White photographers are normally fine with basic exposure readings and settings cinematographers and videographers have some more specific needs and desires When it comes to get their light just right if you should video professionally you need a light meter ok Okay, I know what you think it you don't need one because your camera is one built in It's true the meter in the camera works pretty well But it doesn't give you all the level of control a light meter does a light meter Let's you see the exposure at the exact location the light is falling This isn't some sort of average. It's an exact measurement at the exact spot you want We are f8 here, but we want a shallow depth of field you need the aperture to be f2.8 Just dial down your ISO until you get to 8 and you're ready to shoot Let's say you're working with the blue or a green screen the light meter let you measure How even your light is just by clicking and holding a button and with your spot meter You can check your lighting to make sure you get maximum details on your highlights and your shadows Let me try to break these down for you This is my iconic light meter It has a spot meter so you can look through this and it has a dome on the top Which you can measure incident light There are essentially two ways to measure light you can measure the reflected light or you can measure the incident light The type of meter builds Into your camera is a reflected light meter which is also available as a feature on handheld light meters They measure the amount of light they reflected by your scene or subject To use the spot meter on my meter you just need to turn this controller here You cannot look through it and ready to spot on the wall or the sky Reflected readings are more common Especially since most digital cameras as a reflected light meter built in This take an average reading measuring across the entire scene But in areas with a great deal of contrast or many differences in light These systems can have difficulty providing a proper reading It's a very fast and convenient way to get the initial settings When you're using an incident meter basically you're reading the light falling on the subject To obtain an accurate reading when shooting with continuous light just position your meter on the position of your subject Pointing the dome at the camera Most meters have a 180 degree angle of view which measures the light around me You can lower the dome in to read the light coming from one direction only Once you've taken your reading Adjust your camera's f-stop to the setting indicated on your meter Let's have a look at the benefits of using a light meter I'm going to use incident light metering because it's a more accurate method When you measure the light before it falls on the subject You will achieve consistency regardless the color of the subject you are metering Because your reading is independent of your subject A white object will record white and a black object will record black And then highlights and shadows will fall naturally into place Now let's do the same with reflected metering because reflected metering reads the light reflecting all of your subject It is easily fooled by variances in color contrast surface textures background brightness and shape What you see is normally not at all what you get Reflected meters do a very good job at reflecting the light bouncing of the subject The problem is they don't take into account or the factors in the scene For example imagine you use your cameras which as a reflected light meter to evaluate the exposure of a white surface The light meter would see a lot of light being reflected by the surface And to balance it to middle gray recommends a lower exposure than is needed As a result the image will be under exposed and the surface will look gray The same happens if you take a reflected light meter reading of a black cloth The light meter would see very little light being reflected by the object And to balance it to middle gray recommends a higher exposure than is needed As a result the image will be overexposed and the cloth will look brighter Both of these problems are the results of measuring reflected light from the subject Rather than the actual light falling on the subject If you want to read a neutral exposure you can use a gray card which is 18% gray This is more accurate and provides a consistent surface from which to read light You just need to point your spot meter to the card So some situations will demand a handheld meter A light meter provides crucial information for cinematographers While many users might not find a need for a light meter Otherwise we'll find the capabilities of a light meter invaluable Metas can provide exact information with exact numbers And because lighting is the most important part of photography and cinematography Being able to know more about your setup will help Thanks for watching my video If you like it feel free to share it Don't forget to subscribe Take it easy guys, have a nice one Bye