Advance Light Meter

[Victor Lopes]

Hey guys, I just got a light meter and I'm loving it. Where are some good places online to learn how to advance my knowledge on better using the light meter, primarily learning about LUX or FC.

 

 

Thanks,

Victor

[Stephen Perera]

loads on youtube...how about this.....

[Stephen Perera]

the big one is mastering spot metering...ambient readings are straightforward....ish.....with spot metering I use the zone system and that will blow your mind at this stage.....this comes from still photography Ansel Adams etc system.....loads of material out there for all this......Im sure you have already been at it

[Victor Lopes]

Thanks Stephen! This is great. Like you said ambient readings are straight forward. I looked online for zone system metering a found some good stuff. The only trouble I see is there are no videos on the zone system for film/video. I would like to see how you would put this into practice on set. Any ideas?

[Stephen Perera]

The zone system - tons of material out there......personally I like Mark Vargo ASC videos to explain the basics of metering plus other stuff in general:

 

 

 

 

Using a light meter is exactly the same for 'stills' as for 'moving images'....light is light (personally, i think in f-stops not foot candles or lux - I can't relate to those vis a vis a lens on a camera)

 

Obviously things move in 'motion picture' thus u have to account for how the light changes when someone walks from point A to point B for example....do you want ur character to walk from the shadows to the light in which case you need to know what you are setting up your camera for......its common sense and I dont want to insult your intelligence.

 

I'm not a cinematographer like a lot of people here but i have been photographing on film for 30 years using light meters and recently 16mm Kodak Vision3 on an Aaton 16mm movie camera with a beautiful Cooke zoom lens and metering for me was the same in terms of how my mind worked.

 

For you, at this stage, it really is as simple as getting ur digital camera (I assume thats where you're at) and metering light and seeing your results. In time u will use the meter to get what you want. All this 'false colour' and 'vector scopes' on monitors etc don't talk to me like a light metre does.

 

well done for getting a light meter