When to take a Incident or a Reflective light reading

[Sparrow]

I'm sorry Ruben if I am misinterpreting you, but I think the gist of it is if you point a reflective meter at what it is expecting to see you'll be OK, if not you must think about it 🙂

 

[infrequent]

In such a situation by having a white dome hand held meter, you simulate the position of the man against sun, position the white dome accordingly (see my other posts) and the hand held meter will give you a more balanced reading for your subject, than what the camera sees.

And by the time I do all of that, pretty sure the man has probably long gone and the shot is lost.

Ruben, this is not a rant at you but against everyone who says that a handheld meter is more practical. I will take the built in meter and its bias and the shot every time. I appreciate that the handheld is more accurate but for me its more practical to know how my built in meter works well, understand situations where it could be fooled and compensate for that scenario, than fool around with a handheld meter. Especially when street photography is considered.

 

[ruben]

Hi infrequent,

As a matter of hard fact, many high level pros, speciallly in the photojournalist and war branches do use hand held meters, despite owning the most sophysticted cameras. Some swear by the incident reading as the safest/quickest reading. others swear by the spot meter. And of course many others swear by what they have inside their cameras.

I am not saying all of them, nor I am saying you are wrong. Nor I am taking sides on behalf of the handheld meter against the highly sophysticated buil in camera light meers. I am saying Photogrpahy is a whole universe with enough room for different people with different experiences and approaches.

In my case at street photography, I have a highly good camera without light metering facilities. In my case I must use a hand held meter like the old timers.

On the other hand, when using my OM slrs I do pretty well with my 4Ti multi-spot metering. But I don't like it for street photography for its noise.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[Sparrow]

And by the time I do all of that, pretty sure the man has probably long gone and the shot is lost.

Ruben, this is not a rant at you but against everyone who says that a handheld meter is more practical. I will take the built in meter and its bias and the shot every time. I appreciate that the handheld is more accurate but for me its more practical to know how my built in meter works well, understand situations where it could be fooled and compensate for that scenario, than fool around with a handheld meter. Especially when street photography is considered.

then you may be better advised to take the light reading before you start taking your pictures ....and stick to that .. just a thought ...... it could work

 

[infrequent]

@ruben - yeah i have seen folks using their handheld meters. its the surest sign of a pro photog! but as an amateur i don't see the value in it. if i was shooting slides a lot or doing professional work where exposure is critical, i would use it. all of my tools (35mm, negative film, digital processing) are forgiving when it comes to exposure. of course when the camera doesn't have a meter, you have to use a handheld. but if the camera has a half decent meter, and i am doing candid stuff, i am definitely not going to pull out a handheld meter and wave it around! : )

@sparrow - yeah that would work and would be my way of shooting if the camera had no meter. but then you have to factor in changes in light, be wary of light objects in dark backgrounds, and also bracket shots. but it would work too. even then it might be simpler just to do sunny f/16.

to really sum it up, my point is if you are trying to be discreet while doing street work, a handheld meter might not be the best choice. but to each its own!

cheers~
sunny

 

[ruben]

............to really sum it up, my point is if you are trying to be discreet while doing street work, a handheld meter might not be the best choice. but to each its own!

cheers~
sunny

Hi infrequent,

To the small extent of my experience in street shooting, there are many different situations between you and your subject. A small Sekonic L308, giving you fast clear readings, will not attract more attention than your camera, nor even additional attention.

But it will be slower than just focusing and shooting. Sometimes you really need to poiint and shoot and you cannot meter light with a Sekonic.

But all in all it is tricky. Because a direct camera light metering may fool you as well.

Here comes the Sekonic to our rescue, by pre-setting the camera. I use to take several incident readings of the ambient light from direct sun to shadow, and establish "where I stand". Then at shooting I adjusst the aperture according to those previous readings and the variations I see when I shoot.

Yet, all in all, at street shooting highly refined exposures are more than a luxury.

Cheers,
Ruben

 

[spyder2000]

My two cents' worth:

If you've studied the zone system, a spot meter is best. This presupposes you will process your own film and understand that your goal is likely to get detail in the shadows yet not overdevlop the highlights.

If you are just starting out a reflective meter is best and what you'll find in most SLRs. These give acceptable exposures in most situations but beware the backlit scene.

If you have access to both reflective and incident, you can use both to ascertain the difference (in stops) between the shadow exposer and highlight exposure. That should help you grasp what the final image will look like.

The old adage is "expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights". You cannot print detail that just isn't there.