Why should I use a handheld light meter?

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Peter^

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I notice a lot of you guys often use handheld meters. I've never really understood why this is necessary - except of course using flash meters in studio work. But other than that, what advantage is there in using a handheld reflective light meter have over the TTL reading from your camera?
 
Personally, the biggest advantage I see to using a handheld is that I like working off of incident light instead of reflected. While most in-camera meters these days are decent with providing an average exposure, if the contrast is high in the scene or if the subject is very bright or the opposite, then an incident meter is necessary because contrast and reflectivity can and will fool almost every camera light meter.

Plus they look cool.

Phil Forrest
 
Phil_F_NM said:
Personally, the biggest advantage I see to using a handheld is that I like working off of incident light instead of reflected. While most in-camera meters these days are decent with providing an average exposure, if the contrast is high in the scene or if the subject is very bright or the opposite, then an incident meter is necessary because contrast and reflectivity can and will fool almost every camera light meter.

Plus they look cool.

Phil Forrest
Click to expand...

Ok they look cool - I can see that. But if you're unsure about the exposure, isn't it simpler just to run a bracket?
 
I don't like bracketing, personally. It comes from my days shooting in the Navy when I was accountable for all my photos and if I took 1000 photos in a day then I had 1000 to catalog.
I just find it easiest to either use a handheld to expose for the light hitting the subject, not the subject reflectivity. That or use the in-camera meter to take a reading off an average gray spot somewhere in the scene around me. If I'm indoors and my subjects are people, I meter off the palm of my hand when using the in-camera meter.

Phil Forrest
 
Incident light reading. Surreptitious light reading, even with a camera with an in-camera meter. Black tie dinners, stage stuff, blonde children in white dresses......
 
Why?

Because you want to get the exposure right.

If you can already do that without a separate meter, no, you don't need one. If you can't...

Cheers,

R.
 
Peter^ said:
Ok they look cool - I can see that. But if you're unsure about the exposure, isn't it simpler just to run a bracket?
Click to expand...

With a static subject and digital, yes. With moving subjects, it may be impossible to capture the same situation across three bracketed shots. And with film, it is a matter of expense and practicability - a three bracket series for each shot will triplicate film cost, and would reduce a 12-exposure 120 film to a mere four shots.

Incident is a metering method that is not available in-camera at all. And with the exception of the OM-3 no camera so far managed to have in-camera spot meter handling even remotely as versatile as the interface on average hand-held spot meters - that is, with spot capable cameras (even the most recent pro DSLRs) you have to memorize a series of past readings if you want to meter the contrast range or do weighted averaging.

And then there are all the cameras without built in meters or with a somehow deficient internal meter...
 
Yep, what everyone has already said.

And, I run some pretty old cameras, with pretty old meters. Always good to double-check that they are reading correctly (or close enough).

Vick
 
Only hand meter, incident type reading, when the camera has no TTL meter. Modern in camera TTL meters are pretty good and can be over ridden when you think necessary.

Bob
 
I only recently began using a hand held meter and I am very happy with the results - namely all of my photos are properly exposed now.
 
Peter^ said:
But other than that, what advantage is there in using a handheld reflective light meter have over the TTL reading from your camera?
Click to expand...
It's fun to use a spot meter, you will know, what you are shooting at. Then I have a bunch of cameras with no meter, busted meter or wrong meter. But for fast action TTL reading is more practical of course.
 
I think it's very practical to be able to set the correct exposure before actually lifting the camera. I can imagine this being especially good for them ninja street shooters, not having the camera in your face other than just before the snap.
 
I use one because I found one used on Craigslist at a good price, my Leica IIIf does not have a built-in meter, and experience has taught me that some light conditions are best measured and not guesstimated.
 
Peter^ said:
I notice a lot of you guys often use handheld meters. I've never really understood why this is necessary - except of course using flash meters in studio work. But other than that, what advantage is there in using a handheld reflective light meter have over the TTL reading from your camera?
Click to expand...
I often use a hand-held meter because I find using incident light measurement works more consistently for my subject matter a good bit of the time. Reflected light metering is often thrown off by the reflectivity in a scene ... specular reflections, back lighting, large amounts of white or black predominating, etc etc are all problems.

With incident light reading, you get an accurate baseline for how much light you have to work with regardless of scene reflectivity and the spatial distribution of the light. Just be sure the light you measure is the same light the subject is in and you know where your middle gray tone has to be.

Using a mirrorless TTL camera with live histogram overlays in the viewfinder makes working with reflected light metering much much more consistent, but that's not available with my M4-2. And I can't just make a shot and check to see that I nailed the exposure correctly either! ;-)
 
In addition to the advantages of incident metering & other reasons already listed, many of us shoot w/cameras that don't have built-in meters, so it's not like we really have a choice.
 
OK, I guess the answer is if you have a reliable (give you results you like) TTL, you don't need one. If not, then a hand held light meter is best.

That is pretty much how I work. I have a Fujica ST 901 that still meters correctly after more than 35 years of use. I have several cameras that don't have built in meters so I have light meters for them. My Sekonic L28c2 has worked for the last 35 years as well.
 
I started using a spot meter regularly when I had a Mamiya 6 because I found that the meter was easily tricked. Got into the habit of using it and now don't leave home without it. Even use it when I use my M9 just like the mental freedom it gives me not to second guess myself. Can understand bracketing when you don't have anytime to compose yourself but if you have time why would you waste the frames?
 
CON-SIS-TEN-CY, but you must still take into account light transmission problems:bang::D;).
Spot, reflected, incident meter, ... depends if you shoot B&W, Color slide film or digital. There is no such thing as the perfect exposure:eek:.

Regards,
Robert
 
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