William Robb wrote:
> I have seen hand held light meters with "spot" attchments. These
> give about 5� angle of acceptance, hardly a spot meter at all.
> Dont discount incident light readings. Metering the light
> falling on the subject, rather than the light reflecting fron
> the subject is far more accurate.
Maybe ... but essentially I disagree with that statement. If the
scene is an average scene, then an incident meter can be useful.
However, add some deep shadows and some very bright highlights, and
you're not going to get a reading that will allow for the best
exposure, i.e., relying on what the incident meter tells you won't
give you the opportunity to place shadow or highlight values.
Further, there will be little opportunity to really learn about
light and exposure. With a 1-degree spot meter you you can meter
every part of the scene, and know exactly where the values will be
and what you have to do to properly expose the film and what
development will be needed.
> Cheap light meters are not a good investment, IMO. The have a
> tendency to not be accurate, not have good linearity and not be
> colour blind (a fatal flaw in most light meters).
I agree 100%.
> As an aside, spot meters are not the easiest things to learn how
> to use. It is not enough to just point the thing at a spot on
> the subject and transfer the reading to the camera. You have to
> be able to estimate accurately where on the tonal range of the
> film the area you are metering will fall, you have to know if
> your meter shows colour bias towards what you are measuring, and
> if so, how much so that it can be accounted for.
And that was my original point in suggesting that some knowledge
beforehand (Adams' Zone System, for example) is an important
consideration when using a spot meter. The spot meter makes more
demands of the user, but, in time, the user will better understand
light and exposure.
--
Shel Belinkoff
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It matters little how much equipment we use; it
matters much that we be masters of all we do use." - Sam Abell
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