Metering Moron Needs Help

I've suddenly become a metering moron.

Yesterday's shoot was horrible (outside location). I simply could not get a proper exposure using the Sekonic L-358. It's not the meter's fault, I must be doing something wrong. So, please tell me if I'm correct or not in my usage.

1. Dome extended, ambient light mode. Within that, I usually use the EV mode, but my results are just as bad with Shutter/Aperture Priority.
2. Place dome in front of subject facing camera.
3. Adjust aperture per meter reading.
4. Camera settings and meter settings match.
5. Look through viewfinder, 5D metering system says I am 2 stops on the dark side.
6. If I take the picture using the settings from the L-358 the histogram is mainly to the left.
7. If I open up the aperture by two stops, the histogram is more normal looking.

I'm having trouble knowing what to rely on, the L-358, the cameras metering system, or the histogram on the camera.

Before I discovered strobes/reflectors, etc., I normally used the camera's metering system for outdoor shots, and always adjusted the EV by 1 stop. Seemed to work, but I want to be as accurate as I can be, and get it right in the camera.

Last night I spent way too much time adjusting exposure, etc., when that all should have been correct at the time of the shoot.

I just spent the last two hours in my backyard working with the L-358 and my 5D, and came back in frustrated. Hence, the post.

Sorry, for being so long winded, but I need some help.

Meters do need calibration; see Sekonic's FAQ:

http://www.sekonic.com …port_11_details​.asp?ID=17

Hope that helps.

stefeb wrote in post #5598001
I've suddenly become a metering moron.

Yesterday's shoot was horrible (outside location). I simply could not get a proper exposure using the Sekonic L-358. It's not the meter's fault, I must be doing something wrong. So, please tell me if I'm correct or not in my usage.

1. Dome extended, ambient light mode. Within that, I usually use the EV mode, but my results are just as bad with Shutter/Aperture Priority.
2. Place dome in front of subject facing camera.
3. Adjust aperture per meter reading.
4. Camera settings and meter settings match.
5. Look through viewfinder, 5D metering system says I am 2 stops on the dark side.
6. If I take the picture using the settings from the L-358 the histogram is mainly to the left.
7. If I open up the aperture by two stops, the histogram is more normal looking.

I'm having trouble knowing what to rely on, the L-358, the cameras metering system, or the histogram on the camera.

Before I discovered strobes/reflectors, etc., I normally used the camera's metering system for outdoor shots, and always adjusted the EV by 1 stop. Seemed to work, but I want to be as accurate as I can be, and get it right in the camera.

Last night I spent way too much time adjusting exposure, etc., when that all should have been correct at the time of the shoot.

I just spent the last two hours in my backyard working with the L-358 and my 5D, and came back in frustrated. Hence, the post.

Sorry, for being so long winded, but I need some help.

Why are you using the meter in Ev mode? Are you also using a table that converts the Ev reading the meter is giving you to the proper shutter speed and aperture combination you'll need to expose the shot correctly? If not, you should stick to Tv (T) or Av (F) mode. Try setting the meter to the other modes and if you're still having problems, we can take a look to see what's going on.

The first thing I did with my Sekonic L-758 was to calibrate it as TheHoff mentioned above. The light meter and my camera sense light differently. Apart from that, did you set both units at the same ISO, by any chance?

(This reminds me... I gotta do the same with my new 40D!)

First of all, the histogram shows distribution of pixel brightness, as shot. If the scene is full of dark areas, that darker part of the histogram would be peaked when you shot dark things to appear dark (rather than 18% gray) in the photo. If, however, you upped the exposure for the same scene, the histogram would show the peak nearer the center, even though the scene itself is dominated by dark areas. So that might account for the 2EV difference. The 358 is telling you what exposure to use for the inherent light that falls onto the scene (which is what all incident meters do), whereas the camera is telling you the exposure that would render all the objects seen by the lens as averaging 18% grays...which is why it would exposure a black cat to 18% gray or a white snow scene to 18% gray, if you simply followed what the camera meter says. As you already stated, the 358 agreed with the camera meter, for your typical scene; shooting that scene at that setting simply caused the pixel brightness distribution to fall closer to the lower end of the range simply because the scene has a lot of areas that render to that fundamental brightness. Metering is NOT the same as histogram distribution.

Wilt wrote in post #5598773
... Metering is NOT the same as histogram distribution.

Different situation, same issue - I just shot a teen banquet. They wanted a plain black background (I love that!). I set the lights, metered the scene and trusted my L-358 to be correct. Set the camera and shot - all the histograms showed heavy to the left. When a black suit and black dress were present they showed even more to the left. The images are fine. Even got a fair separation from the background.

My point? - That black background raises the dickens with a histogram but once you understand what the histogram measures it's fine.

Thanks to all for the links, explanation and advice. All were helpful.

I just came in from doing what I should have done a long time ago. I spent the last five hours, outside, with my daughter, a mannequin's head, and my dogs.

The sun was behind them, in front of them, at their sides, etc. I metered, shot, moved, countless times until I got it right. Then, I brought out some strobes, and started all over again.

Then, I spent another hour with the above, and just a reflector. It was time well spent.

The biggest difference was that today, I was not pressured by a model standing in front of me, but had the time to practice, look, think about what I was doing, and why things were happening, I can at last say, "I got it now."

Thanks again.

Take a reading (with the Sekonic) in front of a white sheet. Set the camera to the meter's reading and shoot it. The resulting histogram spike will be near the right side.

Do the same thing in front of a black sheet. You'll get a histogram spike near the left side.

Your histogram does not tell you if your image is properly exposed. It charts the luminance of the scene relative to your camera's dynamic range. Reading histograms requires interpretation. And practice.

Here's an article that might help.
http://www.sekonic.com …ghtmetersWorkTo​gether.pdf

Thanks for that link Curtis, that is great.

Thank you Curtis. Great article. It helped my greatly.

Curtis N wrote in post #5599996
Take a reading (with the Sekonic) in front of a white sheet. Set the camera to the meter's reading and shoot it. The resulting histogram spike will be near the right side.

Do the same thing in front of a black sheet. You'll get a histogram spike near the left side.

Your histogram does not tell you if your image is properly exposed. It charts the luminance of the scene relative to your camera's dynamic range. Reading histograms requires interpretation. And practice.

Here's an article that might help.
http://www.sekonic.com …ghtmetersWorkTo​gether.pdf