Hand Held Exposure Meter

bluestar

Can a hand held exposure meter (the old Weston Meter types) be used in the same way as an incident meter? If you place a styrofoam cup in front of your camera lens would it work as an incident meter?

Moose

Howdy @bluestar - Interesting question...Yes, you could use a styrofoam cup as a DIY incident meter and white balance reference image, however, it might be overkill.

In my opinion, the best light meter is your Nikon D3100 with 'Live View' mode enabled. This will allow you to evaluate the effects of lighting, light ratios, zone values and color temperatures, all in real-time. If shoot in RAW, you'll be able to play with the exposure a bit and correct any white balance issues in post processing.

Happy shooting! :)

bluestar

I understand with an incident meter you measure the light hitting the subject rather than the light reflected off of it (which your camera light meter measures). So if you place the camera at the subject ,if possible, facing where the camera would be, would that give an incident reading? By using the plastic cup would that diffuse it?

On Mike Browne's site he talks about using a polystyrene cup on top as a DIY partial diffuser for the camera's flash, or a business card in front at 45 degrees to direct the light at the ceiling. I don't think I have ever used the live view mode or any of the presets, although I have only had the camera 2 years. I decided to jump in with both feet and shoot in aperture priority and now I use manual.

Thanks for a good site.

Moose

@bluestar - Yep, exactly. Say you're taking a portrait. You would stand near your subject and point the camera back towards where you will be standing. Take a reading using the DIY cup method and then enter the desired settings manually.

As for using a cup or business card as a built-in flash diffuser, I've always had mixed results when trying it in the past. It works best in smaller sized rooms with low ceilings.

'Live View' is really only good for subjects that don't move too much, like portraits of adults, landscapes and product shots. In case you're wondering, you can use full manual settings while in 'Live View'. You should give it a try.

Thanks for the kind words...happy shooting! :)

bluestar

I'll stick to using manual exposure and use the viewfinder. The back screen eats the battery.