I often get questions about light metering, and the confusion between “incidental” and “reflected” light metering. \u00a0I was responding just this morning to a question via email and thought I’d go ahead and include my answer here as well, in case this might help any of you!<\/p>\n
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Reflected Light Meter: \u00a0<\/b>\u00a0Measures reflected light. <\/i>\u00a0This means you point the meter at the scene being photographed.<\/strong> \u00a0 This measures the brightness of the scene you are looking at, and comes up with exposure values so that the photograph created will be the right brightness. \u00a0Unfortunately, this approach does not know whether the scene is a black wall or a field of snow. \u00a0The reflected light meter just makes an assumption about how bright the resulting elements in the photograph typically should be, often in some middle gray value because that is generally true, though not always true. \u00a0Many sources say Ansel Adams came up with the 18% gray as being the perceived brightness of a middle gray value. \u00a0This is somewhat subjective, but that became the (approximate) standard. \u00a0The problem with that approach is that the meter has absolutely no idea how bright the photo should ACTUALLY be, so it just assumes most of the time, the main elements of the photograph are somewhere in the middle gray range, not white, not black. The meter therefore assumes the point of reference of 18% gray is the right brightness for the photograph. \u00a0Since it is calibrated based on that assumption, it provides shutter speed and aperture value recommendations so that the thing being metered turns out to be mid gray. So, if you are metering off a target that is 18% gray, then the meter will give you a pretty accurate exposure setting so that the gray target turns out gray, and everything else in the photo that is not gray but is in the same light will turn out to be the right brightness as well, white will be white, black will be black, gray will be gray, as long as you meter off the thing that is gray<\/i>. \u00a0That is where the camera\u2019s different \u201cMetering Modes\u201d come into play, because you can control where the camera meters on elements in the scene since that is critical for reflected light metering. \u00a0This is also why cameras have settings like \u201cExposure Compensation\u201d to allow you to adjust when the camera\u2019s reflected light metering gets the answer wrong. \u00a0 Also electronic flash (Speedlight) TTL metering is based on reflected light metering, therefore handheld incidental light metering is not involved in TTL flash photography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Incidental Light Meter: <\/b>\u00a0Measures light shining on the subject. <\/i>\u00a0This means you point the meter at the light source. \u00a0<\/strong>With this type of meter, the color of the subject in the photograph is not relevant. \u00a0The subject can be white, gray, black, anything. \u00a0The basis for the measurement is only determined by how much light is needed by the sensor or film and that is solely determined by the ISO value. The ISO value determines the quantity of light needed. <\/i>\u00a0The incidental light meter measures the light and determines how much light should be allowed on the sensor through controlling the aperture and shutter speed. \u00a0 This is a very accurate approach. \u00a0 It ensures white turns out white, gray turns out gray, and black turns out black. \u00a0Ultimately, the proper exposure for a photo is based on two things: \u00a01) The amount of light required by the sensor which is determined by the ISO, and 2) the amount of light shining on the subject. \u00a0A gray card is not even relevant with an incidental light meter, since it is not involved in determining the exposure. \u00a0Only the light shining on the subject and the ISO matters.<\/div>\n\n
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No Meter: \u00a0<\/b> Since an accurate exposure is actually based on the amount of light shining on the subject and the ISO<\/b>, you can even determine an accurate setting without a meter. \u00a0 If the light shining on the subject is direct sunlight<\/b>, you can set the aperture to f\/16 and the shutter speed to 1\/ISO <\/b>and obtain a correct exposure without any meter involved at all \u00a0This is often called the \u201cSunny 16 Rule.”<\/div>\n\n
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Hope this helps!<\/div>\n
Kevin Gourley<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I often get questions about light metering, and the confusion between “incidental” and “reflected” light metering. \u00a0I was responding just this morning to a question via email and thought I’d go ahead and include my answer here as well, in case this might help any of you! Reflected Light Meter: \u00a0\u00a0Measures reflected light. \u00a0This means … Continue reading Light Metering – Incidental vs Reflected<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[189,187,188],"yoast_head":"\nLight Metering - Incidental vs Reflected<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I often get questions about light metering, and the confusion between "incidental" and "reflected" light metering. 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