BEHIND THE SHOT | 19


SHOT


with Damian McGillicuddy


Here’s our agony aunt with a difference: every month, Damian will answer your photography questions


“In this age of technological wizardry, why are you so attached to your hand-held incident light meter - why don’t you let technology take the strain and your camera’s meter do the job?” Judy Smith


Te answer is quite simple and has absolutely nothing to do with technology, but everything to do with physics!


In very simple terms, an incident light meter measures the light that falls on your subject – but a camera’s meter measures the reflected light that’s bouncing off your subject. As good as camera metering patterns are, the reflected meter is always looking for a mythical 18% grey and can easily be fooled by darker or lighter colours and shades, causing under or over exposure in camera.


I prefer to use my hand-held light meter to take an empirical measurement of the light that’s actually falling on the subject, because for me, lighting and photography is all about control and precision. I hope that helps!


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