Why use an incident light meter in studio photography?
Asked 9/4/2021
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I understand that an incident meter measures the light falling on the subject, while reflected metering measures the light coming back from the subject. In a studio, the lighting is controlled, so I’m trying to understand the practical benefit of measuring incident light.
If exposure is determined by the light reflected from the subject into the camera, why is incident metering considered more accurate in studio work? What problem does it solve compared with reflected metering when photographing subjects with different colors or tones?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
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Reflected light meters by necessity assume a normal reflectance level. At one time this was referred to as 18 percent gray but the exact value is commonly disputed.
The average reflectance level is not important. Consider two very different portraits, one of a white wedding dress, the other a black cocktail dress. An incident meter will tell you the light hitting the subjects. A properly exposed shot will produce white whites and black blacks.
Metering reflectance will give different exposures for the two cases, dropping the white dress exposure more toward gray and increasing the black dress exposure more toward gray.
Incident metering removes the guesswork as to reflectance effects.
Originally by user77199. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user77199
4y ago
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Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Incident metering is useful because it measures the light falling on the subject without being influenced by the subject’s reflectance.
A reflected meter has to assume an average tone. That works only if the scene is “average.” In the studio, a white dress, black clothing, blue fabric, or green product can all fool reflected metering, pushing exposure toward a middle gray. That can make whites too dark and blacks too bright.
An incident meter avoids that problem. It tells you the exposure for the actual illumination, so bright subjects can stay bright and dark subjects can stay dark, while still being correctly exposed. In other words, it removes guesswork caused by subject color and tone.
That’s especially helpful in studio photography because you control the lights and want repeatable, consistent exposure from shot to shot. Incident metering lets you set the camera based on the lighting setup itself, not on how reflective the current subject happens to be.
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