Tag Archive for: light meter

Light meter calibration revisited

/33 Comments/in , , /by

Over time I’ve written a lot of articles on the use of the light meter, and also some about the calibration of the meter. This has fueled some discussion and also made some people doubt their methods even more than before, so I thought that it was time for a revisit of this topic.

 

Why calibrate the meter
In fact you are not calibrating the meter, but the combination of the meter and the camera/lens combination.
Remember that every camera can be different, and that if ISO100 is correct it could be off for ISO200.
Knowing all this makes it easier to understand why the meter out of the box is not 100% accurate.

 

The quick and easy way
I’ve been experimenting a lot with the calibration process and found that if you calibrate to a QPcard101 and get the numbers to read app 128.128.128 for the gray patch you are pretty accurate. However there are some things you do have to realize.

Read more

Video with Polaroid

/4 Comments/in , , , /by

Last week Sharon and I visited a good friend and fellow photographer Pim van der Maden in his studio, which actually is very close to our studio (walking distance). Pim and I talked a few months ago about a large format Polaroid he still owned but hardly used anymore, I immediately got the idea that it would be cool to show you guys a small video in which Pim would explain how he worked with this camera.

When we started working with the camera the talk however soon became much more than just about the Polaroid, we just kept the camera rolling and decided we would edit it into a small “podcast” “interview on location” “instructional” video. And today you can see the video here on the blog. I hope you enjoy it, and even if you’re not into Polaroids (who isn’t ?) I think there are some very interesting things there that you can use in your own photography.

Many thanks to Emma, Pim and Sharon.
Visit Pim at his site : http://www.pimvandermaden.com

 

All people that …… are ……. WORD!!!

/19 Comments/in , , /by

Must be the weirdest title I ever used for an article.
You can fill in the blanks yourself, but let me start by doing one that I wrote this article about.

 

All people that don’t meter are stupid……
And before you explode and start mailing me, please read on.
Every week I get a few mails from people that have seen me using a meter and they are always in 2 camps. 1 group will try to convince me that they love the work I do but advise me to stop using a meter, the other group wonder why there are so many people out there on the web, on youtube, on training sites etc. who still struggle without a meter.


It’s no secret that I love to use my meter, in every workshop there is some attention to the meter and how to proper use the tool. And there we go already please do remember that the meter is just a tool. In the end it all boils down that we tell a story with our images, move people with our images or/and make something interesting for other people to enjoy, endure or love. That’s photography. Using a meter is just a tool to get to that end result.

 

First things first
Don’t read this as if I say that you shouldn’t use a meter, no way.
I strongly (and really read STRONGLY) believe that if you’re into photography, and you don’t even have to be a pro, you will have to use a meter to get accurate and constant results. I really don’t care if people say that they get great results without meter, my answer to them is “you will get there quicker and probably even get better results when you DO use a meter”. But in the end, and please do remember this…. you can make shitty images with a meter and great work without. But let’s look at some things I want to clarify.

Read more

About the light meter in a quick overview

/54 Comments/in , , /by

On August 12th I joined Scott Kelby during his great “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” tour.
If you didn’t already see it, and it’s close to you, make sure you check it out… You’ll love it.
Anyway, during my piece of the seminar I choose to do the high contrast light setup using a deep octa and strip light, during the setup I of course also talked about the use of a light meter and explained some of the theory behind it, however after the seminar I got so many questions from people who never used a meter to people who had problems using one that I decided to dedicate a blog post to it, because really honest… using a meter is like the simplest thing you can do within photography.

Read more