Clearing up the biggest mistakes and misconceptions about ambient and spot metering

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Clearing up the biggest mistakes and misconceptions about ambient and spot metering

Рет қаралды 637

Күн бұрын

Hey everyone. I know there are a lot of videos about this subject, but I’ve received so many messages about it, I figure it’s time I address it. I misstated a couple of things on here about the depth of shadows in different scenes, but I don’t script this crap out, so whatever.
Let me know if this helped you or further confused you. Haha

Пікірлер: 11

@sfenwick Жыл бұрын

Very helpful. Thank you!

@ihknilsen 2 жыл бұрын

Another way to manage your light is using modifiers. It is easier to manage hard light using a diffuser. It is easier to preserve details when you can balance your light.

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Joe, thanks for taking the time to make this video. Just spent about 10 minutes hunched over a piece of paper with the notes I took while watching this, trying to internalize the various modifiers - it's both intuitive and hard to grasp all at once. I don't shoot portraits, not professionally that is; and hence don't use a hand-held meter (and my cameras either have an old-fashioned center-weighted meter, or none at all). So, I've tried to apply what you were saying to, uhh, sunny 16 (don't laugh). Made a nice little 3x3 table mapping lighting conditions and skin tones and marked down the suggested compensation for each. The interesting thing that fell out of that is that the exposures, when corrected for skin tone, were essentially the same (within half a stop or so) in backlight and in deep shade (under the pier). That actually makes things much simpler: it's much easier to remember to shoot my pasty friends at f/4 when backlit or in the shade than doing calculations on the fly. Though I suppose that'll get easier with time.

@JoeLyman 2 жыл бұрын

I know it’s a lot, but once you start to apply this stuff, the learning curve is very short. Get a cheap handheld meter though. Spot meters are great for landscapes and stuff that’s far away, but I’ve found them to be too unreliable if you don’t carry a grey card with you. Keep me up to date with your progress. I’m still getting used to the idea of people actually watching my videos. Haha

@JEDINITE30 Жыл бұрын

The light meter is actually saying the light in that specific area is grey, not the subject itself. The meter is totally unaware of the the subject. That is why you get a perfect exposure when using one. It is looking at the light itself and the light only.

@JoeLyman Жыл бұрын

Ya. That’s what I said about the spot meter.

@JEDINITE30 Жыл бұрын

@@JoeLyman Well, the spot meter is still reflective and the light meter is incident. You'll get 2 different exposures from the 2. The spot meter will make anything grey no matter if it is black, grey, or white. The light meter will look at the light only and white will be white , grey will be grey, and black will be black.

@JEDINITE30 Жыл бұрын

I think the confusion is that in the video when you talked about the light meter, you referred to the subject being grey which has nothing to do with how the light meter is measuring. It doesn't see the subject at all. Because it is looking at the light only, the subject can be any tone and it will always be proper. 18% Grey being a 5 on the zone system or a 0 compensation on the camera's light meter would be a light skinned person of African descent or lighter skinned Indian, a fair skinned person of European descent would be like a 6 or 7 on the zone system or +.5 to +1.5 or possibly a +2 compensation on the camera's meter depending on how much tanning there is. And so forth. The light meter wouldn't consider non of this and still correctly expose all of this properly to the correct values. If you put any toned person in the same area with a light meter, you'll get the same exposure settings for each, because a proper exposure from a light meter doesn't change the actual tonal values of the subject.

@JoeLyman Жыл бұрын

This is only true in theory. When you start getting into different skin tones in different types of light, like flash vs backlit vs open shade, adjustments have to be made form the original meter reading. The meter reading is just a starting point.

@JEDINITE30 Жыл бұрын

@@JoeLyman It's true in practice. Your light meter is essentially an electronic grey card. What do you mean by original meter reading? When you step into a scene you should only calculate one exposure reading and shoot whether it be artificial lighting, back-lighting , ambient lighting, open shade, etc. Only when you move to a new area or change direction and position or change the lighting, then re-meter. Different light will give you different exposure values based on the scene and camera angle. With a handheld light meter or grey card, skin tones become irrelevant. That's why you pay the price to have and use one.

@user-xn8fr3mx6d Жыл бұрын

Sorry mate, your explanation of ambient light metering is super confusing. Ambient metering measures the intensity of light falling on the area you have the meter. Subjects that are darker than neutral gray will be darker, while subjects that are lighter than neutral gray will be lighter. It offers a consistent measurement that is not affected by the tone or color of a scene.