Light Meters

Light Meters

For one, it frees you to move around your scene or set and measure light in different areas. It allows you to conduct what’s called “incident metering” – meaning when you measure the amount of light falling onto your subject, rather than the amount of light bouncing off it, which is what your camera’s system is measuring when you point it at something.

This is called ‘reflected metering’. While it’s a good, reliable way to get a quick reading of a scene, it is easily compromised by variances in tone and colour in different subjects. Subjects that are lighter than neutral grey – white snow, wedding dresses, etc – will appear brighter than they are, causing the camera to underexpose. Meanwhile, subjects darker than neutral grey, like a black cloth or a black cat, will reflect less light and cause the camera to overexpose.

In genres like professional portrait or product photography, it is critically important to get accurate, balanced exposures. With a light meter you can ensure that your studio lights are at just the right level relative to each other, that your flash is firing at the correct intensity, and more. A light meter can be your best friend in making sure you get it all right every time.

Light meters come in two main varieties – handheld and hotshoe-mounted. In general, handheld meters are the premium option, with cutting-edge technology and extra functions like flash measurement, touchscreens and wireless triggering of compatible flash remotes. Most meters are battery powered, but there are also battery-free analogue meters available, which can be tremendously handy if you don’t fancy the idea of yet another device you need to remember to charge. Hotshoe-mounted meters tend to be simpler and more affordable.

One particular use for a hotshoe-mounted camera light meter is if you shoot film. Many analogue photographers use second-hand vintage SLRs or large-format cameras, and often on these old cameras, the first thing to fail is the built-in light meter (if it even has one in the first place).

This makes it much more difficult to get well-exposed results out of a camera that is otherwise perfectly functional. Getting a hotshoe-mounted or handheld light meter can be a more cost-effective way to keep the camera running than taking it down to the repair shop. Light meters are also handy if you’re interesting in conducting photographic experiments such as building your own pinhole camera.

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