Portraits metering modes and histograms
Hi all,
I am quite new to this game but there is always something confusing me...
If I am not wrong the center (weighted) metering method is a good candidate for portraiture work as you want the face to be somehow okay lighted. If that is true I still need to keep looking on the histogram and apply the ETTR (exposure to the right rule?).
How do you find the right exposure for a portraiture work?
Regards
Alex
I am quite new to this game but there is always something confusing me...
If I am not wrong the center (weighted) metering method is a good candidate for portraiture work as you want the face to be somehow okay lighted. If that is true I still need to keep looking on the histogram and apply the ETTR (exposure to the right rule?).
How do you find the right exposure for a portraiture work?
Regards
Alex
0
Comments
Matrix metering, always
Auto Iso, set shutter speed at 160 minimum usually
Aperture priority, unless using flash then manual
Usually shoot wide open or one down
Adjust exposure compensation as necessary.
I judge my exposures by the blinkies. I try to always be right on the edge of them blinking but not blinking on anything I care about, I let stuff I don't care about go.
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Your instinct is correct. If you are in center weight and the portrait is like headshot or shoulders and up, then expose to the right is not as critical. if it involves more of the full body and thus background it maybe wise to expose to the right to some degree. Remember what ETTR is supposed to help with. Every shot will be different.
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When viewing your histogram it can vary wildly depending on what it is seeing in relation to the subjects face. It may be heavily weighted to the left or right yet your facial exposure could be spot on. Be very careful with the histogram if your not sure how it works.
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If you have never used one it can absolutely amaze you. No fuss no muss, it's
just spot on every time.
Sam
+1
A light meter is the closest thing to a magic bullet you will find.
+2
I really don't understand how someone could consider themselves to be a serious photographer and not own, understand and use a light meter.
The in camera meter is a reflective meter. The reflective meters are only spot on if (using spot metering) your "spot" is a 18% grey spot. Incident readings are much more accurate as it reads the actual light hitting the spot your metering. It doesn't matter if it's light, dark or in between.
I'm just trying to see how a light meter would benefit me with my shooting style. Again, in studio, with manual studio lighting, sure - I get it. It's other situations (especially outside with changing lighting conditions) where I'm not sure I see that it would benefit. Just trying to make sure I haven't missed something I SHOULD know and use!!
Well, Maybe it's just that I got so used to using one back in film days that I am more comfortable with it.
I do however think it gives more accurate readings and results especially when using multiple light sources outside. It takes the "interpretation" of the camera out of the mix. I also like the fact, even in all natural light, that I can pose my subject and meter the face, or body, on both the hot side and the shadow side and measure light fall off for shaping purposes. Subtle shifts of the subject can make a big difference in the look of the finished product.
To me it's just easier that way and I find I have more control.
Try this: While using outdoor natural light, place, pose your model, client for a head shot. Take your shot as you normally would. Make whatever adjustments you need and continue to shoot until your happy with your image.
Now with the model in the same position, pose, walk up to your model and take an indecent light reading just in front of the models face. Put your camera on manual and set your camera with the settings provided by your light meter.
Please let me know your results.
Sam
So becaue my method of judging exposure doesnt include the use of a light meter I am not a serious photographer?
I always shoot manual for portraits.
BUT..... I don't set up the shot and then snap a few frames, then change it then snap a few frames etc etc (which I know is traditional and perhaps even "optimum", but I tend to bop around more than that). I get the subject loosely set up and get my exposure in the ballpark, and then adjust as I shoot as needed, according to the meter that shows in the viewfinder plus occasional chimping. When using flash indoors, yes, I can see where a meter might be helpful, but I tend to use ETTL with my speedlights for convenience, and it's pretty reliable (that's basically laziness on my part - I COULD set them to manual, I just don't lol).
In natural light (or natural + fill) I can (and often do) adjust without even taking my eye off the camera since it's usually just minor tweaks of ss/ap. Occasionally I screw it up, but that's usually because I got more into expression/posing/engaging the subject and forgot to look at the reading in front of me than because the camera read it wrong. I always put my focal/exposure point on the face/eyes of my subject; in extreme contrast lighting (eg snow/beach/theater) I'll add manual "exposure compensation" according to what I think will be needed.
Again, I'm not being contentious here, I'm truly trying to see how it can be used in situations other than the ones with which I normally associate a lightmeter, and how it would work with *my* shooting style... I've often wondered if I should give it a try, but I don't own one so it's not available for me to experiment with without spending $ I have earmarked for other things................
PS I think you meant "INCIDENT" reading. Indecent could be entertaining, but not really the market I shoot
I have two of them in my camera, histogram and blinkies...I take about 500 pictures in a 2 hour session.
My built in light meters tell me what I need to know about my exposures in a couple seconds, adust in another couple seconds, the whole time I am still interacting with my subject, no disruption in the flow.
Light meters...sure with film...absolutely. To save time setting up multiple lights in a studio where you may only take 15 or 20 pictures in a session, sure why not.
You just like messing with equipment and light meters are fun...sure, I get it.
Am I not a serious photographer because I don't use one....
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I was trying suggest a simple test to demonstrate how a light meter is more accurate than your in camera light meter.
Now your asking about using a light meter for outdoor portraits and flash.
This video should help explain it all. Joe Brady is great.
http://www.sekonic.com/classroom/webinars/blending-flash-and-ambient-light-for-beautiful-outdoor-portraits.aspx
PLEASE NOTE: No one has to use a light meter. It's just another tool, but it's a great tool that can provide information not available with your in camera exposure meter and help you to achieve more of your vision than with out it.
It will get you better exposures faster than with the camera alone.
Sam
Jeez, no need to get you shorts in a knot gentlemen. I didn't mean to say you WEREN'T serious photographers if you didn't use one, I just said I didn't understand how.
I've never used or even looked at a historgram except by mistake and I'm not entirely sure what "blinkies" are. All I know is using a light meter is much faster and more accurate than what is in the d700 I use.
Then again, in a two hour session I MIGHT take 70 images in total if I have a blinker.
So how can you consider yourself a "serious photographer" if you dont understand a histogram or what the "blinkies" are? Your original comment is assuming that us photographer who dont use a light meter are less professional or not as good as you are. Light meters are not always 100% and you would know that if you understood what your histogram was telling you and a quick way to know if you blew out any highlights is use your "blinkies".
couldnt agree with you more here Zoomer! Your work is awesome and you dont need to use a light meter as the camera already has one! BAM!
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Charles it isnt even about light meters for me. Its the attitude that if I dont do it your way (and by your way I mean people who dont do it the same) then I must not really be a professional photographer or I am not serious about my photography. Everyone has their method and they are entitled to do as they choose. Whatever works for me works me and you can do it however you choose
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No, no I didn't. You just chose to take it that way.
And, even if I did, so what. It's an opinion. If an opinion that doesn't fit with what you believe can get you ticked off, you're going to be ticked off a lot of the time in this world.
So, teach me.
I'm doing an outdoor shoot. Using the sun as my main, I want a fill strobe to provide a 6 to 1 ratio and hair/kicker 1 stop brighter than the main. How do I pull that off with the in camera meter, blinkies and historgram?
After that I need to know how to read the historgram on my 645 AF-D. I can't even find the damn thing.
Now this is getting interesting and actually makes a stronger case for using a handheld meter than anything said so far. THIS is where those who grew up in film/manual/manual flash learned to do a whole lot o' numbers/light theory that I have (I admit it) never pushed myself to master. As I said above, I use ETTL because I'm lazy in this regard (and a whole lotta numbers just make my head spin). Speaking for myself, I stick my fill light where I want it, my kicker where I want it, guess based on previous experience and practice in various conditions, and shoot a coupla shots until it "looks right". Definitely not scientific (although I submit it does, by and large, work well for me
I don't use blinkies because they distract me, but I do think the in-camera meter is pretty darned competent, and I do check my histogram; I've learned what the shapes are for the looks I like, so use it as a general guide rather than an out-and-out blueprint to follow. It's useful, I think, particularly if you don't feel you can trust the brightness of the LCD scre
Light meters can be spot, reflected or incident and give you a reading for an 18% grey card. All very confusing.
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Divimum,
Please watch this! http://www.sekonic.com/classroom/webinars/blending-flash-and-ambient-light-for-beautiful-outdoor-portraits.aspx
And I think it is fair to say that the simplest way for someone who lacks experience to get a correct exposure without having to "interpret" histogram data, guess and check, take 20 setup shots etc. is to use a light meter. It is certainly not the only way, but it is quick and accurate whether using strobes, natural light, or any combination thereof.
All this talk about who is or isn't a professional photographer or whether or not this tool or that tool has more or less value misses the point of the question and just seems silly to me. Fwiw.
And don't forget that your histogram and blinkies are totally dependent on the JPEG settings that you have your camera set to (ie. you can make blinkies appear or go away by adjusting your on camera contrast) which are not necessarily relevant to your raw files which you are presumably shooting.
Sam...Thanks for sharing this! This was one that I hadn't seen in my search on tutorials on using flash. This video really enforces a lot of what Scott Robert Lim taught in his workshop on Creative Live, like both outstretched arms equals approximately 6 feet, and you can get good results with bare flash. Only difference, this video is getting exposure and flash settings using a light meter, and Scott Robert Lim's workshop is basically using the meter in the camera and a chart for the flash setting for a starting point.
One thing that the in camera meter can not do is meter for light ratios. Here is a video by Mark Wallace from Adorama TV that explains how to meter for light ratios using a Sekonic L-358. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lbv69Um_FcE He also done a workshop on Creative Live called Understanding Light, which is another one that I had purchased. I had been researching light meters and because of this workshop I decided on the Sekonic L-358. Since this particular meter is no longer available brand new, I found one on eBay and purchased it, and I'm glad I did! I started using it at work with my product photography and it has made my life a whole lot easier! I find that I now can get the shot in one shot now!
GaryB
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