Light Meter?

[DavidUK]

I have been thinking today as I often do about ways to improve my photography. I got an e-shot from Warehouse Express in my mail today, and there is a light meter listed on it. Question is, would you benefit from using one when shooting landscapes?

I often find myself wondering what aperture to use, and whether the shot I'm about to take will be correctly exposed...would a lightmeter help me to determine the correct settings?

 

[EdBray]

Not in itself. By that I mean it would depend on the lightmeter and what it's angle of view was, would you be using incident or reflected readings? How close can you get to your subject to measure the light falling on it?

Buying a lightmeter will not necessarily improve your images, you have a very useful meter in your camera, you just need to know what to meter to get the image that you want and then how to set the camera to aceive that.

You would be much better off buying a book such as Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson and having a good read (it is not too heavy, either intellectually or weight) this will explain how and what you should be metering, how the relationship between the aperture and shutter speed will affect your images and the depth of field (amount appearing to be in focus).

Hope this helps!

 

[Chappers]

Your D200 has a pretty good lightmeter built in. I think what you need to do is understand how it is working, and possibly how to understand the histogram correctly.

As to the correct aperture to use, a lightmeter won't tell you that. It's something you need to decide yourself. You need to consider factors such as the depth of field you are going to need.Is there any advantage of using a smaller aperture as opposed for the optimum of around f8/f11.

You seem to have problems with exposure, can you describe them or better still post an example. Maybe some simple advice may be the answer to your concerns

 

[Lensflare]

DavidUK...you don't need a seperate lightmeter. If you are having problems getting good results from your D200 (a very good camera) I would think you are relying on the camera to do too much of the decision making for you...it isn't work, it is just decision making.

My D3 in auto (aperture priority) which is about the only auro mode I use will still overexpose a dark backed scene, or underexpose a bright one. It isn't too far out, but far enough to need a tweak.

The first thing to DECIDE to do is to start shooting RAW. Two things should result from this. First you will find out how quickly you fill up your card in the camera. Secondly you will find out how quickly you can fill up your computer!

This leads to two other things. You start to think more about what you take and when you take it....you assess the scene before you start shooting. GOOD THING, because as you start to think about it, so you then start to take the decisions needed to get what you want out of it. The second thing is you learn to edit HARD. You don't need two shots of nearly the same thing, so pick one and throw the other away. If it isn't quite right - chuck it.

Work on the RAW is very flexible. You can tweak the exposure back at home without changing the original shot...so you can lift the whole or part of a slightly dark picture for instance, but the RAW remains exactly as you shot it, use "SAVE AS" and save the tweaked image.

Metering in your camera, even with its RGB assessment of the scene, good though it is, still follows an averaging curve. Switch to SPOT metering in your camera (switch on the side of the prism housiing) and SELECT (or DECIDE) which part of the scene is nearly an average grey (this you have to learn - you can be shown by someone a bit while you pick it up) - meter ON THAT TONE ONLY, you should find your pictures get better from a metering point of view. Thsis cannot help with composition or lighting, you have to see that for yourself.

Look for good lighting - usually low light is better than high light....so early and late. This time of year is great because when we get sun it is never very high and so you can get good modellingon subjects almost all day.

Thats enough for you to take in at one hit....build a bit of knowledge at a time. Read books and refer to them often. Look at pictures you like and DECIDE why you like them....is it the shapes within, or the colours, or what is it? That way you will start to see photographs in the most unlikely of places or subjects.

 

[DavidUK]

Not in itself. By that I mean it would depend on the lightmeter and what it's angle of view was, would you be using incident or reflected readings? How close can you get to your subject to measure the light falling on it?

Buying a lightmeter will not necessarily improve your images, you have a very useful meter in your camera, you just need to know what to meter to get the image that you want and then how to set the camera to aceive that.

You would be much better off buying a book such as Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson and having a good read (it is not too heavy, either intellectually or weight) this will explain how and what you should be metering, how the relationship between the aperture and shutter speed will affect your images and the depth of field (amount appearing to be in focus).

Hope this helps!

It certainly has EdBray thank you for your reply

Funnily enough I ordered that book last week, should be coming in the post in the next day or so!