Trusting your light meter

[Justin Hayward]

Hi,

 

I work at a stage in Chicago as a ?video split operator?. I think this is the proper title, but I refer to it as ?the video play back guy?. My boss is the director/DP and he?s been really good when it comes to giving me advice about shooting. Otherwise, I would be asking questions on this forum much more often.

 

He has an interesting way of lighting, which requires a lot of experience and knowledge of film. He lights everything from the video monitor. The light meter doesn?t even come out until we?re ready to pull the trigger. When he decides we?re ready to shoot, he just tells the AC what stop he wants to shoot at and the gaffer scrims the lights, or the A.C. puts whatever ND on the lens to get the stop he wants. What?s amazing to me is how he can tell if something is too dark or not dark enough, just by looking at the video monitor. He?s is an incredible DP and everything he shoots looks really good, but this doesn?t mean I think all DP?s should strive to light this way. Everyone has a different approach to lighting and none of them are better or worse than another, but I would like to be able to tell if something is going to be too dark without having to trust a light meter all the time. The only reason I care is because of the gazillion different stocks there are. What is black on one stock, could be too bright on another. All while your light meter is telling you the same stop no matter what, because the ASA is the same. I understand the only answer is experience and shooting lots of different stocks, but this brings me to my question.

 

Have any of you decided that you don't want to rely 100% on you light meter? If so, how long did it take you to feel comfortable shooting this way? (Again, I don't mean not taking any light readings, just not reading every spot in the frame.)

 

Justin

[Laurent Andrieux]

1) different stocks of the same sensitivity or close are not that different nor that many...

 

2) A light meter would be nothing to a blind man, even if someone would just read the meter for him...

 

I guess your DP doesn't only look at the monitor (especialy if shooting film), but also looks at the set !

 

When you shoot video, the light meter is usefull until a certain point, and the monitor, well calibrated, absolutely necessary...

 

The use of the meter and spotmeter are very different from one person to another, a scene to another, a time of day from another, and won't be the same the firsts days than the 15th on the same shooting...