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hm... incident or reflected light? (Metering Options)


ulisse

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A photographer friend of mine told me that measuring incident

light with a light meter is much better than measuring reflected light.

 

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Could anyone tell me why?

 

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I have been doing my measurements with reflected light for

quite a while now, mostly with positive results, but also some

problems when photographing in difficult light conditions.

 

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Is measuring incident light really that better? And how's the best way to procede?

 

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Thanks.

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The simplest way to ensure that, say, a predominately light subject (or dark subject) comes out light (or dark) on the slide or print is to take an incident light reading. This measures the light that hits the subject, not the reflective properties of the subject.

 

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However, the _best_ way (ie most reliable, with greatest control) is to take a a reflective light reading of different areas of the subject (which is easy with a spotmeter) and decide where you want to place those tones on the characteristic curve.

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IF you are not a zone system shooter the simplest way to get a proper exposure is incident metering. It nails it, and doesn't require much thought. Just need to rember to take a shadow or sunlight reading...depending on what is important.. General rule is if both are important, with print film shoot for shadow reading, for slides shoot for highlight reading. Now some people will say "oh but you have to be able to measure the sunlight falling on the subject". Well unless the planet has changed, the sun standing where you are is the same as the sun 5 feet, 50 feet, or 5 miles away from where you are, except if there is a cloud on one spot and not another or something like a bright white wall reflecting or a shadow on the subject... duh :-) 95% of the time it isn't an issue.

Anyhow they a really a simple joy to use. Take your reading and shoot away. Just watch for changing light such as the sun going down lower or clouds/haze built up, etc. I jsut take one reading. Shoot. Double check every ten minutes. Keep shooting. I get much more consistent results like this.

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  • 3 weeks later...
The most important and most overlooked aspect of using one or the other of these methods is their relationship to each other. In other words, what are they really telling you when you use them. The reflective meter is giving you a reading that will render the area read a middle grey (18%) when printed. The incedent meter is giving you the same reading you would have recieved using a spot reading off a grey card in that area of the area photographed. So---if you use the incident meter in the shadow area, all areas of the photograph will fall in place in relationship to a properly exposed grey card in the shadows.
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