How would one use a handheld light meter for landscape photography?

<p>Hi everyone, </p>

<p>I'm thinking about getting a Sekonic L308s light meter to use together with my film bodies. What I don't quite understand is how would one use the light meter to meter for landscape photography. <br>

For example with this scene: </p>

<p><a title="Lens testing sample image by Khiem Le, on Flickr" href=" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8815/17889389448_75b11cf1a5_c.jpg" alt="Lens testing sample image" width="800" height="574" /></a></p>

<p>The trees and lake are so far away, without the spot-metering ability of the L-308s, how can I use it to effectively meter? <br>

I can understand with more expensive/advance Sekonic meters, they have a viewfinder that allows the photographer to spot-meter the spots they want. but don't know how to do that with the cheaper/less advance meter such as the 308s. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance,<br>

Khiem</p>

<p>http://www.sekonic.com/classroom/meteringtechniques/benefitsofincident.aspx</p>

<p>Besides being a light meter that can measure light levels, a light meter will also enable you learn a lot about light.</p>

<p>First you can measure the light and as landscape is usually illuminated by one light source (the sun) so you have the same light everywhere. So you can measure where you are standing.</p>

<p>Then you can go around a measure different things. For instance how much less light is there in the shadows compared to the sun? How much difference is there when the sun is covered by a cloud? How much brighter is the sun on a really bright day compared to just a bright day? What about the suns direction i relationship to the camera? How much more difference between different times during the same day.</p>

<p>All this will enable you to see and understand things that you can't measure. For instance looking at a scene you can measure the exposure that will be the base of your exposure setting. But then you can look at the scene and say - well I really want detail in those shadows over there and I know those are going to be about 3 stops less illuminated and they are dark green so I want to adjust my exposure about 1 stop over what the meter says. Then when you get the film developed and scanned or printed you can look at the result and see if your adjustments where correct and what the film can pick up.</p>

<p>You are also going to have to learn about your camera and film at the same time. For instance scanning or printing optically are different just as different films behave differently. And as time goes you can refine your process.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>For this particular shot, I would use it in incident mode. Looks like you were probably standing in the same sunlight that was hitting most of the scene. Just hold up the incident dome/disc and get the reading. It will be the same on the distance objects hit by the sun as those that are close. <br /><br />The tricky part is when you're standing, for example, in the shade, and the subject is in the sun, or the other way around. If your subject is close, you can walk up and take an incident reading. But not when it's across the valley. Then you have to use the meter in reflective mode. You can get a general reading, but not as accurate as with a spot meter. That's why spot meters are/were popular among landscape photographers.</p>

<p>As a landscape photographer of sorts, my experience is that reflective meters with wide-angle receptors are a waste of time, and that the slightest movement of hand or wrist may result in a large variation in reading. I had to use a 308 on a trip once when my Sekonic 508 developed a fault at the beginning of a trip and a 308 was all I could find locally. I sold it as soon as I got home and from that day on carried two 508s in case one broke.</p>

<p>As others have pointed out here , the scene you provide as an example could be metered using a 308 in incident mode because it is evenly lit. However the even lighting means that it isn't a terribly interesting photograph and indeed I actively search out scenes with a variation in light, or the above mentioned photograph a sunny scene from a shady place (to eliminate flare for example) . Once you get into that territory then for me, only a spot-meter will do a great job and as most spot-meters can be used in incident mode, or can be used to meter something that approximates quite well to a mid-tone, the spot-meter can do pretty much anything a regular incident meter can do for that sort of subject and a bit more. Amongst the "bit more" is the ability to measure differences between bright and dark parts of the scene and form a view about whether to use a graduated filter and of whatever strength. Worth its weight in gold to me when using a contrasty slide film.</p>

<p>But both spot-meters and incident meters have strong supporters and people who think one way is better than the other. To me its quite simple- the more you're liable to want to include variable lighting, and the more likely you are to use slide film with its low ability to cope with contrasty scenes, the more a decent spot-meter will earn its keep. If you're using a wide-latitude colour neg film and scanning/adjusting the original shot, the less important this is.</p>

<p>Finally your last paragraph. You can't use a meter with a wider angle of acceptance in the same way that you use a 1 degree spot like you get with the the 508/608/558/758 etc. In a way its a strange question because if you could get the same result with a relatively cheap meter then who would buy the more expensive ones? You get something from these meters that you can't replicate at low cost and even if you buy a separate spot attachment it might not be as valuable as the small angle spot facilities built into the higher range meters.</p>

<p>For zone system use with large format B&W I have long used a Soligor Spot Sensor II (the version with a silicon metering cell) with great success. If landscape photography is what you want to do, I would get one of those (or another spot meter) rather than any meter designed primarily for incident metering as is the Sekonic 308 you mentioned. A spot meter requires practice and forethought, but used well it will lead to accurate exposure. I have two Sekonic incident flash meters that I use constantly in my studio with flash, but they wouldn't be my first choice for landscape work.</p>

<p>Unless you need to know the contrast of a scene - the subject brightness ratio - then a spotmeter will introduce more complications that it will solve. Like any reflectance meter, it's designed to render whatever it's pointed at as a mid tone, and therein lies the rub. Your first decision needs to be what area(s) of the scene you want to be rendered as a midtone, and with a colourful subject like the above landscape, that's not easy.</p>

<p>Is your midtone going to be the blue sky, the green trees in the distance, the closer and more yellow/green trees, the bare brown branches? What? Only experience and a good eye for tonality can tell you that. Otherwise it's pure guesswork.</p>

<p>I see nothing in that scene above that would present any problem for an incident meter-reading. Why complicate things when a simple single incident reading would get you the same result? And if the scene isn't as "average" as that shown, then you can make an adjustment to compensate - but that's another decision process based on pre-visualisation and experience.</p>

<p>Remember, no matter how many meter readings you take of the scene, you can only set one combination of shutter speed and aperture for the actual exposure.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone for your inputs. </p>

<p>I suppose the photo above is not that hard to use an incident meter like the 308s to measure the light. But like Andrew and David said above, it is almost impossible to use the 308s when the light is a bit more complicated, eg litting some parts of the scene but not others, or extremely bright where the photographer is standing, etc. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>I see nothing in that scene above that would present any problem for an incident meter-reading. Why complicate things when a simple single incident reading would get you the same result?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>You're right, with the above photo it is not that hard to use an incident meter to meter the light where I was standing. What I think is a bit more difficult is when where I'm standing to take the shot is completely dark or in shade.<br>

Looks like I have to save up a bit more for (probably a used) a spot meter.</p>

 

<p>There are certain things that tend to be good targets for reflected light meters like normal grass. You can measure that as the "average" light reading. You can also bring along a 18% grey card and measure that. Another old saw is measuring the back of your hand (at least for caucasians). Stay away from the sky which is likely to be too bright to be within the light levels the film can record (or even digital sensors). </p>

<p>You will probably be OK for normal pictures (in the film days, for black and white print film) but you would need more precision for slides. Plus the spot meter (some reflected meters like the Gossen Luna Pro actually have spot attachments) will always give you a better idea of what will record well and which will not.</p>

<p>For that particular scene and especially if one were using Negative Film, it could be just to say use the "F/16 Rule".</p>

<p>However, I'd find a Spot Meter handy for that scene and for a particular use. I'd use a spot meter on the green of the tree which is in shadow (foreground camera right) and s second Spot Meter reading the same green of a tree in full sun (in fact one could use the same tree to ensure the greens were the same).</p>

<p>Doing so would provide a good indicative of the DR of (what appears to be) the 'important' sections of the scene. With that information one could finesse the exposure to best suit the processing and the printing of the particular film stock which was being used.</p>

<p>This same technique can be used on more complexly lit landscape scenes, obviously.</p>

<p>WW</p>