How to use a manual light meter

Make note of the plus sign on the left side and minus sign on the right. When your light meter has lines or dots toward the “+” symbol it is a sign your photo is moving toward overexposed. When your light meter has lines or dots moving toward the “-” symbol your photo is moving toward being underexposed. Set your camera to manual exposure mode. As before, keep your aperture at f/4. Next, to properly expose the room you measure the ambient light using the spot meter function of the hand held meter pointed at an area that is mid tone (approximately the same as medium grey) in the scene. In this test case the meter indicated 1/10 sec at f/4. When you are first getting accustomed to your light meter, bracket your exposures. Exposure bracketing works best in the studio with controlled light. Take one shot with the exact aperture and shutter speed settings recommended by the light meter, and then take one shot that should be overexposed and one that should be underexposed.

Using the Light Meter Download Article 1. Hold the camera up to your eye. Look through the viewfinder and focus on your intended subject. 2. Place the light meter out in front of you or have a friend hold it at the distance of the subject of the photo. 3. Aim the sensor of the light meter at the. What Is Light Metering? Light metering refers to using aperture, shutter speed and ISO together in order to correctly expose your image. When looking into the viewfinder of your camera, you will be able to see a line at the bottom with the numbers -2, -1, 0, 1, 2. Shooting in manual and using the light meter as your guide is a good way to ensure that the image you see in your mind is exactly what you end up with when you click the shutter. If you are shooting fast-moving subjects like cars or sports, you would want to start with a fast shutter speed and adjust the other settings until you get that little triangle to hover above the zero.

Feb 3, A question posted on the Tangents forum was on the topic of exactly how to use a light meter to get to correct settings for manual flash. Simple easy to understand steps to get you shooting in manual mode. You use these three components to get your light meter to be at zero. When I first began to use fully manual film cameras that didn't have a built in light meter, I immediately realized how essential a light.