Trusting your Eye instead of a meter

[chomiczewski]

I've read several cinematographers state the best advise they've ever received was to trust their eye instead of a meter.

 

What does this mean exactly?

 

I cannot look at a set and based on the lighting know exactly what the correct (or desired) exposure should be. Are these guys that good? Or am I missing something?

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[John Pytlak RIP]

Some can be quite skilled at judging lighting ratios and scene contrast by eye, without relying on a spot reflectance meter.

 

Knowing a light level can come from experience (e.g., the BDE f/16 1/ASA "rule of thumb" for full sun daylight exposure), but using a properly calibrated meter is more likely to yield consistent results.

 

Set your key with a meter, but with experience, you can usually trust your eyes to judge the tone scale.

[Greg Gross]

I'm not speaking as a cinematographer but as a professional

photographer(whatever that is) breaking into cinematography.

When shooting stills I always use Nikon FE2(I know the meter),

Nikon F4S (again I know the meter and trust it but depending

on the mode I'm shooting in). When shooting with the Linhof 4X5

I must use a meter. One advantage shooting still photography is

that you can "bracket" and I always bracket slide film,ASA 25,ASA

50. I personally favor Kodak Kodachrome. I like Kodak "greens".

When I shoot with my PD-170(I know it won't look like film) I al-

ways shoot in manual mode. I have shot in full auto but I never

was happy with that stuff. I now know how the PD-170 shoots in

manual mode for the ASA that I use and I trust my spectra 4a,it

has not left me down yet. I generally over expose slightly!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe you can call that bracketing? I cannot conceive shooting for

a professional end product without metering! Ask Mr. David Mullen

ASC if he would have photographed Northfork without using a

light meter. I do believe that if the light never changes,lights the

subject in the same way, same subject, same mark,light is never

moved maybe its possible to expose with your guts(or brains,eyes).

Have you ever heard of the term- "eye of the photographer"?

[Matthew McDermott]

Personally, I can judge contrast well by eye but wouldn't trust myself to not use my meter for determining the shooting stop. I can guess pretty well in some conditions but since it's not particularly difficult to take out the meter and get an accurate reading, why risk it? There are some controlled situations, when doing interviews for example, that I use the same lights and from the same distance that I know I'm going to get a 4.0 or a 2.8 or whatever. That's just rote memorization and experience though rather than really being able to "read" the light.

[Michael Nash]

"Trusting your eye" doesn't mean doing away with your light meter -- it just means not relying on it to set proper light levels.

 

Beginning cinematographers often meter everything; key, fill, backlight, the shadows in the background, and any hot spots. It's a good way to learn lighting and exposure. But the more you light and shoot (and see the results), the more you just KNOW how bright or dark something will appear on film relative to your exposure. At that point you don't have to meter the fill at every setup, instead you trust your eye to "see" how it will look on film. You then take a reading of your subject (through whatever technique you're comfortable with), and set your lens accordingly.

[Eric Steelberg ASC]

When I'm on a project for more than a few days, I generally start lighting by eye...including setting the key...by about the 4th day. Your eye gets used to seeing your shooting stop (which should be consistent) if you are lighting to it. Once everything is lit I use a meter to do small tweaks and spot my shadows and highlights for contrast.

 

However, you can't go wrong if you trust the meter. I've found that my eye most closely resembles the contrast of '79. I'm working on getting used to '18 which always amazes me with how much shadow and highlight range it has.

[Dan Salzmann]

I agree with Eric. I also use a viewing filter sometimes. Especially for high light levels and shifting cloud situations

Using a meter means using it correctly. This takes practice.

[David Mullen ASC]

I usually meter only the key light and set the fill by eye. Sometimes this gets me in trouble but I'd rather not be metering everything! In "Northfork" I had a problem with one set being painted too dark because all the light was coming through windows and falling into the center of the room, not on the walls. Sometimes the smoke helped wash out the shadows enough; other times, I had to put a spot light just on a wall to keep it from going black. Occasionally the wall went too black because I wasn't metering them, just setting it by eye.

[John Sprung]

With experience, it's possible to get quite good at judging relative light levels. So setting your key to fill ratio by eye is very reasonable. But the human eye does its own auto-exposure, so judging absolute levels by eye is substantially more difficult. Those who are able to do it most likely are going by experience, knowing what the sources are, how far they are from the subject, relative spot/flood, etc. If you can get your key by that kind of memory, and set your fill by eye, you might be able to work that way. Certainly they did it that way before those newfangled meter things came along.

 

It would be interesting to set up some lights on a stage, but conceal what they are, and see if many DP's could tell accurately by eye what exposures they were seeing.

 

If you want to develop this ability, keep on using your meter, but take a moment to guess what it'll say before you take the reading. That'll accelerate the process of getting experienced in judging light levels.

 

 

 

-- J.S.

[Greg Gross]

Dear Mr. Sprung,

For many years I have used Nikon cameras(I could use the camera and

operate controls without taking eye away from viewfinder). I could see

f-stop,shutter speed in the frame(also mode). You would be surprised

how after a while you could call the f-stop,shutter speed for the lighting.

I was trained though to always meter of course I was being paid to do

the shoot. I really do not expect that the DP would run around trying to

meter every light! I wonder about a spot meter though and some

averaged readings(they are prone to error though if not used correctly).

I use a spectra 4a(320 to 400 ASA) with mini-dv and get very good re-

sults. Oh well! Its all in the "eye of the photographer" I don't know if the

kids use that term or not today.

[Elhanan Matos]

I think what that quote means is that not everything needs to be properly exposed, if you rely on your light meter too much you'll end up with a very boring low contrast image.

[Wendell_Greene]

I'll never forget the words of Bill Dill, ASC who was constantly telling students who were metering every single tone in a scene to put their meter away and look at the scene. "What do you want it to look like? was the question he always asked which was usually followed by silence or inarticulate "ugh...well...hmmm, I .. ugh dark? " :D

 

Now by no means was he saying you don't need to use your meter, he stressed time and again the need to establish our key,(although it took me a while to fully appreciate that sometimes nothing in a scene needs to be at key level.) but rather he was trying to get us to understand first our approach of lighting so it would support the story, the scene or even the beat, and to start lighting from our intent rather than expecting the meter would lead us to the answer like some sort of digital divining rod. A meter we learned, is not a magical instrument, but tool. Sometimes your meter will tell you, "it's too dark to shoot" but if you know the film stock and other variables experience will often help you realize you still have room on the negative to get the shot.

 

Of course, what I know couldn't fill a monopoly thimble, but the few lessons I've learned have helped me to start to develop my own view of how I like things to look.

[Sam Javor]

also maybe those people who say that assume you have a properly (or close enough) calibrated monitor... especially for video type stuff. I have a close enough monitor and don't meter anything... I just make it look how I want it to on the monitor and trust that it will transferr to TV reasonably well.... which it does. Should I trust what I see ot what some gizmo tells me? Sure you could do this with film but the tech developing it will want to kill you...

 

Same thing is with audio (which is where I'm coming from) Mixing studios are so different from listening enviroments. I've heard better mixes come out of garages than million dollar studios because the engineer understands what he hears and how it relates to what the consumer will usually listen to it on.

[Greg Gross]

Quote From American Cinematographer Magazine Sept. 2004,Page 112.

 

Interview with Mr. Daryn Okada ASC:

 

ASC- What's the best professional advice you've ever received?

 

Mr. Okada- "Trust your eye and not the light meter".

 

I'm going to trust Mr. Okada's statement and start using "eye of the pho-

tographer" technique. Its going to be hard for me due to background as

as stills photographer.

[mrbill762]

Mr. Okada- "Trust your eye and not the light meter".

 

To me this means do not toss out your meter, however do not be a slave to it either.

If your meter says f:2.8 and you feel f:3.5 is better trust yourself and your experience.

 

Remember your eyes and your meter, are both tools use them well.

 

The eyes and brain work together this makes them self-correcting, they adjust for color temperature, bring out shadow depth, depth of field, things you do in production and post-production.

 

The light meter gives you absolute readings it will show you variances that your eyes correct for; it gives you the base for your decisions.

 

In conclusion continue to use your light meter; however trust in yourself as well.

 

Mr. Bill

[Matt Pacini]

Mr. Okada- "Trust your eye and not the light meter".

 

Well, I have to say, sometimes I cringe at quotes such as this, because without being taken in context, they accomplish exactly the opposite of their intention.

 

Only someone with lots of experience with a meter, can "Trust your eye and not the light meter".

 

A beginner taking this advice is sure to create some crappy, grainy, over or underexposed images, because they have no idea how film reacts to light, so in a way it's completely useless advice to say this.

Only those with lots of experience with a meter can successfully trust their eye, in which case, they have already learned this!

 

Matt Pacini