So Im getting a monolight kit do I need a light meter

[Christie Photo]

How hard is it to get proper exposure with monolights without a light meter?

Not hard at all, BUT... you do need a grey card. I recently dusted off my meter after leaving it on the shelf for years. I still want to place a grey card in the scene and take a reading every time I change my lighting scheme. The histogram appears as a narrow line staight up and down in the center of the graph when the card is properly exposed.

Remember... all this, either with a meter or with a grey card, is done in M (manual) mode.

-Pete

 

[table1349]

So now that everyone's getting a light meter, now the question is analog or digital? I have an analog sekonic L-398 that I still have from when I did more film (movie). Its nice because it never needs batteries, but I'm sure it is a little less accurate. But for me it works fine.

The one thing you might want to consider is checking to see if it needs to be re-calibrated. The older analog meters would have a bit of drift in them over time and had to be re-calibrated. My old Wein WP-1000 would need to be adjusted every once in a while. I still keep it around as a nice backup.
[SIZE=+4] [/SIZE]

 

[AgentDrex]

Just re-calibrated my analog Pilot2...works pretty darn well...

 

[Mike_E]

If you want to kill two birds with one shot try shooting a white terrycloth towel. You get your wb point and by chimping to see the quality of the texture in the towel you can also judge whether your highlights are going to be blown.

Not my idea but it works very well. http://super.nova.org/DPR/WhiteTowelRatios/

I'd still get a meter for the ratios.