What is a light meteronafilm camera

A light meter is a device that measures the amount of available light entering the camera and converts it into a reading informing you what aperture and shutter speed settings to use to obtain a correct exposure.

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Today it is common to have a light meter built into the camera, however, many professional photographers prefer a handheld light meter.  Handheld light meters read both incident and reflective light, while in camera light meters only read reflective light.

Light comes from artificial sources, such as light bulbs, candles, or even the glow of a computer screen. It also comes from one natural source, the sun.  If you can see it, You can photograph it!  The light meter will tell you how.

Learn how to use the f 16 rule and/or download a light meter application on your phone – see chapter Light meters doesn’t work Now What ?

Most cameras today have a light meter built into them, this makes it convenient for the photographer but not essential. Without a working built-in light meter, you can use a handheld light meter to accurately measure light.

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What is a light meterin photography

An incident light meter reads the light landing on the subject. This can be inconvenient because you have to hold the light meter up to your subject, which is not always possible, however, it is the most accurate way to read light.

How to usea light meter

There are several different ways of measuring light, first, we will focus on using the light meter in your camera. This metering system is called a reflective reading for a very simple reason, the light meter reads the amount of light bouncing or reflecting off your subject. It also uses a system called through the lens metering or TTL.

Photography: What, How, Why Copyright © 2023 by Maria Politarhos and Randy Matusow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Flash meters measure the light from a flash or strobe. Since this kind of light is not constant, it requires a special hand-held light meter that can measure the light being emitted in a fraction of a second. They can read both reflective or incident light.

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Your reflected light meter is in love with middle gray. It does its best to turn anything you meter into a middle gray tone.

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The human eye sees a huge tonal range from super bright light to dark shadows and many, many subtle tones in between.  A camera, whether digital or film, can’t capture the whole range of tones that the human eye can see. A light meter takes that wide range of tones (from light to dark),  and translates it into the limited tonal range of a photograph. A light meter can’t tell if the light source is the sun, a light bulb, a flashlight, or moonlight, it is also color blind, and can’t tell if something is rosy red, apple green, or sky blue. What it can tell is the intensity of light reflecting off the objects it is pointed at.  It averages all the light in the frame and suggests a combination of aperture and shutter speed to give you a correct exposure.   This is where middle gray comes in. Imagine if different light intensities were translated into numbers from 1 to 10. 10 being the brightest and one being the darkest, that would make five middle grey. The light meter measures all the light in a scene,  and averages it out to give you an exposure setting that results in a 5 (middle gray). If you expose your picture for this setting, the areas that had a light intensity of 10 will be white because they are brighter than 5, and the areas that had a 2 intensity will be dark because they are darker than  5.  Whatever you point your meter at, it will find middle gray. This works well when you have an average lighting situation.

In the beginning, you may accidentally push the shutter release button down all the way, and take a photo, no worries this happens a lot until you get used to the feeling of ½ way.

What is a light meterused for in photography

A reflective light meter reads light that bounces off the subject. When you point the light meter at your subject, it is reading the light being reflected off your subject and back to the camera. The light meter in your camera is reflective. This type of metering is convenient, all you do is point the camera or light meter at your subject to get a light reading.  The problem with this reading is there are other light sources reflected back to the camera that may confuse the meter.  The reflective light meter doesn’t know what your subject is, and will take in all the light from the scene.  This makes this reading particularly helpful for landscape photography and general scenes.

Typically you have to press the shutter release button down ½ way to activate the light meter. The meter will stay on for a few seconds while you view the meter reading. If it turns off before you are finished, just push it ½ way down again.

Now that you understand how the three variables (Aperture, Shutter speed, and ISO) work together it’s time to learn how to properly use your light meter.

As mentioned before the 35mm film cameras you have are secondhand. Some are in very good condition and others probably need a tune-up. This means there is a good possibility that your in-camera light meter is not working properly. There are some easy solutions for the problem that do not include buying a handheld light meter.

The lumisphere  (white bulb on the light meter)  is the incident reader.  The photographer holds the meter in front of the subject with the bulb facing the camera. This reads the amount of light falling on the subject.  An incident light meter is most useful for portraiture and close-ups.