External or Hand Held Minolta Light Meter - The Photographers Secret Weapon.

http://www.clickherephotographytips.com External Light / Flash Meters are not readily used by beginner photographers, although they are still in use today by professional photographers in Photographic Studios. They are a vital tool for determining the output of your photographic flash equipment, or; to determine the amount of light reflecting from your subject toward the camera (ambient light).

If you are taking photographs outside and you may not have a lot of faith in the flash output, you can simply use the meter to measure the exposure, although; there are a few rules that you need to be aware of when using the meter

The Three basic rules are:

1). The meter must be set to the correct ASA / ISO rating for the film or digital sensor within your camera.
2). The reading should be taken from the subject pointing toward the camera as this will give the most correct exposure reading.
3). These light / flash meters are extremely accurate and measure exposure at 18% grey this is the same setting that most inbuilt camera exposure meters.

This type of light / flash meter can assist you in achieving more accurate exposures as internal light meters can be fooled by different colours and lighting situations. For example incorrect exposure reading can be caused when photographing in very bright lighting conditions such as snow, sand etc. These meters can also be fooled when photographing dark tones or when there is a limited amount of light available for your photography.

An advantage of using an external light / flash meter is that, it is possible to change your shutter speed and read the corresponding aperture, or; you can also do this the other way

By changing your aperture to determine the correct shutter speed for your photograph.

In addition to being able to do this, it is also possible to change your ISO /ASA rrating on the meter and to easily see the difference that this will have on both shutter speed and aperture. This could be useful in determining the effect of going to a faster film (higher ISO / ASA), or; going from a faster film to a slower film (lower ISO / ASA).

Sure, you may be thinking I can already do this with my digital camera Yes, you are correct, however; how will you measure the exposure of an external flash such as a studio flash?

This item is not necessarily what I would class as a vital piece of equipment for every photographer, however; although I do not use it every day, it is one of the more useful items that I carry around in my camera bag

This video tutorial has been produced to provide you with some assistance and advice in regard to making this very important decision...

Do I need an external light / flash meter?

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Lens
• Camera
• Filter
• Flash
• Light
• Meter
• Minolta
• iv
• IVF
• exposure
• ambient
• DSLR
• SLR
• ISO
• ASA
• External
• Aperture
• Shutter
• Speed

[MixPhotography]

Whats this type of meter worth?

Cheers

Mick

[clickherephotography]

Have a look on Ebay, you can buy one there...

The meter that I use is approximately 15 years old, and it is still working well after all that time.

Regards

Dean.

[zielinskiCreative]

thank you for your video, i found it very helpful and well done

[clickherephotography]

Thanky ou for the kind comment...

Regards

Dean.

[Stickwood1]

What a nice bloke, talks like he's one of your mates.

Good work!

[clickherephotography]

He is me... Or is that, I am him???

Thanks

Dean.

[Pinnger]

Dood you cant be a teacher

[mallen2100]

Very informative video, cleared up a lot of questions!

Thanks a lot!

Regards,

Mike Allen

[GaGaGooGoostuff]

@LoveHateFashion RE: f/90.

I believe that’s for movie/ cine cameras. I used a 16mm camera, Arri SR3. On those cameras the shutter angle is like the shutter speed. It could only go up to 45 degrees which is about 1/192 second and changing it gives the scene a different feel so you'd want to stick to one setting for the scene or film. We shot at 180 degrees ( 1/50 ) so on a bright day it gave a high reading which meant we had to stick multiple numbers of ND filters in front of the camera.

[Sweetie0744]

How much is this Liht meter?? And where can i get it?? Awesome video!

[tassadar1977]

Very helpful. Thanks mate.

[LoveHateFashion]

f/90??... is that even posible??