Using Light Meter, Spot Meter For Better Photography

After all camera does not take photograph except few niche like street photography. In most artistic creations we arrange something like bird photography for outdoor and inside studio everything is artificial. Here is an article on why you should consider using Light Meter, Spot Meter for better photography rather than blindly finding by chance. The major reason to write this article is the fact – most commonly Light Meter is ignored and condition of Spot Meter is existing through the phrase “spot metering” in consumer grade DSLR cameras. These days Light Meters usually doubles up as Spot Meter but at least officially they should exist as separate phrases. Few years back we written about the basic technical matters around the Light Meters. Most the decent cameras of these days provides a built-in TTL metering system for reflected light readings. That is really not reliable.

Using Light Meter, Spot Meter For Better Photography

We can use a light meter at least for three purposes. First is for reading general ambient light which is great for outdoors. Pointing light meter’s white dome towards the camera does the job. It is far away from being precise but at certain situations it is great. Second usage is for incident light reading and that is commonly used for precise reading. We point light meter’s white dome towards the light source closer to subject like in case of portrait and take the reading. Third usage is for measuring reflected light – which is specially good to avoid unwanted bokeh too closer to focus. Firth usage of light meter is using as spot meter. Light meter precisely control the look of the images, rather the compositions. Light is an undeniable part of composition in artistic sense. Look at this portrait :

Credit as well as a good resource to read about the same topic :

Some often argue that to shoot portrait, using the on-camera histogram to adjust the strobes works fine. Histograms are not exactly a great way of getting idea of exposure in the context of a 3D thing. I always think that average usable highest end of “digital” still a compromise compared to film. For midrange APS-C sized sensor, measurement of light becomes more important only to avoid odd noise. Focus and exposure triangle are most important part of photography.

Nowadays a big social problem has been buying Nikon, Canon DSLR cameras and finding how to take meter photography. You possibly need to search with photography grey card. Through the spot meters we can see a small area than the whole composition.