Alexander Boyd Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Hi there, just wondering if it's necessary to use a grey card when metering with a handheld light meter like the Sekonic L-758 or other handheld light meters? thanks in advance, Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 A reflected reading off a grey card will be the same., more or less, as an incident reading. So, no, not really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Boyd Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 thanks for the quick reply, Mark. what about skin tones? aren't they supposed to be 2/3 - 1 stop lighter? P.S. newbie here, so please excuse if any of these questions seem basic or self-explanatory to you ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Dunn Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Yes they are. If you take an incident reading, though, skin tones will be correct. An incident reading is independent of the different reflectances within the scene- it's correct for all of them. more or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Boyd Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 Got it now! Thanks for your help :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted December 23, 2014 Premium Member Share Posted December 23, 2014 The Sekonic L-578 is a combo incident and reflective meter, so in which mode were you asking about a gray card? Incident meters measure the amount of light falling on the dome, so don't need gray cards, but a spot / reflective meter reads the amount of light reflective off of an object, so if you want an 18% gray reference, then the card is useful, though most people use reflective meters to measure the brightness of various areas in the frame. They tend to use the gray card when they only have a spot / reflective meter and are using it to determine the exposure for the scene. If you have a combo meter though, I would tend to think you'd use the incident meter in place of a spot meter pointed at a gray card, and then use the spot meter mode to check the contrast range, how hot a lamp is, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexander Boyd Posted December 23, 2014 Author Share Posted December 23, 2014 Hi David, being aware that the L-758 is a combo meter, I was wondering about it in more general terms. But your wonderful description has made it clear - just like Mark's post - that a grey card isn't really necessary when taking incident meter readings, while it seems to be favourable when using a spot/reflective meter. Thanks to both of you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.DePa Posted June 20, 2015 Share Posted June 20, 2015 (edited) Reading the post I´m thinking about that I use the 18% grey card with false color. In my opinion is very useful. Is a good reference for me. What do you think about this? thanks Edited June 20, 2015 by A.DePa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendrick Gray Posted August 11, 2016 Share Posted August 11, 2016 Old post but this helped me a lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now