Why You Might Think About a Handheld Light Meter

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Wait, what? A handheld light meter? There’s a light meter in the camera and it works wonderfully. It meters existing light and can even meter flash. What are you talking about?

That’s why I said “think about”. The need for a handheld light meter for general purpose photography is long past.

However….

Let’s suppose that you want to get a real handle on exposure, perhaps to better understand the Zone System, perhaps to build your skills as a human light meter, perhaps to build the skill stack to recognize lighting conditions where the built in light meter might lead to the wrong place before you bring camera to eye. Perhaps because you want to mix multiple sources and get the exposure that you want without a number of test shots, or perhaps because you are building a complex set with multiple flashes and don’t want to have to deal with different reflectances impacting your TTL flash.

If you fit into any of those areas, this might be for you. And if not, peace, this article may be at most for interest sake.

What’s The Difference

The major and fundamental difference between your in camera meter and a standalone light meter is how the light is metered. We know that our cameras, whether metering existing light or flash are metering reflected light, specifically the light reflected, or not, off of our subject back to the metering sensor. Over 90% of the time it’s going to be perfect on the first shot.

A handheld light meter by default meters incident light, specifically the light falling on the subject, be it existing or flash. This is very much old school, not necessarily better, but different and certainly more steps are involved.

Getting to Middle Grey

Whether we are shooting in colour or black and white, all meters collect luminosity data and calculate a correct exposure to deliver middle grey. On modern cameras with enormous dynamic range, that usually means neutral plus usable exposures 5 stops brighter and 5 stops darker. This is awesome and would thrill the photographers of old, whose film could handle 5-6 stops of dynamic range in total.

Whether the meter is in camera or a handheld meter, that target of middle grey is the same. The fundamental difference is that the handheld meter has no awareness of reflectance of the subject or big differences in luminosity between the subject and the background. It does not care that snow is white, or that black is black and thus in select situations will provide a better starting point than any reflected light meter can do.

Metering Flash

If the handheld meter can also meter flash, it permits you to meter individual flashes in manual mode and then aggregate the total luminosity to achieve an effective exposure for combined sources. If you are looking for a fast bang on flash exposure while underexposing the ambient by 1 stop, it’s easy. Or do the other way and expose for the ambient and keep the flash down 1/2 or 1 stop to provide fill without looking like flash.

It’s More Work, More Learning and More Skill

When I was first starting out in photography so long ago, a handheld meter was a necessity. At the time, the go to was a Gossen Luna Six. It did not do flash but had all the tools to to build skill in mastering ambient exposure if you put the work in. Do that for a while and you can become a human light meter. Is that really necessary? Of course not, it’s another skill in your arsenal, but you can get by without it.

Using a Handheld Light Meter

This requires a change in approach. Instead of pointing the light meter at the subject, you point it at the source. This might require you to move around a bit and I encourage this as you will quickly see how light direction can impact your exposure decisions. You will never learn this from a reflected light meter. It’s the same process when metering flash. You learn about direction, quality of light and colour the more you are focused (no pun intended) on the light.

What Light Meter Should I Consider

It used to be that there were lots of light meters to choose from. Not so any longer, because the market has dried up except for those who are shooting film on truly manual cameras, and that small proportion of digital photographers who really want to learn about light.

For those looking at this path, I recommend the Sekonic L308X-U. You can see it on this B&H link. It is an excellent small ambient and flash meter and will do most everything the serious photographer could need other than spot metering. Since you have reflected light metering and spot metering in your camera, that’s not an issue. The L308X-U delivers a lot for the money.

  • 0 - 19.9 EV range at ISO 100

  • 40 degree reflect light meter coverage

  • Photo, CINE and HD Cine metering options

  • 1/8000 to 60 seconds shutter speed range

  • Aperture Range for Flash f/1.0 - f/90.9

  • Runs on a single AA battery

Buying this meter is the first step. Then you have to plan to use it. If you need some guidance on that, shoot me a note via this link and I will post a quick learning guide to you.

Do you have an idea for an article, tutorial, video or podcast? Do you have an imaging question unrelated to this article? Send me an email directly at ross@thephotovideoguy.ca or post in the comments.  When you email your questions on any imaging topic, I will try to respond within a day.

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I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.