Light Meter

[Rob MacKillop]

Got this through the post today, in readiness for my foray into Medium Format stuff. Don't know what to do with it, and have no idea what that white thing is, bottom right. All help gratefully received!


Light Meter by RobMacKillop, on Flickr

 

[Pete Askew]

Marriott - Weston Master IV exposure meter Instructions

All will become clear. The white thing is a dome that allows you to measure incident light rather than reflected.

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Even better:

http://www.westonmeter.org.uk/manuals.htm

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Pete to the rescue again! Many thanks

 

[Pete Askew]

You're welcome. And of course the output of the meter is the shutter speed / aperture combination that, at a given ISO / ASA, will give a correct exposure.

 

[Brian Moore]

You won't need that light meter for the upside down Holga, Rob.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Does ASA mean the same as ISO? If not, where do you find a film's ASA number?

 

[Hamish Gill]

asa and iso are the same ...

The dome is an "invacone"
With the meter out of its case, flick the switch so the flap opens on the back.
the invacone slots in there.

It is for incident readings - basically you are measuring the light falling on a subject rather than reflecting off it.
It should give you a better average reading, but isn't always practical.
Good for portraiture, etc. hold the light meter up in front of the subject with the invacone facing the source of the light. Take a reading, that should give you a spot on exposure.

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more reading

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks. With all that reading, I'm getting an idea of what's involved. Cheers, guys.

 

[Larry Bolch]

Well, you got the all-time classic. Those who mastered the Zone System, probably did it with that meter. Ansel Adams basic photo series—The Camera, The Negative, and The Print—are still in print and would cover whatever you might want to know. Amazon in the USA has them individually priced or all three for $47.19US.

 

[Hamish Gill]

I prefer the "V" Larry, somehow more logical to use, although without holding them next to each other I cant tell you why...

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Sorted Rob!

You will now look dead pro with the big MF camera, and a light-meter round your neck

 

[Hamish Gill]

hes not wrong Rob... especially taking those incident readings ... if there is one way to look like you know what your doing it is to take an incident reading

 

[Chris Dodkin]

You can approach stunning attractive people on the street - put you meter next to them, and they'll just love being your model!

 

[Hamish Gill]

or punch you in the face for being a ****ing weirdo

 

[Chris Dodkin]

It's all in the approach Hamish!

 

[Rob MacKillop]

OK, OK

I must say, it's a nice object to have - nice faded silver, soft, slightly worn leather. Seems to work perfectly. £30.

 

[David Jones]

I'm upset now, because I sold mine many years ago. I bought a Praktica with a built-in meter and I didn't think I needed it any more. What I hadn't thought about is that there is something to be said for using incident light readings and the Invacone makes it easy to do.

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Interesting take here: how (and why) to use a hand-held light meter | Laurence Kim Photographer

HOW (AND WHY) TO USE A HAND-HELD LIGHT METER

Incident light readings are more accurate

The meter in your camera is a reflective meter. If you want an incident reading, you’ll need a hand-held meter. What’s the big deal? Incident readings are much more accurate. Take a proper incident reading and your exposure is perfect – no interpretation required. Reflective readings, on the other hand, require interpretation. If you use matrix metering, then the meter reading is only perfect if the information hitting the sensor perfectly averages out to approximately 18% gray. If you use spot metering, then the reading is only accurate if your spot meter is perfectly hitting an 18% gray area. Light or dark subjects will really fool the reading. An incident reading, however, does not depend on the color or brightness of the subject, it measures the actual light hitting your subject and will thus give you a spot-on exposure reading every time.

But so what? Can’t you just take a test shot, look at the image on the LCD and the histogram, then adjust accordingly to come up with the perfect exposure? Not exactly. Remember that the histogram on your camera is NOT the raw data, it is the histogram of the camera’s processed (i.e. corrected) jpeg – even if you’re shooting raw. Thus it will to a degree mask the inaccuracy of your meter reading.

But even if test-shooting and chimping gets you pretty close, you can’t test and chimp with a film camera! By using an incident meter, I can measure the exposure perfectly, dial the settings on my film cameras and boom – have an entire series of perfectly exposed images without fiddling with the camera again until my subject moves to different light. Do this for a while and eventually you’ll get to know the light much better.

 

[Pete Askew]

Good find and sensible advice Chris. I often stick one of these in my pocket:

GOSSEN Digisix 2

They are tiny and after about 4 years or so I still have the original battery in it!