Gossen Sixtomat flash

I have just purchased the light meter and need your help in using it. When putting the white diffuser on to measure incident light, shoudl I point the diffuser to the light source or point to the camera - it takes difference readings when pointing to the light aource and to the camera, which way should I go? When measuring the EV, should I put the diffuser on? Many thanks for your help. Taking the chance, may I wish you all here have a Merry Christmas and prosperous year 2002 and beyond.

I too use an incident meter, they are very acurate but only with some

careful thinking and practise/calibration. Generally the meter is

held with the dome in front of the important area of the subject and

pointing back to the camera. You will find that the angle at which

you hold the meter can alter the reading by a stop or more.

 

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Say, for a landscape you hold the meter vertically to take a reading,

with my own Sekonic I must tilt it down by around 30 degrees or the

meter will tend to indicate an under-exposed shot. Similarily you

will find that altering the meter's position horizontally will change

the reading significantly.

 

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For a backlit shot I find a reading from the subject towards the

camera (ie away from the light source) may be slightly over-exposed,

in this situation it may be better to hold the meter at right angles

to the light source and camera.

 

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This is tricky to illustrate without diagrams, the best bet is to use

a slide film and take a series of test shot with wide brackets (+/- 1

or 2 stops) and guage your readings by the results.

 

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No two meters will normally give exactly the same reading in an

identical situation, you need to 'learn' your own meter. And most

importantly, buy a good book on exposure technique with incident

meters where all this will be explained with much more eloquence!

Incident meters are very easy to use. To keep it simple, meter

from the subject with the dome pointed toward the camera. If the

subject is difficult to get to, just hold the meter in the same type

of light as the subject is getting. In difficult contrasty lighting, you

have to decide which part of the subject is important to you and

point the meter to whatever light source is lighting that part.

Tom,

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I was answered a similar question today so you might also be

interested in this thread on incident metering technique: <a

href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=000FjV">Incident

Metering: A different approach</a>. If you read through it you'll

find John Collier's answer summarizes it very well.

I have to diasgree - I have just read the above link and as implied

in my first answer, it is NOT simply a case of holding the meter in a

certain place and taking the reading as gospel. As I said, hold the

meter vertically then tilt it down then up and tell me the reading

doesn't change! If you aim the dome at the light source (ie the sun)

your subject will be under exposed. My meter was calibrated and

checked by Sekonic last week, but the angle at which readings are

taken is crucial.

I won't feed this particular fire by trotting out my own incident

metering technique. However, I disagree with the statement that

pointing the incident dome at the sun (light source) results in

underexposure. Assuming you're rating the film at your tested EI

then pointing the incident meter at the sun results in correctly

exposed surfaces that are facing the sun. If the shadow reading is

beyond the film's latitude then surfaces facing away from the sun

will be dark with little or no detail. This does not mean that

pointing the incident dome at the light source is wrong or

underexposes the scene -- it simply means that you have to take a

shadow reading as well and choose an exposure that falls in the

film's latitude, sacrifice either highlight or shadow detail, or

modify development to account for intentional overexposure.

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Angling the meter so that the dome is only partially lit by the main

light source is just another way to balance the exposure between

highlight and shadow detail. It works but it's a technique that each

one has to work out by him or herself.

Bong - no point in re-arguing the same points that were debated in

the link you provided. Thanks for this link - the best debate I have

ever read on incident (and general) metering. I actually printed out

all 20 pages of it so I could study it properly.

 

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Sufice to say no-one could agree on the absolute correct method of

metering but one thing is CERTAIN - it is not simply a case of

holding the meter at X pointing it at Y and bingo! perfect exposure.

John is a pillar of wisdom but here I am afraid a simplistic answer

just will not do - it doesn't work! If anyone doubts this take a

slide film, take a whole range of varied light shots from indoor to

backlit to sunset to midday to fill flash etc using straight incident

metering and many will be un-satisfactory.

 

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I really would implore Tom to read the link and (if I may be so bold)

take my advice which is repeated more than a dozen times by various

people in the thread: "Use the meter with intelligence"; "use your

brain even when you're using an incident meter"; "no one method will

give the 'correct' reading"; "test shots with tranny film, pick a

system, calibrate it, use it"; "bracket, bracket, bracket"; "I can't

simply take an incident reading as the correct exposure"; "incident

metering sucks"; "very careful to interpret the results, not to

accept them as gospel"

 

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etc, etc, etc. It's 11 o'clock on Christmas eve, Happy Christmas and

good night!

I've been using an incident meter to measure nearly all of my exposures

since 1985. The way I've thought of it since day one is "use the meter

to measure the light falling onto the white hemisphere".<P>

 

Wrap your brain around that, it is very simple and accurate to use.

Indeed, far more so than any reflected meter (which you <U>always</U>

have to compensate for the subject's colour, reflectivity, backlighting

etc.)

guys, could you help please? Just tried to use the same flash meter, and don't know what is a right direction to measuring flash. In fact device shows me aperture that gives me a bit overexposed images (i guess +1 Stop), i think i have to try to point the flash meter perpendicular to the face plane right to camera lens (not parallel face). Am i right?

I don't want to revive an ancient flame war, but in general an incident meter is used by holding it in the subject position with the dome aimed at the camera lens. It is possible that your meter is inaccurate, and may need to be recalibrated. I'm not familiar with your Gossen, but if it has a needle readout you might be able to re-zero it if it is off. How do you know it is 1 stop off? Are you checking this with a digital camera or by shooting film and getting it processed? If with film, there are other potential problems with equipment and processing that could account for some of the exposure issues.

I don't want to revive an ancient flame war, but in general an incident meter is used by holding it in the subject position with the dome aimed at the camera lens. It is possible that your meter is inaccurate, and may need to be recalibrated. I'm not familiar with your Gossen, but if it has a needle readout you might be able to re-zero it if it is off. How do you know it is 1 stop off? Are you checking this with a digital camera or by shooting film and getting it processed? If with film, there are other potential problems with equipment and processing that could account for some of the exposure issues.

 

Thanks. I checked it with DSLR, for my eye it's lighter for 0,7-1 stop. I will use it with film camera, so i was trying to practice it with digital camera before.

I in the subject position with the dome aimed at the camera lens .

 

I will check it this way one more time

voices from the past - i.e. 2001

 

In such cases, I'd suggest that a person start fresh and give a URL to the older post, but what the heck do I know?

Compare your incident reading with a reflected light reading off a grey card. I have a Gossen SIXTOMAT F2 purchased new a year ago and find it acqurate.