Metering people outside in the snow and other Questions.

marikris

Hi all! I have some questions. I just bought a Sekonic 308 and I am not sure whether I should use incident or reflective metering for taking photos of people outside with some snow on the ground. Not a lot of snow, but we had ~14inches two days ago and now it's melting. Saturday is supposed to be in the 60s. I'll be taking these pictures around noon.

Also, on a group shot, how do you meter for differing skin tones? Or is there even a difference? So far I've only been able to practice on my friend, who is fair skinned.

Lastly, and this is Sekonic 308 specific I suppose, what is the 0.1 Step Display for?

Thanks in advance!

pathfinder

The beauty of an incident light meter is that it does not depend on the reflectivity of the subject or its tonality to provide exposure recommendations. It only meters the incident light.

Theoretically, you should not need to adjust for a light or dark skin with an incident meter, or for snow on the ground as the light reflected from the snow will be included in the measurement of the meter.

Try shooting a 16 step gray scale with a reflected light meter reading and see how that works out.

When I use my incident light meter - Sekonic 358 - a jpg of a stepped gray scale comes out perfect for the lightest and darkest steps.

I don't use the 0.1 step display.

Scott_Quier

PF pretty much said it. If you use incident light readings, everything else falls into place. You won't have to do any compensation for snow, skin pigmentation, or anything else. Snow will fall at or very near the right side of your histogram while the faces of your people will be properly exposed.

With reflective metering, you take a reading of the snow, the face or faces of your people, and maybe some of the shadow areas. Then you have to figure out where, in the range of possible exposures, you want the snow to fall, where you want the faces to fall, etc. What a headache.

Just go with an incident light reading. Then take a practice shot or two while chimping the histogram and go from there.

Art Scott

pathfinder wrote:

The beauty of an incident light meter is that it does not depend on the reflectivity of the subject or its tonality to provide exposure recommendations. It only meters the incident light.

Theoretically, you should not need to adjust for a light or dark skin with an incident meter, or for snow on the ground as the light reflected from the snow will be included in the measurement of the meter.

Try shooting a 16 step gray scale with a reflected light meter reading and see how that works out.

When I use my incident light meter - Sekonic 358 - a jpg of a stepped gray scale comes out perfect for the lightest and darkest steps.

I don't use the 0.1 step display.

I agree totally here and with Scott.......I have been scoffed at cause I still carry light meters to work outside for portraits and weddings.......incident meters have saved my butt more times than naught.......they are a piece of equipment that any serious people photographer should have, especially if you take money for your work.

pathfinder

marikris wrote:

Hi all! I have some questions. I just bought a Sekonic 308 ..........................
Lastly, and this is Sekonic 308 specific I suppose, what is the 0.1 Step Display for?

Thanks in advance!

Probably for more precision in reporting the exposure values. Displaying the readings in 0.1, is set by positioning DIP switches 3 and 4 in the OFF positions. The DIP switches are found in the Battery compartment.

The manual for the L-358 can be found here. It is a worthwhile read. The DIP switch settings are on pages 7 and 8

Scrubs

Just to follow on from what people have already said -
For people not having access to an incident meter and relying on
- say a center weighted reflective reading from the camera.

For a subject in snow this would usually be compensated
by opening the aperture 1 or 2 stops more than the refelctive
meter reading suggested to brighten the subject.

Remember - all light meters read for middle grey.
so, if you were to take for instance a correctly metered photo
of some snow it would appear grey and would need compensating
if you required it to appear whiter.

The concept would be same for reverse... Say a dark room
with your subject hit by a strong spot light. Your camera
takes the reading for the whole room and trys to expose
for the larger darker portion - brightening the whole scene and most
likely over exposing your subject - so you would compensate
by closing the aperture 1 - 2 stops.