Nowadays, making a proper exposure with your digital camera is simple and straightforward: set your camera to A, S, or P and let the camera do the work. It’ll work most of the time and, in those instances where it doesn’t, you might pull out an external meter for a bit more precision. In all of these cases, you always have the rear LCD to double-check your shots if you’re unsure and, for the fanatical, you can even use a live-exposure histogram while shooting. When you’re using film, however, the luxury of being able to check your exposure by digital means isn’t available, and you need to be a bit more tuned-in to everything that’s going on to expose your film properly.
A Couple of Tools
Light Meter
A light meter is one of the more misunderstood tools in the photo world of today; it’s seemingly obsolete and unnecessary when our digital cameras, and even late-era film cameras, have very sophisticated meters built in. And even if your camera doesn’t have a built-in meter, it’s still a chunky and unnecessary accessory because there are smartphone light-meter apps that do a decent job, right? Well, yes, right. It’s easier than ever to meter your shots, and smartphone apps do a half decent job to determine a usable exposure, but I’m still going to argue the case for a separate handheld meter. Why? Because of accuracy, because of control, because of versatility, and because of functionality. With a separate meter you can measure flash illumination, you can measure reflected light from very distant scenes, and you can measure the light falling onto a subject, versus only reflected light. With film, I’d argue, these differences matter. Unlike with digital, where you can fire off a few shots in 1/3 stop increments without much pause, with film there is a natural desire to get it done right with a single shot. And a meter is one of the best ways to achieve this goal.
0 Reviews:
Post Your Review