urgent lightmeter help!!

[placeonthecorner]

hi folks... so i took a medium format camera from the college for the weekend coz i havent had much experiance with them... im going to be photographing landscapes and i was wondering how to go about using a handheld light meter?... basically not to sure how i get a reading without the meter reading the light from the sky?... if you get my drift?... and do i point the meter away or towards the camera?... sorry, im very new to the non-incamera meters...

 

[Don Simon]

If the meter has a white cone attachment (making it an incident light meter), use that and stand near the subject pointing the meter at the camera. If not, you're measuring reflected light so point the meter towards the subject, but preferably point it at something that is mid-grey or similar (see if you can buy or borrow an actual grey card), or grass. That's a very simplistic explanation; it's a lot more complex than that and there's various ways to meter, but that should be ok to start with.

 

[Big Mike]

You can take incident or reflected readings...(most meters will do either). For an incident reading, put the meter in the same light as the scene and point it back toward the camera and take your reading.

For a reflected reading (same as an in-camera meter)...you would stand at the camera and point the meter out at the scene.

I'm not all that accustomed to using a meter yet...so I can't help you with the finer points of using a meter.

 

[placeonthecorner]

thanx guys!!... i think im starting to understand it a little... i have a grey card thing so il take that with me.. il let you know how it goes, and if it goes well, il show you the results!.. thanx again!

 

[fmw]

The advantage of incident meters is that they aren't "confused" by the reflectivity of the subject. So use it if you can put yourself in the same light as the subject and, as Mike said, point it back toward the camera.

The gray card is a good idea. It isn't fooled by reflectivity either and, if you place it in the same light as the subject and then point the meter at it, you will get about the same result as the incident reading. Good luck.