How to measure exposure/brightness?

gonzogolf wrote in post #8449733
Its good to see that Wilt doesnt read any of the previous posts

I did read them all first! People are telling him to read histograms, people are telling him to calibrate monitors, people are telling him to buy meters (but his budget does not permit that)

The problem with histograms is that unless you KNOW where the brightness of the object is, you do not know where to expect that to peak in the histogram. If you have a gray card, you can shoot it and target its position at the midpoint, but if you have a gray card you can simply shoot what the Partial meter or Spot meter reading is from the card, and not bother with the in camera histogram. When your target is 18% gray with no highlights, the ETTR is a useless concept.

Calibrating monitors can't be done unless you have established levels of brightness in the exposure, a reference standard. That is why software provides established RGB values that a monitor calibration unit can read, so that the monitor is then adjusted to recreate that known reference! If you have no software generated reference standard, then you need to use a reference standard like a gray card or a Macbeth card (which is probably not in the budget either, I would guess).

All I was trying to get at is you told him about the dpreview monitor brightness scale as if it hadn't been mentioned.

Also he is using an hdtv instead of a monitor so hardware calibration is probably not possible.

I tell people all of the time about dpreview, yet many have never heard of it. The fact that multiple people say the same thing does nothing but reinforce the validity of the tool.

gonzogolf wrote in post #8450006
Also he is using an hdtv instead of a monitor so hardware calibration is probably not possible.

It is possible. Just check Bhphoto's website under their TV section and their accessories include calibration devices. You do not load a driver into the TV like you do a computer, but you use your eyes more, but better than nothing.

colormaniac wrote in post #8446390
At this point, I may not be able to afford a light meter. Would a gray card or the white towel method be a cheaper way to do something similar?

???, some light meters are rather cheap and you can get one that is both ambient and flash under $50. Yeah, it may not be accurate within a 1/10 of a stop, but within a 1/3 of a stop, if you use it right, would be helpful to getting close to your proper exposure.

Thanks everybody! I learned a lot.

Underscore wrote in post #8452585
???, some light meters are rather cheap and you can get one that is both ambient and flash under $50. Yeah, it may not be accurate within a 1/10 of a stop, but within a 1/3 of a stop, if you use it right, would be helpful to getting close to your proper exposure.

Could you please give an example? When it comes to light meters, I usually find people talking about Sekonic L358.

I have an old, (like 20+ years) gossen luna pro-F. It still does a nice job, its analog, not digital but it works for simple flashmeter tasks. I have no idea what they are going for on the used market, but you could search for one.

I've uploaded some of the processed pictures here. Nearly all pictures took me a lot of time to fix. I really should get myself a gray card or eventually a light meter.

I ran into this on eBay. Color & White Balance Control Lens System. I had not heard of this. Is it really better than a gray card in adjusting the white balance?

colormaniac wrote in post #8445431
Yesterday I shot a friend.

I wonder if Obama will have the strength required to impose stricter gun control in the US?