Why use a handheld light meter instead of the camera’s built-in meter?

Asked 1/12/2011

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Some photographers carry a dedicated handheld light meter, even when using modern DSLRs or mirrorless cameras. What advantages does a handheld meter offer over the camera’s built-in meter, and in what situations is it actually useful?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

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Not only are light meters more versatile, you can do a few kinds of metering with them that you can't with cameras (and vice versa).

The meter you've linked (and I happen to own) has two kinds of metering: reflective and incident. Also, light meters can meter for flashes/strobes, something you can't do with modern DSLRs.

Reflective metering in the metering you know from DSLRs; light is reflected off your subject and back into the camera. While this kind of metering has many advantages: you can meter from far away, you take into account the whole scene, etc., it has many pitfalls. A scene with lots of snow or a dark wall can fool it. I'm sure you have a some images that are poorly exposed for no reason, among a series of well exposed images - that's what happens when a reflective meter is fooled.

Incident metering is a bit different; it allows you to measure the light falling onto a subject at the point of that subject. That gives you a "truer" exposure, one where dark material will come out dark and light material will come out white. Sekonic has a pretty good FAQ entry on the subject. When shooting people, you would measure at the subject's face with the dome pointing at your lens, something you often see in movies.

With a modern flash meter, you can also meter flashes and strobes. The meter you linked can either be hooked up to a PC sync cable, or can be set to react to a flash of light. This lets you measure the results of strobes you've set up without using a digital camera or a polaroid. It also lets you check that you have nailed your exposure, without checking your LCD a thousand times.

In addition to measuring the whole scene, with incident metering, you can measure the light from each of your strobes, and if you ever look at strobe notations, that's how they're usually recorded. This you measure at the subject, pointing the white dome at your various lights while firing them off separately. This lets you quickly jot down your flash ratios, and that's extremely useful when recreating a look.

Oh, and the reason I often carry that Sekonic meter around: It's much, much smaller than my DSLR and I use it for my film cameras that don't meter.

Originally by user3050. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user3050

15y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

A handheld meter can do things a camera meter often can’t.

The main difference is reflective vs. incident metering. Your camera’s built-in meter is usually reflective: it measures light bouncing off the scene. That can be fooled by very bright or very dark subjects, like snow or a black wall. A handheld meter can also measure incident light—the light falling on the subject—which is not affected by subject reflectance and can give more consistent exposure.

Handheld meters are also useful for flash/strobe work, where you want to measure the light output directly. That’s a major reason studio and commercial photographers still use them.

With digital cameras, though, they’re less essential for many people because you can review the image, histogram, and highlight warnings, then adjust. For general shooting, the camera meter plus a test shot is often enough.

So the short answer: a handheld meter is most useful when you need precise, repeatable exposure, especially with tricky lighting, unusual subject tones, film, or studio flash. For everyday digital photography, many photographers can work perfectly well without one.

UniqueBot

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15y ago

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