hand held meter when shooting foods can help you get properly exposed images. Light meter goertek digital luxmeter illuminance meter handheld actionometer foot candle meter high accuracy 4 with lcd display one 9v battery included range 0 1 200 000 lux 0 01 20 000 fc 4 2 out of 5 stars 45. They cannot measure light produced by a flash or studio lighting kit. These early light meters were designed not to measure the light reflected by the subject but rather the light falling incident on the subject and became known as incident light meters.

Well it turns out working with a hand held light meter isn t so scary after all. A hand held light meter is a small device that can accurately measure the light reflecting off or falling on the subject. Enter the lumu light meter for ios devices. Choosing a light meter eight things you need to know about light meters.

Some people are unfamiliar with or intimated by a hand held meter. A handheld light meter is a separate tool for evaluating light intensity and calculating exposure. Available in two versions this tiny little photodiode under a diffusion dome connects to any iphone or ipad that uses a standard 3 5mm headphone jack. Set the iso and the aperture on the meter to the same values as your camera.

Set your camera to manual mode and select your preferred iso and aperture. Handheld meters originated in the early days of motion picture film and were quickly adopted by still photographers. Additionally built in memory and comparison capabilities of digital meters enable users to quickly recall and compare readings from other lights or settings to quickly draw conclusions on your light and make adjustments. With a handheld meter the angle of coverage is usually fixed for example 40 degrees.

A hand held light meter may not seem to be an essential item that you need for digital photography given that all digital cameras have a built in light metering system of some kind. 01 angle of coverage. Turn the knob around the white dome of your light meter to make it protrude.