How to use a light meter Pt. 1

7 Building Blocks of Photography 2

There are two types of light meter reading - reflective and incident. Your camera has a reflective light meter which measures light reflected by the subject. If you want to understand this more then my Masteclass in Photography is a good place to start.

A hand held light meter measures the light falling onto it and it's called an incident light meter reading.

In this 'How to use a light meter' video we'll explain the difference between the two types of metering and what to use when because there are pros and cons for both.

For example some subjects reflect more light than others so a reflective light meter reading can sometimes get it horribly wrong if there are extremes involved. Like a black card or a white card.

So it's important to understand how to change how bright or dark your picture is by using either a manual exposure or the exposure compensation button if using shutter or aperture priority (TV or AV).

Because a hand held light meter reads the light falling onto your subject it's very accurate - but not always appropriate...

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