Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Francesco wrote: >Call me dumb, but I myself have never operated an incident meter. >I have always relied upon my in-camera meter and the green grass, >blue sky, or palm of my hand for guidelines. Can someone tell me >if one is supposed to meter incidentally with the dome pointing at >the camera or the dome pointing at the main light source? I have >heard both and am confused. Someone please tell me your >procedure...... I use a Weston V selenium meter with an Invercone incident light attachment, and find it accurate in 99% of situations. The Invercone is a large hemisphere with a dent in the middle, so it's actually gathering in light from 180 degrees and averaging it. Most meters have a similar sort of dome arrangement.. If you can get close to the subject, then it's simple. Just hold the meter upright/level with the dome pointing towards the camera position, and it will then average the light falling on the target. Very quick, and almost totally idiot-proof. If you can't get close (as in landscapes), it's normally quite easy to find a patch nearby which has much the same sort of lighting as the subject and taking a reading there. That said, when I'm using TTL metering, I've found the 'grass' tip (thank you LUG), a very effective substitute for an 18% grey card. Living in Ireland, there's a lot of grass to choose from - my only problem is which of the 72 shades of green to choose....... Slan Alex Alex Hurst Cork Florists 19 Winthrop St, Cork Republic of Ireland Tel: +353 21 270 907 Fax: +353 21 271 248 email: corkflor@iol.ie Website: http://www.flowerlink.com/corkflorists Home website: http://homepages.iol.ie/~corkflor/