External lightmeters - how do they work and uses (nature)

So I keep reading about these relics from the days before digital and the instant preview histogram on the back of the camera and I've gotten curious as to their use and practical application for a photographer.

As far as I can tell for work in a studio they work well as you can move them around your controled subject area and read the light directly around the actual subject - combining this with flash to allow you fire the flashes - read the exposures (based on the exposure settings you have chosen) and then make choices about flash powers and settings based on how the light lands on different parts of your subject.
I've also read how they can work well in a constant lighting environment - where the lighting is fairly even and you just read the ambient at the meter and then shoot.


However whilst I can see their application in a studio environment and translating that to other constant light or flash dominated situations (eg studio macro shooting); I'm finding it harder to work out if there is any bonus for using an external flash meter over the internal camera one when shooting further off subjects (ie ones where you can't walk up to them).

I'm interested because sometimes you don't get the option to shoot - chimp - change and shoot again at a subject so anything that can allow me to shoot with better understanding of the light the first time is worth considering.

For something like landscape metering that is too far away to walk you need a light meter with spot metering like the Sekonic L-758DR. I use mine all the time and it works really well and easy to use. To see videos just youtube Sekonic L-758DR. There are videos that will show you what the Sekonic L-758DR can do.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …alMaster_Flash_​Meter.html

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

Incident meters are never fooled by subjects which reflect more or which reflect less light than 18% tonality, which is what all reflected light meters assume to apply. Brides in white gowns, grooms in black tuxes are both departures from 18% tonality, forcing the photographer to guess how much or how little EC (exposure compensation) to factor into the actual exposure

The apply equally in the days of film and in the days of digital. They aren't relics, but too many digital photographers feel that they are superfluous because they have the histogram tool on the camera, and they don't realize how reliance on the histogram is so very much slower than simply taking one reading with an incident light meter and shooting all the shots in the same light at the same exposure.

Saint - yes its the reflective meter in the external light meters that is, honestly, more interesting to me than the incident meter. Not that I'd never use the incident meter, but whilst it would be great on flowers I can see it falling rather short when doing macro studio work (which is currently my dominant type of studio shooting - and even then I do little of it).

So as an incident meter how much better can I expect something like the Sekonic to be over say a 7D with spot metering? The Sekonic website makes a lot of talk about metering with dynamic range considerations and a lot of neat comments that make it sound a lot more like its meter - set - shoot - done rather than shooting - checking;adjusting and shooting again (which whilst I have a feel of what EC to add/detract when metering with the camera there is sometimes the margin of error that can creep in).

If you're doing macro work, and have enough time to check and adjust your histogram, then you don't need a light meter. Just keep in mind, the back of your camera isn't perfectly calibrated, so looking at the image for exposure adjustements isn't the most precise solution, reading the histogram is much better.

Would a light meter make your exposure more precise then the histogram ? No.

Light meters are great for when you can't set-up and fire off tests shots, im gonna have 5mins with the bride, im gonna take 30mins to setup. Once she steps in front of the lens its shot after shot, the exposure and every other setting will have been set in advance by using a light meter, i won't need any EC. Or if the situation is extreme enough, maybe a slight EC, but thats pretty rare.

I find with digital, they are mostly useful for flash exposures, especially with multiple flashes on multiple surfaces. Firing off a flash and a test shot, adjusting it, redoing it, for every flash and every surface would take forever. I can just walk around with the meter, get a reading on the White BG, move on to the props, get a reading where the model will be and by the time she steps out of MU & Wardrobe, the exposure has been set in advance.

Saint728 wrote in post #12372489
For something like landscape metering that is too far away to walk you need a light meter with spot metering like the Sekonic L-758DR. I use mine all the time and it works really well and easy to use. To see videos just youtube Sekonic L-758DR. There are videos that will show you what the Sekonic L-758DR can do.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …alMaster_Flash_​Meter.html

Take Care,
Cheers, Patrick

Good grief! Useful or not, that just looks like a fun bit of hardware