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"Client proof" exposure meter app recommendations?


Jochen_S

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People plan events and ask if I could cover them. The technically most important open question for me is: "Will there be light?"

I won't break even by spending time and money to scout venues in advance and don't have a bag full of Sony A7 S IIs & insanely fast glass yet.

So I am wondering: How could I make use of clients' iPhones & Android counterparts to dodge dim jobs or make sure they 'll rig up enough stage lighting?

What are usable free or dirt cheap exposure- or Lux meter apps that I could ask them to use while picking their venues?

 

Thanks in advance.

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If you are going to do much of this type work it will be worth your while to scout the locations if they are in a reasonable distance. If you do mostly local work it won't be long before you are familiar with the venues in your area and it makes life easier.

 

Rick H.

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Thank you all for getting back. I wish I could agree with Rick upon:

If you do mostly local work it won't be long before you are familiar with the venues in your area and it makes life easier
But I can't get rid of the feeling that they spot an even darker cave whenever I just upgraded my kit to cope with the previous worst one. That's why I'd love to enable venue pickers to figure out what "too dark" means.

Yes, taking incident readings on stages before shows and begging stage technicians to be a bit more generous with their light did pay off in the past. Still: Some stuff feels "I shouldn't even try to shoot that." Getting one just slightly blurry wide open shot to print small is easier than trying to document everything under bad conditions. Sometimes it is time to say: "No, sorry, that's too impossible for me."

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Refusing to scout a location in which you will be shooting because you don't think it will be worth your while and because you will not invest in proper lenses and strobe units which will get you through just about any situation, is short sighted and putting yourself through much more stress. If you are being paid as a professional, it is incumbent upon you to have the proper equipment to handle any situation properly. If you don't want to scout a location outside of the shoot, then just going to the shoot a couple of hours early is sufficient *if* you have the proper equipment. If you won't make that investment, you are going to have to scout and do very difficult workarounds and potentially come up with an inferior product. Make the investment. It will pay off sooner than you think if you are doing good work in any lighting situation.
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  • 3 weeks later...
If you are not experienced, scouting is even more important. If you don't have the gear to be able to "adapt, improvise, overcome" as Clint stated in one of his movies, nor the varied skills to do so, even more reason to know what to expect and what to bring or acquire before the shoot. There is more to check to see if there IS light, ie, quantity of light, also determine the quality, ie direction, diffusion, intensity/ contrast, color. Finally, seeing the location gives you some time to mull over potential locations to use and shots and time for, as I describe the creative process, time for sheet to happen.
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