Where should I stand to take an incident meter reading for a portrait?
Asked 8/5/2019
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I’m shooting portraits on an Nikon FM2 and using a Sekonic L-308X-U in incident mode. Does the distance between the camera and the light meter matter? Should the meter be placed near the camera or near the subject, and is there any minimum or maximum distance?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
6y ago
2 Answers
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It makes absolutely no difference where an incident reading is taken. The only thing that matters is that the meter sees the same light as the subject does, and with the same orientation relative to the source and camera (angle of incidence).
I.e. if the light source is the sun behind you and you want to take a picture of a mountain 3 miles away; then just point the meter towards the sun (as if it were the mountain looking back towards the camera). If the light where you are is different than it is at the subject (i.e. you're standing in shade) then the meter needs to be relocated to where it is the same.
Edited to add oversimplified drawing to help explain situations mentioned in the comments.
The closer a directional light source is to the subject, the closer to the subject the light meter must be placed in order to have the same angle of incidence and to account for light falloff.
Originally by user70370. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user70370
6y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
For incident metering, the meter should be placed where the subject is, because you want to measure the light falling on the subject. In a portrait, that usually means holding the meter as close to the subject’s face as practical and aiming it toward the camera (or matching the subject/camera relationship to the light source).
The distance from the camera to the meter does not matter by itself. What matters is that the meter is seeing the same light, from the same direction, that the subject sees. If the light is uniform, you can meter from nearby and get the same result. But if the light changes between camera and subject—such as sun vs. shade, window light, or a nearby studio light—you need to meter at the subject position.
So there’s no fixed minimum or maximum camera-to-meter distance. The key rule is: meter at the subject whenever the lighting may differ.
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