Jani_from_Finland
Well-known
Just got my hands on for a try-out of a Pentax Spotmeter V, anyone familiar to this one?
I've got a regular meter, but i havent had such good success using it, is a spotmeter easier if you take multiple reading and figure out the EV-value (on my own lightmeter i cant choose a specific source)?
I've got a regular meter, but i havent had such good success using it, is a spotmeter easier if you take multiple reading and figure out the EV-value (on my own lightmeter i cant choose a specific source)?
n5jrn
Well-known
A spotmeter is easier to use in difficult lighting situations (say, where no matter what exposure you choose, something's going to be inky-black or completely blown-out and white... or both). Choose what you want to render as middle gray, meter that, and set the exposure accordingly.
If you don't have a spotmeter, you can often accomplish the same thing by walking around and metering things with a normal reflected meter at close range.
If you don't have a spotmeter, you can often accomplish the same thing by walking around and metering things with a normal reflected meter at close range.
raid
Dad Photographer
I have been using a digital spotmeter by Pentax for the past 20 years. It is all I use.
bwcolor
Veteran
I used this model for many years. I swear that I purchased it in the early seventies, but maybe I'm wrong there. It was a great meter, but I just don't know what became of it. I now use a Sekonic, but that Pentax was so reliable, accurate and easy to use. Great meter.
ChrisN
Striving
Raid, you have probably been asked before, but could you describe how you meter with the spotmeter. Do you look for a mid-tone and measure that, or average a highlight and a shadow reading? And is you approach different for B&W neg, color neg and transparancies film?
Thanks.
tlitody
Well-known
you have to know how to use a spot meter which can be easy or difficult. Its no different than your in camera meter in that it averages whatever you point it at. Its just that its averaging a very small area so you can get picky about what you meter.
Now for B+W a lot of people will just tell you to meter a shadow area you want full textural detail in and close down two stops from the reading. Well that sort of works to a point but it takes no account of highlights which may be, and often are, more important. So you can also meter a highlight area in which you want full textural detail and open up two stops which sort of works OK too. Or you could meter both the shadow and the highlight and average the two readings which sort of works too.
Sort of works means that if your development is calibrated and you know that two stops is the right amount. That is the tricky bit because it varies with film type and development contrast. So it might actually be better if you meter shadow and close down 1.5 stops or meter highlight and open up 1.5 half stops.
Oh and with transparency film you only close or open 1 stop from shadow or highlight and generally you meter for the highlights and not the shadows. But again these are ball park figures. You have to do a bit of trial and error for each film type till you know whats best for that film type.
Now for B+W a lot of people will just tell you to meter a shadow area you want full textural detail in and close down two stops from the reading. Well that sort of works to a point but it takes no account of highlights which may be, and often are, more important. So you can also meter a highlight area in which you want full textural detail and open up two stops which sort of works OK too. Or you could meter both the shadow and the highlight and average the two readings which sort of works too.
Sort of works means that if your development is calibrated and you know that two stops is the right amount. That is the tricky bit because it varies with film type and development contrast. So it might actually be better if you meter shadow and close down 1.5 stops or meter highlight and open up 1.5 half stops.
Oh and with transparency film you only close or open 1 stop from shadow or highlight and generally you meter for the highlights and not the shadows. But again these are ball park figures. You have to do a bit of trial and error for each film type till you know whats best for that film type.
Last edited:
Nokton48
Veteran
I also have a Pentax digital Spotmeter, which has a zone sticker on it. I bought it 25 years ago from Zone VI Studios, and it has always been my most accurate method of metering. It has a modified metering cell, and is absolutely accurate as proved by my 25 years of use.
ChrisN,
If I am in a super hurry, I meter the light falling on the back of my hand, if it is in the same type of light as my subject being photographed. I set the meter scale one EV step above the indicated meter reading. So if I am looking at the zone scale, I place my light reading on Zone VI, which is one EV step above the "pegged" central reading on the meter.
Hope that makes sense. It's really easy to do. Quick and dirty.
ChrisN,
If I am in a super hurry, I meter the light falling on the back of my hand, if it is in the same type of light as my subject being photographed. I set the meter scale one EV step above the indicated meter reading. So if I am looking at the zone scale, I place my light reading on Zone VI, which is one EV step above the "pegged" central reading on the meter.
Hope that makes sense. It's really easy to do. Quick and dirty.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
First, what sort of film are you shooting? There's usually little point in spot metering for reversal film or digital, but assuming you're using negative, you may find the following useful, from http://www.rogerandfrances.com/subscription/ps expo neg.html
Taking a spot meter reading of a grey card is not the answer, because the only way to discover how much darker the deepest shadow is than the grey card is to measure the shadow directly. In a flatly lit scene, the shadows might only be a stop or two darker than the grey card; in a very contrasty scene, they might be five stops or more. In the former case, reading the grey card will recommend overexposure, which won't matter too much, but in the latter case it will recommend quite significant underexposure, which may matter a lot.
and
For maximum control you should read both the darkest area in which you want texture and detail and the lightest area in which you want texture and detail.
You then base the exposure on the shadow reading and the development time on the highlight reading: for a short brightness range you give increased development to increase the contrast, and for a long brightness range you give reduced development to compress the contrast as described in the free module on brightness ranges or (in more detail) in the paid-for module on negative development. But unless you are developing each exposure separately, or all the exposures on a single roll have the same brightness range, this is not feasible: you have to resort to 'average' or 'standard' or 'normal' development.
(Ignore references to free and paid for. It's all free).
There's a lot more about spot metering on the site. Most people who meter grey cards get decent results for two reasons: first, they're actually thinking about their exposure, and second, because negative films have a lot of latitude. It's not actually because they have a particularly meaningful exposure reading.
Negative exposure is 'keyed' to the shadows (use IRE 1 on the spot meter) and transparency and digi are 'keyed' to the highlights (use IRE 10). The mid-tone index is substantially worthless and indeed doesn't appear on the SEI Photometer, the first commercially successful spot meter, which apparently still has a serious following in Hollywood today.
Cheers,
R.
Taking a spot meter reading of a grey card is not the answer, because the only way to discover how much darker the deepest shadow is than the grey card is to measure the shadow directly. In a flatly lit scene, the shadows might only be a stop or two darker than the grey card; in a very contrasty scene, they might be five stops or more. In the former case, reading the grey card will recommend overexposure, which won't matter too much, but in the latter case it will recommend quite significant underexposure, which may matter a lot.
and
For maximum control you should read both the darkest area in which you want texture and detail and the lightest area in which you want texture and detail.
You then base the exposure on the shadow reading and the development time on the highlight reading: for a short brightness range you give increased development to increase the contrast, and for a long brightness range you give reduced development to compress the contrast as described in the free module on brightness ranges or (in more detail) in the paid-for module on negative development. But unless you are developing each exposure separately, or all the exposures on a single roll have the same brightness range, this is not feasible: you have to resort to 'average' or 'standard' or 'normal' development.
(Ignore references to free and paid for. It's all free).
There's a lot more about spot metering on the site. Most people who meter grey cards get decent results for two reasons: first, they're actually thinking about their exposure, and second, because negative films have a lot of latitude. It's not actually because they have a particularly meaningful exposure reading.
Negative exposure is 'keyed' to the shadows (use IRE 1 on the spot meter) and transparency and digi are 'keyed' to the highlights (use IRE 10). The mid-tone index is substantially worthless and indeed doesn't appear on the SEI Photometer, the first commercially successful spot meter, which apparently still has a serious following in Hollywood today.
Cheers,
R.
Last edited: