Light Meters Explained
Photography is about more than just pointing a camera at an object and pushing the shutter button. In order to take quality photographs with proper exposure and tonal values, an understanding of how light striking the subject influences the final product is needed. By manipulating settings on a camera using the information received from a light meter, photos can gain the correct image exposure. There are a selection of different light meters and specialty types available.
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Light Meter
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Light meters are pieces of equipment used in photography to aid image exposure accuracy. They help photographers or camera operators set the camera to generate the best image by measuring both intensity and reflection of available light. Light meters come in stand-alone hand-held units, and built-in camera forms. Besides photography, they are also used in cinematography for scene lighting, greenhouses for plant lighting and in the home for automatic or programmed lighting.
Reflected Meters
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Reflected light meters measure the light reflected by the image to be photographed, and are the type used as all in-camera meters. Reflected light meters are designed to show the calculated exposure for images with mid-range colors and standard highlights. Inaccuracies are common in a reflected light meter, as when taking a reading of a bright scene, the meter attempts to compensate and average the difference in reflectance on a number of objects leading to poor exposure.
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Incident Light Meters
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Incident light meters, as most hand-held units are, measure the amount of light falling on the subject to avoid exposure inaccuracies. This is accomplished by using an integrating sphere on top of the light sensor. The targeted incident light reading is thus less likely to lead to incorrect exposures for subjects in bright surroundings. The unit creates these meter readings by placing the meter near the subject and then pointing it back toward the camera.
Specialty Meters
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There are two other types of specialized light meters used in photography. Flash meters are used with flash photography equipment to complement and adjust for correct exposure in photography like portraiture. Color meters can also be used to improve quality when increased color depth is desired in an image.
Conclusion
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In order to take a good picture, the right equipment is always necessary. A light meter, properly used to calculate exposure settings, will make all the difference in achieving a quality image.
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References
- Photo Credit everystockphoto.com, author images
