Histogram vs Light Meter | Ask David Bergman

Рет қаралды 20,550

Күн бұрын

Today's question from Pranav G. is, “Light meter vs histogram? What are the pros and cons of each? if you could use one for the rest of your life, which one would it be and why?”
00:00 Intro
01:50 What is a histogram
02:55 Histogram is a reflective reading
03:32 Light meter reads incident light
04:44 Use histogram for exposure
07:30 Use light meter for exposure
08:46 Which would I choose?
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Пікірлер: 67

@stanspb763 2 жыл бұрын

Doing a complex studio lighting plan, with a histogram takes a lot of time experimenting with setting, A light meter doing one light at a time is a snap to get the balance expected. I use both but work where time is money or when the subject's time is important, get a light meter.

@alexanderpons9246 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent topic David Bergman! I did start taking pictures in the late 80's and life knows how many rolls of film I literally burned, a Light Meter did changed my life and pictures. One thing I figured out back then when I got my Light Meter was to almost always open up 1/2 a stop from the reading of the Meter(for Film). But yes, like you I think a Light Meter is the way to go. Thank you ADORAMA for having great Professionals like David Bergman on your channel!

@JohanSchmidt 2 жыл бұрын

Yip, camera specific calibration of the light meter will compensate for different sensors; e.g. Sekonic 758DR from 10 years back stores 3 different cameras - the latest models probably more.

@romeversace1061 2 жыл бұрын

I have tested hundreds of meters and all are off after changing to different settings, reason every sensor is different. The histo is dead on for each sensor... This is why a grey card is best for proper exposure. 18% grey to each sensor is different calibrations. By using a grey card, it will be dead center of the histogram. No one should guess, and using spot metering. Not to mention it takes just as much time as a meter and cost 7.00 vs 300+ for a meter. The grey card is by far the best for getting the perfect key light. A meter is great to ensure the other lights are in ratio, but the key is always on point when using the grey card with a center spike histogram over a meter, period for digital cameras. For film, a meter is all you can use really, but only a handful of individuals even know how to use a film camera these days.

@Owenwithee 10 ай бұрын

This is why you need to calibrate your light meter to your camera.

@hawg427 2 жыл бұрын

When I was in school in the film day I used an Old School analog Seconic LM. The much smaller version. When I went thru the Zone System semester you can't bet a light meter.

@chai.bula1 2 жыл бұрын

Bravo! What you want to know is how much overall lights hitting your subject. You may want to read what each of the lighting source effects your shot. Much easier nowadays, try the old method? You don't want to go there!

@jer3006 2 жыл бұрын

Can't hear this question and answer too often IMHO. I like the way you demonstrated it with the bearded one! Thank you.

@StevenSmith-nq5xe 2 жыл бұрын

Terrific and illuminating in every sense. Thanks.

@felixrodriguez782 2 жыл бұрын

The light meter is more useful in all type of lighting conditions which you can adjust for that reading with least trial and error. great coverage on both of them David thanks

@jlopez7596 2 жыл бұрын

That was a good question with a well thought out explanation.

@Hutch400 2 жыл бұрын

This really helped👍 Thanks!

@tanweercaa 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent, nice light meter demo.

@Reason-fg4ik 2 жыл бұрын

My first choice is a light meter as well. In my studio or outdoor portraits, I use my Sekonic 358. If I'm doing landscape I'll use my Pentax spot meter and zone system. Although digital, in camera and in post, makes it much easier to get the exposure close enough so I get to spend more effort on the composition.

@mariappan67 2 жыл бұрын

Thankyou 👍

@carsandconcerts 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome review of both the Histogram and the Light Meter and what both of due!

@Devdattab 2 жыл бұрын

Super video!

@cuttinbb 2 жыл бұрын

Very well explained. I find color instagrams a bit useful in to see the intensity of the base colors of the mix of the image… As you well said, the old school will always prefer light meter. One thing you can’t do with histogram is check light uniformity on a subject or background

@raydunn3501 2 жыл бұрын

Hi David,,, That was a great question,,, and explained very well,,, I agree the more tools a tog has the better,,, both useful to have,,, Happy Days

@andrewgreig1197 2 жыл бұрын

Hey David, The really cool thing about incident light meters is that you do not always have to be right in front of the subject. I speak of outdoor , natural light photography, of course, where it is only necessary to have the lightmeter reading the same light at the camera as is falling on the subject. The subject could be a mountain on a clear day or a bride in a forest. Regarding the bride in the forest, the lightmeter reading will give the base exposure for an ETTL flash, and then if the exposure needs a bit of a tweak use flash exposure compensation or change the shutter speed. For me, the light meter, with understanding, is what I would prefer.

@JohanSchmidt 2 жыл бұрын

I'd say using a histogram vs a light meter is like using manual focus vs AF - sure, you can get the same image using both methods, but it's just much harder. You could also use something cheap like an expodisc, put it on the front of the lens and use that as a light meter to measure the ambient light. But a light meter is much easier and saves a lot of post processing time

@hansjzeller 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks, that was a great question! My reaction was the opposite, I would pick the histogram. Here is my reasoning: Basically, my camera is basically a (reflective) spot meter with a variable sized spot. I can always turn this spot meter into an incident meter, simply by aiming it at a gray card (just like David did by bringing his camera close to the subject's face). But, I can't turn my incident light meter into a spot meter, especially not when the spot I want to measure is 5 miles away. So, if you were talking about a combined incident/spot meter that might be a different story, but even there, the separate meter won't tell me very well at which point the highlights (5 or so stops above the incident reading) start clipping. P.S. I do use a combined incident/spot meter for film photography and it works great for that purpose when a histogram is not an option.

@Paradigm816 2 жыл бұрын

Great points you’ve made

@jpdj2715 2 жыл бұрын

I'm sort of in the same ballpark. Note that the subject's face works as a nice 18% grey replacement with Caucasian skin, not dark African ... The problem with the histogram is that it does not guarantee perfect SOOC JPEGs. Think high-key and low-key shots. If the situation allows for bracketing, you can do that and not need the meter. Judging a shot's perfection in camera requires a form of display calibration relative to your perception in hopefully constant lighting environments. So if you only have one shot, obvious when you shoot 8" x 10" film (unless you have Albert Watson budgets), I'd meter. And boy, was the Sinarsix a great tool for that Sinar P when it arrived. I tried "highlight-weighted" metering for some time, and it will look under-exposed when opening raw shots in LrC. The JPEGs will be too dark. It is more consistent, though, in that it has less shot-to-shot variance. My meter is combined incident and spot meter too (758) and I have calibrated my camera relative to the meter. From the software with the meter, you can then install the camera's sensitivity and dynamic range details and these are shown on the meter's display, so clipping becomes predictable. This is not idiot proof (you may appreciate the word narrensicher better) as a separate meter introduces the T-stop problem. Your Canon f/1.2L lens may have 1.5 T-stop - it will give you f/1.2 depth of field but 1.5 exposure. So when we calibrate a meter-camera tandem, then we should look into this too. Basically, I do not want to choose and like you have both. I decide based on the photography use case if I bring the meter, which to use, etc.

@photonsonpixels 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the tutorial David. Could you have used spot metering with your camera and get similar results to those of the light meter?

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

It’s still reflective and will be affected by the brightness of the subject - dark skin, light skin, etc.

@buyaport 2 жыл бұрын

My Canon EOS3s, where Canon put all possible technology in (like eye control focus, which they just brought back in their R3), they have implemented Multi Metering Mode, where you measure up to 8 spots, and the camera calculates the average. Wonderfil implementation of the zone system (but apparently to hard to understand for the average photographer). And you can anyways only set one exposure, and sometimes you might want to blow out highlights or black out shadows if the dynamic range of the camera is not up to your scene...

@cristinapisaneschi1167 2 жыл бұрын

If you use spot metering and over expose on his skin by .5-1 it would you the proper metering, regardless of his surroundings

@drnimish333 2 жыл бұрын

Nice video

@BrettOssman 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting. Learn something new every day. :-)

@250GTOAJ 2 жыл бұрын

Lightmeter for the win.

@reneweisz9157 2 жыл бұрын

For film/video light meter 100%. For studio photography where a lot of people already shoot tethered and in Raw format it is really not necessary. Even outdoors using HDR I have no need for it. I take a couple of test shots, the beauty of digital photography. Whatever works best for each individual is the way to go :)

@terrellcwoods 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome question? I totally guessed wrong which one you'd go to the island with, thinking you do so much candid, concert, and live stuff that really the answer is your experience gets you almost always to the place you want to be. My question is when using the histogram does my metering mode play a huge part in that reading or is it insignificant. I normally use evaluative but then feel maybe I should be in spot. Am I overthinking it?

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

It absolutely plays a role. Instead of walking in closer to Kurt, I could have switched to spot and metered on his face.

@anta40 2 жыл бұрын

I still shoot with film (mostly 120) for fun, so obviously have to rely on lightmeter. Mostly incident, or reflective if I want to be really precise. But for digital, nah just histogram. Specifically for portraits, I always set the metering mode to spot metering (on Nikon bodies), then take a reading on the subject's face. Works OK so far.

@lovemycity420 2 жыл бұрын

Never used a light meter, I can see the benefits of it, especially over the histogram

@Lesterandsons 2 жыл бұрын

I keep my very old handheld meter

@wendystumbaugh695 2 жыл бұрын

Great content, but a little bit “eeew” at times. 😜 Thank you, David!

@omarortizytc 2 жыл бұрын

another very informative video! thanks! my question: i'm always struggling where to properly place the hair light or kicker light. is there a best case scenario where to place it? also what's the best modifier for it? a reflector? strip box? thank you David!

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

Send that in at www.AskDavidBergman.com !

@DidierMOULINPhotography 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Thomas Thanks for this video Instead of zooming on the face to get a better histogram and check the right exposure, you can measure the light using spot measure on the face of your model in aperture priority and guess what, you’ll get 1/250s shutter speed ! What do you think?

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

Yea that works too!

@haiderhusain9964 2 жыл бұрын

bang on target..... lovely 🤩🤩🤩

@grayburden3524 2 жыл бұрын

Would spot metering be useful way to go when using the cameras metering in your senerio if

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

Yes - I could have used spot instead of moving closer.

@professionalpotato4764 2 жыл бұрын

Serious question, do you know why camera manufacturers don't put waveforms in stills mode? I think waveforms are far superior than histograms because histograms only show the overall exposure, but waveforms show exactly which part of the frame is at which level. Reasons I think it'll be advantageous is when you're exposing for highlights on certain surfaces/people. You might want dramatic dark photos yet with well exposed subjects, and more often than not, spot metering just isn't convenient enough.

@enkaphalin1111 2 жыл бұрын

Unless it's something you pull up to the entire screen, It might be due to screen area limitations. Either way, it probably exists on some cameras but we just don't know which. Tsk tsk, camera software devs in the industry are either lazy or underpaid. At least, as a fuji system user

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

As said below, it’s likely for lack of detail on a small screen. I have a photographer friend who uses waveforms in post to match brightness and color exactly. It’s incredibly accurate if you know what you’re doing.

@kirkdarling4120 2 жыл бұрын

Inasmuch as I'm nearly always lighting and composing so that my scene is never "average," I find the meter to be predictive and the histogram to be diagnostic. The only time I use the histogram to give me a prediction of exposure is when I'm shooting for a straight white background. In that case, I set my background lighting so that the spike of the background (without the subject in the picture) is just butting the right edge.

@hcp0scratch 2 жыл бұрын

Why not use a spot metering type mode on his skin?

@d.l.mcluvin8067 2 жыл бұрын

I have the same sekonic . All the labels are when off 🙂

@DaleSteadman 2 жыл бұрын

I use a light meter when even possible.

@kevins8575 2 жыл бұрын

Hard to imagine using an incident meter in wildlife photography.

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

You can do it as long as you’re in the same light as your subject. I used to use a handheld light meter when shooting sports action all the time.

@shanec4441 2 жыл бұрын

So another words you can use the camera as a light meter up close on skin tones.

@DavidBergmanPhoto 2 жыл бұрын

As long as you compensate in your head for lighter or darker skin tones.

@jasonbodden8816 2 жыл бұрын

He used ambient light for that technique. You'd have to use another technique for flash.

@geoffscott5066 2 жыл бұрын

I would choose histogram as the lightmeter knows nothing about variability of camera sensors or lens T stops. My 2 cents worth...

@romeversace1061 2 жыл бұрын

I agree and have proven this to be a fact!

@rajeshk2770 2 жыл бұрын

In my *amateurish* opinion: This would be correct if you are shooting jpegs with no Post-processing. ( Which used to be the case in the old days ). However, with the advent of RAW and post, the priority should be to capture as much information as possible. Histogram s on most cameras show the jpeg histogram ( as per my understanding ). This means, there are still details retained in the pixels that the histogram is showing are overexposed/underexposed ( extreme right/left of the histogram ). Im not sure how to handle this situation. Mayeb should should take time to understand your camera and post workflow and then decide what kind of Histogram is preferred ( Like learning that even if histogram shows as being burnt, you know it is not really burnt in the RAW and that you will be able to recover the details in post )... Would somebody care to explain ?

@ChemaGD 2 жыл бұрын

Luckily all modern cameras they have an exposimeter!!

@x3thelast 2 жыл бұрын

I see no reason to own a light meter when shooting digital where you can shoot as many frames. Film yes, hate to waste rolls of film to dial in my light.

@romeversace1061 2 жыл бұрын

Consistency and minimize editing are the two biggest reasons for using a grey card and histogram or a light meter.

@cdgarcia 2 жыл бұрын

That back spot light is so bright and distracting in the beginning of the vid.

@zoomboy57 2 жыл бұрын

Great expanation, it's sad but nobody under 45 has a clue about a hand held light meter or even worse than that a color temp meter. Reflected readings either hand held or in the camera thinks it's 18% gray. No mater what system you use you still have to think.

@romeversace1061 2 жыл бұрын

Hey now, I teach students and they all know how to use a light meter, lumen meter, lux meter, and a grey card. It's part of the course. I guarantee there are thousands of under 45 that know it.

@WilliamBurdine 2 жыл бұрын

I believe you are ignoring the power of the New Digital Camera that you have in your hand... You have a Light Meter built in as that Histogram, however you also have an RGB color meter that also can be used to refine in a better way.... THEN there is the Type of Metering Evaluative, Partial, Spot and Center Weighted.... Each moves the different Histograms. As an Event Photographer I leave my camera in the RGB and Partial Metering on my R6. I also am able to set White Balance through the camera that allows for a finer adjustment. I can't say it nails every shot, but I know the light conditions I have set for and often get amazing shots under those with very little noise or post work. This question is for a true novice or someone wanting more Black and White photography at best.... however I think it leads people down the wrong road for using the tool properly. Always expand, learn and shoot creatively.