Mastering the Model shoot - The Light Meter

1. Trailer: 2. Intro: Hey, guys, My name is Frank Gore off and welcome to this first video in mastering the model shoot video Instructional Siris In this video, I'm going to talk to you about the light meter. And don't worry, don't run away. It's a really cool too, because it will help you enormously in speeding up your photo shoots and getting the proper exposures. Now, one of the things that's very important during this video is that you know your full F stops by heart. So I'm going to show you them now in a small diagram, make sure you print it out, write it down and put it in front of you on the table, on the couch or wherever you're gonna watch this video. If you know you feel left open by heart, well, you don't need to print out, but if you don't, you can get confused uring the video, so make sure that you learn them by heart. Remember, using a light meter doesn't take away of creativity. It doesn't it doesn't do anything else than just tell you the proper exposure to help you calculate with it. A lot of people think that when you use a live meter, your images will get worse. Some people even think that when you see like, media will be a better photographer, and that's also not true. It's just a tool, so don't think too much about it. It's just a tool that gives you the proper exposure and helps you to speed up your workflow . So let's start with our video monitoring the model shoot Chapter one Delight Meter. 3. Intro 2 : The Histogram: Now, before I start the video about the light meter, there's one thing I have to show you guys. One of the most hurt expressions online about the light meter if you don't need it anymore , because you can shoot on the history. Graham well, although a lot of people say this is through, it's absolutely not, and I will show you very quickly why. The only thing in history Graham does is give you a nice rendition off all the tones in your scene. Let's say, for example, life this White Square. Now, if you look over here in the red, green and blues, you will actually see that it's all to 55255255 Meaning it's clipped white. If you look at the history Graham, you will see that there's a spike over here, meaning all the detail is over here at 255255 So it gives me a nice rendition off this square, which is white. So the history Miss ball to the right. If I go to a black square, you will see that the RGB values are actually 000 meaning total black if you now go to the history, Graham. You can also see that there's a spike over here all the way to the left, meaning there's no detail. It's pure black. Now. If we go to a middle great square, you actually see a spike in the middle Off the hissed a gram. Easy values in RGB off 1 to 81281 to eight. And this is, by the way, just something I did very quickly. So it's not exactly middle grave, but it's very close now. If a go to a model now, where should Instagram be? Some people will say you need Ah, Bell hissed a gram. Well, if you look at this history, Graham, you see that it's not a bell, but it's actually pretty accurate because you see some blacks over here, the heads. This is all very, very dark. And of course you see the face and you see a white backgrounds, not a white background in the history. Graham, you see over here, that's the spike. The blacks are never blocked. You always see detail, so there's no absolute black in my history, Graham. But where shoot the face be? I don't know this is shut with a light meter, so this is a proper exposure. Now, when I go with my pointer over her face and he looked here to the RGB values, you actually see the values change. So what are the numbers over skin? Well, I don't know. It could be anything. It's varies from 177144123218 Whatever the numbers change constantly. So if you have somebody to tell shoe you shoot, You sure hissed a gram to judge your exposure. Just ask him, What are the numbers off your skin? Because if you know the numbers off your skin, then you will know how the hissed a gram off debts part will look. But as you can see, there's light fall off, so the numbers change constantly, and that's what he hissed. A gram is absolutely useless for a proper exposure. The only thing the hissed a gram shows you is if you're over exposing or under exposing. But if there's pure white in the shot, the history Graham will show you you're overexposing, while in reality it could actually be a proper exposure because there's pure white. If you're history, Graham shows you you're under exposing because there's a lot of blacks. It's shooting per se be that you're under exposing. Let's say you're shooting a black cat in a black mind. It should be really dark. It should be total black. So you're actually having a proper exposure or snow men in a snowstorm. You're history, Graham tells you. You're over exposing, but in reality you're actually exposing correctly. So the hissed a gram only shows you the tones in a scene and how they are spread over the history. Graham. It's in no way a tool to get a proper exposure. It's only a tool to show you which stones are in the scene. The light meter. That's something else that will give you the perfect exposure. So let's start with Chef Toe one in our video for the light meter 4. Chapter 1 : what is the lightmeter and why use it: Hey, and welcome to this video about two. Usual for light near. Now, when you look online, you would almost believe that you don't need a light meter anymore because, well, we have modern digital cameras, right? And there's a light metering site, and when you're looking for a lot of people will tell you the same thing. You don't need a light meter anymore. There's a meter inside your camera, and that will work just fine. Well, in this video, I want to show you that a light meter can really, really help your photography. But let's first look at what is a light meter if you're a photographer and shooting models or shooting street sings or landscapes. Ural capturing light and there's a certain amount of flights. Now, when you change your patrol and you shut a speech, you control the amount of light reaching your sensor or, in the old days film. Now, how do you know how to say the temperature and its shutter speed correctly? Nowadays we have all these cameras with building light meters, and they were flawless. However, it starts to change as soon as you start working with strokes. So let's say studio environment where shooting a model you're aiming to stroke but your model and now well, how should the camera now how to set its secretary? Right? So the first thing you have to realize is that what's inside your camera is actually alive meter, but it's a different light meter from what we use in the studio. What's inside your camera is a so called reflective light meter it meat or something. What it's reflects back now what it reflects back in the cameras, calculated to an 18% gray, this is middle gray, and it's very easy to calculate. If you add everything together and you make in efforts of 18% gray off a correct exposure in most of the cases so outside it works flawless. However, in this studio we're working with strokes, and that's a pulse. It's very, very fast, and you camera well, it doesn't work that way, so he needs something to meet it at light. Now, a reflective media, Russia just explained, will take everything down to 18% gray. Now if you shoot a model, he said, any use to use 18% great. No, of course not, because most models aren't 18% gray right now. I haven't seen him yet, so we need the except exposure. And that's when we use something called an incident light meter. An incident light meter, actually, meters, the light falling on your subjects. You can recognize them very easily. Day if this little bowls on top off them. And I have two of those here old psychotics. And by the way, this is a really old lied meter. Now let's first look at which light meter to buy. So in the next chapter, I'm gonna give you some information about why to buy which light meter. 5. Chapter 2 : how to read the lightmeter: now, one of the most asked questions is. How do I read the light meter? That's actually very simple. I have an example here and, as you can see now, the light miseries on F 11. The camera is also on FB left, meaning If I now make my shot, the shot will be properly exposed because both my light meter on its on F 11 and the cameras on 11. But now let's raise the strokes. 123 Now, if I take a meter reading, it will actually tell me it's 11.3 now F 11.3. That's actually not 11 right? So that's a little bit of an action number. That extra number corresponds to you. Camera. The light meter is set up in full F stops, meaning I'm going from F 11 straight to F 16. The camera doesn't work in full F stops, but the camera works in one church, often F stop, meaning my camera will go from 11 to F 13 then to a 14 and into F 16. Now the numbers you see behind the F stop on your life meter actually give shoot the tense off F stops that are actually extra meaning. If I see an exposure off 11.2, that means that there are two tens. Often f stop more light than F 11 now because I just told you that your camera works in one tourists off enough stop. You know that if you're like me to tell shoe F 11.3 that you will actually have to set your camera one click higher than F 11 in this case after 13. If you're like me to tell shoot F 11.6, you will actually get another click. So that's a 14. The next step. That's F 16 now what if you don't have any control over your lighting? Let's say you're outside and your light meter tells you F 11.2. Well, that's a problem, because there is no every 11.2. There's an F 11.3, which equals F 13 but there's no F 11.2. Now I have to look at your scene. If you're shooting somebody in a white dress, it's probably better to shoot it on after 13 because you're slightly under exposing the scene, meaning you keep detail in your whites. If you shooting somebody in a black suit. It's better to shoot it on F 11 because now you're actually getting a little bit more detail in the blacks. So this is how the light meter should be. Read F 11.3 equals F 11 plus one. Click on the camera, which is after 13 11.6, is F 14 and F 11.9 is only one click away from F 16 so you raise your strokes a little bit . Urine F 16 some people say, and that's also true that you can set your light meter. Also on one, tourists often f stop, and that's 100% correct. However, those one tourists often f stop are sometimes confusing because you see something like 6.3 point two and it will confuse people. And some cameras don't happen after teen but in F 12 So, in my opinion, it's always better to set your camera on. One tourist often afs up, of course, but your light meter on full F stops, meaning you go from F 11 all the way up to F 16 6. Chapter 3 : incident and reflective, how to: okay, And this chapter, the difference between metering incident or reflective. Now, when you do an incident meter reading, it's very important to realize this is what we use in studio the most times for the very simple reason you meet a ring light falling onto your subject. So if I am the subject, I will meet her actually very close to my face. Press the button and a death point. I will get a meter reading that meter reading you put into your camera and a death point. You have proper exposure. Now make very sure that you meet her very close to your subject. Because if you meet her like this for your subject and I'm the subject, that doesn't work because the light will fall off over the distance. Something called again for square law and will actually get an improper exposure. Now, reflective meter reading will always give you to failure for 18% Grey Middle gray. So how do we calculate white or black background using a reflective meter reading? It's actually very simple. If you've seen the trick, you will go like That's easy Now remember that when you using a reflective meter reading it always gives you to fail you for 18% gray. If you use an incident meter reading, it gives you the correct value. So if we have a model in front off any background, but let's say Middle White. So it's not pure white but middle white. If there's something like made a white, of course we for model there now we want a proper exposure on a model. What we do is we used the incident meter reading very close to the face. And at that point, let's say we have an exposure off F eight. Now if I put my camera on F eight, I will have a proper exposure of my model. Now I need to know what the background does. So I will go to the location where a shoot from and meter to backgrounds reflective. Now, if I also get a value for F eight on the background, that actually means that when I shoot my model, the model will be properly exposed and the background will be 18% gray. Because I have a reflective F eight and I have incident F eight now wanted background to be pure white. Well, you always have to remember that we work in stops with light, and every time we enter stop, it actually means we double the amount of light. You can calculate it very easily. If I go from 18% gray, one step up its 36. Another step up its 72 another step up is actually 144. 144 is way above 100. So we normally save who on a white background. We actually at 2.5 stops. If you want to go to black, it's also very easy. You divide the numbers so we go from 18 to 9 to 4.5, 2.21 point one and let's say 4.5 stops down will actually give you pure black. So using the reflective meter, you can very, very simple. See how far you are often your dynamic range and how to create something that's pure black . But what's more important, that still shows detail and something that's pure white and doesn't show any detail without Overblowing your model because you're over exposing the backgrounds. So that's the difference between incidents and reflective 7. Chapter 4 : where to point the lightmeter: in this part. I want to explain to you something. That's what we look online. You will. Actually, you won't get anything out of this because there so many people telling you different things. So this is probably one of the most important parts of the video. Where do you point a meter to be pointed towards the light source. Do you pointed towards the camera? Do you pointed towards a pretty lady? Where? Where do you point that thing? Well, a lot of the confusion actually, why you shouldn't use a light meter is because people don't know how it works. What did the US An incident? Light meter. Is it meters, The light falling on your subject? Meaning If you want a shirt and part of your subject to be correctly lit, that's where you hold your life. Mentoring from off in the studio, this often means towards the light source. So in this case, the lights was restrain in front of me. If I want, this part of my face will be correctly lit. I will aim. It works my light source, press the button, get a proper reading. And at that point, after proper exposure now Let's say we do something else. We go outside and we use the sun or a stroke, and we want this side of the model to be correctly lift and stroke is on that side. In this instance, we actually meet her towards two stroke. But light is everywhere, especially outside wheels of sunlight. So you have to realize that light isn't only coming from the sun. It's all around the model. So if you want this part off our model to be correctly lived because, for example, sees looking this way, we actually meet a towards that's Bart off our model. In other words, there's the sun. If we want to spark correct, you need a like this. So the model we're looking to the sun if the model looks that way, you were actually mere this part, and I will now show you two example photos we made with Maria model outside, and you can see that the shadows are lighter on the second image and darker on the first image. You also see that Murray actually looks the other way in both images. So one image I'm meter towards the sun. The other image I actually needed towards the shadow side. So always remember the part of your model or subject. You want correctly lit that's wearing front of who you hold a light meter and you aim towards the light hitting debt part and it shouldn't always be destroyed for the sun. In most cases, if you're really confused and you don't know it anymore, always aimed towards the light source because then you certainly no, you're for proper exposure on that side. But you can play with this and get some really nice effects. So now I already show. Choose quick example. Where do you point your light meter? But you will always get a lot of people say, Well, you can always point which the camera you can point towards the light source. And even if you tell him what I just told you, they will still say you have to do it differently. So I thought, You know what? How can I show you very quickly how to point your light meter? It's very simple. In the studio. I would actually always point towards my main light source and never towards the camera outside. It depends on where you want your life to hit your model. If the sun is behind me and I want this part of her face to be correctly lit, I will actually aim that way. Although the sun is behind her now in the studio, you often use directional light, meaning the light from a light source. Now, in this case, I'm using a one meter Octa from El Ingram with the light was create to get a really focused image on my model. You have to remember that light force off over the distance, right? Something called me in for a square law, meaning if my model and the distance to the lights or stays exactly the same, the exposure off the light hitting my model should be exactly the same. The problem is that if I would point towards the camera and I will start moving around starting here, going all the way here and shooting here, the exposure of my life meter will change. For example, it'll meter F 11 F eight, maybe 2.8. That's actually impossible because the distance between my lights or some a model, it's the same. My model will be standing here, and I'm shooting a portrait off my model looking straight into the light source. If you meet her towards the light source with your light meter, you'll get a proper exposure. Doesn't matter where you are in studio. The story changed. Of course, if your model also moves around because if you light sources over there and you're over there shooting and your model looks that way now, you would actually point towards the camera because you want this part of her face to be correctly lit. But in the studio environment, that doesn't make any sense because we only used his lights or so this will blow outsides of your model, and here you will probably have 2.8 or 1.1 point four to get a proper exposure. So in death case, if you want that light set up, he would actually add another light on this side. So outside we have something called a Me and Light. It's everywhere. So before example, the sun behind our model and you still have a me and light to light the model in the studio . When we use one light source, especially with the grit, and it's a really focused light source, it doesn't make any sense to point towards the camera with your meter. You point towards the light source again. Many words. What's way? Better used to just show you guys. So we're gonna bring in my own again. We're gonna show you what happens if I walk around my model and if I use the media to correct way. Okay. So now, according to some, you shoot always aimed the light meter towards the camera. Right? And I just explained you why you shouldn't do it. So I'm going to show you with our model minimum. Now let's say I'm shooting from there. This is the light meter, my cameras over there. So I'm aiming towards the camera and I got a meter reading off F 11 meaning if I'm shooting from there, I'm shooting on f 11. The model is perfectly exposed. Now let's say I'm shooting from there from the camera position. Where on a week standing now. So I have to point to where it's the camera. Oh, my phenomenon. 8.4 Now let's say I'm shooting from death position and I'm 4.0 Fife, meaning the exposure changes. Of course, when I changed the angle. But I want proper exposure on all sites off my model. And the distance between my model and the light source is equal. So let's see what happens if I'm not changing anything about the lighting, But I'm just shooting on f 11 and I'm gonna move around my model. Okay, so now I'm shooting from this angle. Okay. Look at me, please. Very nice. Awesome. I'm going to change my position. I'm gonna shoot from here really nice. And I get a lot more contrast. Look towards the light source, please. Very cool. And I'm gonna change my position to here and look to its light source, please. Very nice. Awesome. Look, a little bit more down. Perfect. Now, as you can see, I'm walking around my model and on all positions, I have to proper exposure on her face. But watch this. She's looking into the light source. So for me, it's actually always when my model looks into the light source I a my light meter towards the light source. If you want proper exposure all around my model, I will meet it towards my life sores. If I want my model Toby looking that way I have to change my light. So I will at another light source and point towards dead light source. So for the studio, remember, In 99% of the cases, you point towards the light source because if you move around your model, you don't want your exposure to change. The model should be correctly lit on all positions. 8. Chapter 5 : Shooting against a white seamless: now in this segment, we gonna light the white backgrounds. Now I have white seamless behind me, Just normal paper. And what do you used to light the white background. Now you have those special reflectors that are actually labeled background reflectors, and I tried them in their awesome. They're very, very cool. But I found out that thes reflectors are actually way better, and these are normally used for the L. Ingram fiery star system. And what they do is they make a very white beam of light, so it spreads out the light over a very large area. Now, if I used two of these and they're relatively cheap, they're much cheaper than a background reflector. And if I used to, I can light up the whole background behind me very evenly. So check out these and if you don't have an l Ingram system, check out if they have something similar. But you need a very wide beam of light. Okay, so this is a set of I'm going to use. I'm going to use a one meter deep okta from Ellen groom with a lighters, grit, and I'm using the two delights on the back and remember this. It's very important for me to have high contrast in my image. So even if I shoot with white background, I don't want a big light source. I still like to really focus my life on the model. So that's why I'm using the one meter with grit. And the two background lights are aimed towards the centre off the backgrounds. So when I'm now gonna meet her the background on reflective mode, I can very easily make sure that the background is evenly lit from left to right and from top to bottom. Okay, I want to meet it backgrounds reflective. So I'm gonna turn the dial and you will actually now see here that I'm using reflective instead of incidents so that I'm using this setting. You can now see that I'm using the dough when I twist this one. I can now see that I'm using reflective. Now, this is different on every light meter. Sometimes you have to put on an attachment. But for this light meter, it's just simply turning this down. Okay, now I'm gonna meet backgrounds. Now, the media ring off the background will be done in reflective mouth. This is very simple to explain when you meet her, your model use incident metering, meaning the light hitting your dome will actually be the exposure you set your camera to write. If you want to meet it of backgrounds and, you know 100% certain it's a white background like here, you could woke up to the backgrounds ultra light meter in front of it. And, of course, use incidents need a reading because the light hitting the backgrounds because the background is white will actually be the proper exposure. But sometimes the background is with 100% white, so reflective meter reading. It's way better now. As I explained in the peace before, If you use reflective metering, it will give you a value for 18% gray, meaning If an hour meter the background like this, I will get a meter reading off 16.1, meaning if I shoot on 16 my background will be 18% great. I don't want it to be 18% gray. I wanted to be 100% pure white. That's a very simple calculation. If you have 18% gray and you at one more stop, you have 36%. Great if you had another one, you have 72 if you had another one, you have 144 so you can round it up a little bit. If you go to and 1/2 stops over, you will have a pure white backgrounds. But the first thing, of course. You have to determine what I'm going to shoot my mother Long. Am I going to shoot my model on F 8 11 or F 16? Because it's very important because that's how you calculate. So let's say I'm going to shoot my model on F eight I now, if reflective 16 meaning I'm already two stops over. I only need to aet half a stop to the background, and then I have half a stop extra on the background. I will have a pure white backgrounds. I use a remote control in my light meter, so I'm going to use 1234 because I was on 16.1. Cinnamon 16.5 model will be on F eight incident. My background will be 16.5 reflective, so let's see if that's true. There we are on 16.3 16.3, 16.4 and 16.3. So let's add a little bit more. 12 tree a little bit over. It's no problem one to three four. And how pretty confident that all around my model will be covered by pure white backgrounds . But it's important now that I put my model incident meter reading on F eight. Okay, so now we have our model man in here with a nice hit. Very cool. And remember the background for some 16.5 reflective. So I need to meet a monem 2.5 stops down. And of course, I already knew that. So we already said the light up for F eight. But always check this because I'm using the light really close because I love that high contrast look. So if your model comes on the set re meter So here we go under the chin off the model towards the light source and I for meter reading off 5.69 So I will just at one little click on Strope, and there we go F 8.0, and now it can take a shot off my model and I'm 100% sure the background will be pure white without Overblowing the background and my model will be properly exposed. So let's take some shots and let's look at the background. There we go. Very nice minimum. Look straight into the camera. Cool, nice, Awesome. And as you can see, I'm always talking to my model. I'm always coaching because I wanted to feel comfortable in front of my camera. And if you coach constantly see will feel comfortable and you will get the best shots. And, of course, he's wearing a coat and she can play a little bit with the code. That's nice. Awesome. Love that expression. Very cool. We go nice, and as you can see, we have a beautiful white backgrounds. We have beautiful, properly exposed model, and we have absolutely no lens flare because the background is actually over exposed. Now, why is it important to get that background so properly exposed and not, Let's say, let's put four stops on it or five. The problem is, if you put too much light on your white background, it'll start acting as a light source, and you will lose all the details in the hair because actually, there's way too much light coming from the back. You also get something called lens flare because the background is so reflective you will get the light from the background in your lens, and it will actually destroy your blacks. Or, in other words, it will wash out your image. If you use the reflective meter perfectly, you will one have perfectly exposed why background to there will be no lens flare show. You will have perfect contrast in your images. And three. You keep all the details in the hair off the model, so make sure that you get your backgrounds perfectly exposed. Now on some cameras like the Sony you actually lead. Need a little bit more than 2.5 stops because these cameras have so much dynamic range that on top, you need half a stop more so for the video actually did 2.5 stops, but when I'm shooting it myself, I will actually use approximately three stops on a Sony sensor. If you shooting with the canon or Nikon with non Sony sensor, you'll probably have more than enough with 2.5 stops. But just experiment a little bit in photo shop or light room. You sure history, Graham, and see if the white background is actually over. Explosion correctly remembered the stops you used to get that effect and then use that the next time, use your white background. 9. Chapter 6 : trick with white background: So let's do a little trick with a white background and where to point the light meter. And this one you're gonna love. I explained before you point your life meter in front of the area that you want properly exposed, right? So some people will say if the point towards the camera other people will say if the point towards the light source in essence, in the studio, it's mostly towards the light source. But in this case, I want to do something that's a little bit different. As you can see, my non is standing in front of a white seamless, and I now removed my front light. So manana is actually not led by any light from the front. I'm only using the back lights. My camera position will be approximately on the weakest standing now with the video camera . So I'm probably having Well, I think her face has to be properly exposed. So what I'm gonna do is I'm actually gonna hold my light meter in front of her face. I'm pointing it towards the camera because one decide off her face to be correctly lit. All the light from the background will now skater around in studio and I will get a properly exposed model without any lights on the front. And what will happen with the background? You'll get a beautiful wraparound effect. And of course, you will lose all the detail in her hair short in my home. But it will get a really cool affected will get a little bit of a washed out look. Well, you know what? I can talk for hours about the look. I would just show you This is a really cool trick for some portrait. So I'm going to use incident meter reading, and I'm just gonna aim it in the front. So I got a problem. I got a meter reading a 1.44 and I don't know if a 1.4 lens on my camera at the moment, I'm gonna raise two strokes. I'm going to use that by the remote control in my meter. Normally have to go to your strokes and raise the power in this case of a module inside a meter. And I can do it by manual, you know, just go up a lot. I went out on 4.3 now, 4.3 as I explained before, is F four and one step up. But let's make it simple. Let's go. Three down. 123 So now I want at four. Here we go. So now have a shoot on F four and I'm aiming at her face. Her face should be properly exposed, right? With what happens to the background. Well, I'll show you now. Okay, so here we go. One on. Give me a big expression. Really nice. Play a little bit with your head. That's nice. Play a little bit with your hair. Awesome. And can you do something with your coat again? Really nice. Cool. And I always focus on our closest. I make the conversation and then shoot. Very nice. And as you can see, the background is really repping around my model. Giving me a really cool look. Nice. Awesome. Thank you very much. 10. Chapter 7: detail in black: okay for this part, I'm gonna show you how to keep detailed in your blacks. Now. We previously showed you how to get a perfectly white background by using reflective metering. I'm not going to do the same thing, but a tip to get detail and to keep detail in the blacks. Now I've set up something that I really like. We have this nice background were for Model Monem, and she's wearing relatively dark clothing. Now I want to see a lot off the clothing. But I also wanted really nice spot effect on her face from using a beauty dish with grits on Anel Ingram unit. And I'm first going to just meter it like I would normally shoot it with one light source. And then later on, I'm gonna show you a tip How to keep your details in the black. So I'm using incident meter reading, holding it in front of her face, aim it towards the light source in this case, and I get a meter reading off F 16 meaning if I set my camera on F 16 I s 0 100 I will get a properly exposed model. So let's first take a test shot with only this one light source, and you will see the result. And what you will also see is that we have a rabbit light fall off due to the grit. So we're using a lot of light on her face. But on the bottom part of the model, there will be no light at all, meaning it will be totally dark. And later on, we gonna feel that in. I'm gonna show you how to do that with reflective metering. Okay, so this is the first set up. I'm only using one light source. Very nice. Okay. As you can see, it's really dark. Okay, so now you see the image and it's really cool. High contrast lighting. I love the light fall off. But let's say I want a little bit more detail in the blacks. You can, of course, do this in photo shop, but it will take a lot of time, and sometimes you will at noise and well, it's just not nice. You know, my mother wife fake it when you can create it, right? So if there was a way to just open up those shadows just a little bit, wouldn't it be much nicer? Well, of course there is. You can add a second light source, but how do you meet? It is You can, of course, use the Polaroid on the back off your camera, but just simply looking at the back and see if there's detail. But that's not a correct way to do this, because that is actually not a good representation of how the light is actually working. If you have a light meter, it's very simple to do. You remember when we did the white background? It was 2.5 stops over right, because 18 to 36 to 72 toe 100. Now, if you go down, you will actually end up, Let's say about 1%. So if you go from 18 we'll go to 9 4.5 to point to 1.0. And let's say after 4.5 stops, there will be no detail left. This is the fun part about using a reflective meter. The reflective meter will always give you to value for 18% gray, and from there you can calculate now. In this case, of course, I don't want all the detail in the bottom part of her clothing to go totally dark. I want have a little bit of detail. So if I noted at 4.5 stops down, everything will be gone. I also know that if I stay around Trian and Hollow Trina half four, I will actually still get detailed. And that's where the reflective meter reading is Awesome. Because now we'll show you how to very quickly set this up. And your clients will love this. They will think you're a magician because they see black. You add an extra light and boom. Everything is perfect. Walda photographers. They have to do it on the history Graham or on the back off the camera and will take him a lot of work. And with a meter, it's just 123 and you're done. So let's see how we meet. It is okay, So I started, of course, on incident meter reading because I want my model to be properly exposed, right, So the dome and I'm gonna twist to go to reflective meter reading. Now the only thing I have to do is meter around the black area. So for clothing where I don't like the light fall off. So I'm going to choose the black area in their hands because her hands I actually want in the frame. So can you hold your hands like you're posting normally? That's very nice. So she's holding her hands, actually, a little bit more up. So I'm gonna meet her slightly below on our clothing that we go now. As you can see, all my life meter actually get a value off you. I always call This is a joke. Extreme under exposed. In other words, the meter doesn't register these. So I have a problem. There's absolutely no detail there, and we already shot it on the picture should Now I'm gonna add a light source. But which lights or should I add? If I had a small light source, I will actually introduce something called double shadows. And I don't want this. I want to introduce a very, very large soft box. In this case, I'm going to use the 1.5 meter indirect doctor from Ellen Groom and I'm gonna use it under the same angle as my main light source to minimize the effect which you will see on the picture off double shadows, for example. If I would use it on the other side of the model, she would have won shadow site falling that way, and there will be a very, very slight shadow falling the other way. In other words, you have to shadows and I don't like that. So I'm going to use the 1.5 meter now under the same angle as my main lights. Or so let's set it up. Okay, so now if the 1.5 meter rock time and I'm aiming it under the same angle, that's my beauty dish on my model. The only thing and I have to do is use a reflective meter reading and make sure that they're still detail in the lower part of her clothing. Remember, I'm shooting her on F 16 so let's say I aim for four stops down because 4.5 stops down will be no detail. So for F 16 we go. One stopped down to F 11 F 85.64 meaning if I meet or something over there, that's four stops lower. I will still have detail. Okay, so I put it on the reflective meter reading, and we're gonna meet her, the darker Sparta for clothing. At the moment, I'm getting a meter reading off 2.86 on that side and 2.3 on that side. I want to go to F four. Remember, if I would now be shooting on F four, I would get 18% gray. But because I'm shooting on F 16 I will get a little bit of detail there. So this might be confusing. Yeah. So incident meter reading on my model is F 16. I still want detail over there. If I use reflective metering, it will give me a value for 18% gray debt value should be four stops down from my main exposure. So F 16 incidents and then I will still have detailed. So I'm now on 2.86 meaning I have to raise this trope 4/10 of an f stop. So I'm gonna meet her some areas on her clothing to make absolutely sure that I'm around that f four. But as you can see, there's a little bit of shine on our clothing, so I will try to aim for the darkest areas. And that's why I love this iconic 758 because it has a one degree spot, meaning I can really pinpoint where a meter. So first the darkest area. And I'm now on 2.88 That's about a four and now a little bit of a lighter area. I met 4.9 That's about 5.6, meaning if I take the shot now, she will be nicely. Let and I will get some detail from our dark loading. There's only one thing you do have to realize, because I'm adding another light source. This light source will also get a little bit brighter. Well, that light source won't be brighter, but the area that this light sources actually lighting will be a little bit brighter because now I have two light sources together. So make sure that you turn to your incident meter reading again, go to your model and check that it's still F 16 and in this case it's around F 16 so that's perfect. So we can still shoot on F 16 and get a nice pro. Poor exposure on both my model and the darks came in on looking to the light, please. Because I want those gets lights in your eyes. Beautiful. Really nice. Awesome. That's cool. Nice. His chin down just a little bit. Perfect. Nice little bit of a smile like you're having fun. Awesome. Cool. And as you can see, the light full of is now perfectly just the way I wanted. High contrast. But I still if all the detail in the dark loading where I want it I was very simple to set up a You can see I don't need to double check on my computer. I just trust the meter. Very cool. Thank you. 11. Chapter 8 : which lightmeter to buy: So in this chapter, I want explain to you which light meter to buy well, these you can find on eBay, Greg's list or whatever for very little money. But I wouldn't buy him anymore. They're fun to a display, but it's it's no use in the studio anymore. So one off the biggest brands is so iconic. And actually I use the meters from so iconic and you have several meters that are interesting. This one. This is, ah, touch display meter. It's very modern, and it's very nice. You get some explanation on the display, and it's a very, very first it'll meter, and this is my personal favorite. This is the 758 from so iconic, and it's an only one meter. And that's one of the things that I want to stress with you guys. Some meters are a little bit cheaper than this one. This is the high end model. There's also wanting. You have to realize as soon as you start working with the light meter and you start understanding what's reflective metering can do, and I will explain that in the next chapter you wanna have a light meter that has a so called spot meter option or, in other words, reflective because you can meet her black backgrounds or white backgrounds. For this one, you need an extra attachment, and it it's up to the price you mounted on here, and you can do a spot metering. But the spot meter isn't one degree. It's a little bit wider if you have disliked needed 758 You actually twist taken, looked through it and you have spot meter off one degree. And that's very narrow, meaning I can stand on my own location and needed a background behind my model. And it gives me very, very acreage readings and something I can calculate with very fast. Calculate these two together or you calculate this one. This one is actually probably a little bit cheaper. Plus, you don't have to change attachments and you can't lose the attachments. So let's in the next chapter. Look at what's the difference between incidents and reflective metering 12. Chapter 9 : setting the lightmeter for outside: So how are we going to set up the light meter for outside use? The first thing you have to realize is that your camera has actually too much TV mode or a V mode for outside TV mode is shot a priority, meaning you set the shutter, speeds your eyes so and the camera will calculate the temperature Yours off a V mode, Meaning you set the effort here for the depth of field you want and a camera will determined shutter speed. The light meter has exactly the same. You press the moat and you go to the sun mode. The first thing you will see is F stop, meaning you can set the F stop, and if you press the bottom, it will give you the proper time. In this case, it's early it off a second on Aiso 100 to get the proper exposure on 2.8. But of course, you can also use the time remote. Let's say on a shoot on a 125th off a second, which epicure shoot? I said. You press the test. You can see here I have to shoot on Apertura off 1.4. Now let's say you don't have the lens with 1.4, but you have in their four lens. Now you can calculate, of course, what shoot You set your I s 04 to get a four. But if you don't calculate that fast, you can also do it, which relied me to you. Just press I s O and you can actually change the I s o Until you see a four. I see a four and I know that have to shoot on. I show eight hundreds. The fun part about this Iconix is actually that you can use to ourselves. For example, I said this one on ice or 100 and I show too. I said on I so eight hundreds now can very quickly see on 125th of a second. I need 1.4 on I saw 100 but on I s 02 I have the same settings. But now for I s 0 800 so you can calculate this very fast. The fun part is also if you don't want to shoot on 125th but you still want to shoot on ice or 100 you can do the same thing with shutter speed. He just lower the shutter speed until you see 2.8. And in our case we need a four so need to shoot on 1/15 off of seconds for a four. So it's very easy to use your light meter outside. So let's go with our model outside and let's see what we can do. OK, now we're outside and it's rather windy. And let's say we want to take a shut off our model monem and want to do it outside now. What you would normally do, of course, is set your camera on a V mode right EPA trip priority because you know the depth of field you want in a shot like this. In my case, I would love to have 2.8 of a really nice, shallow depth of field, and the camera will determine to shutter speed. I'm shooting on ice or 102.8, and we'll just let the camera do the rest. A minute can stand against the vector up. It's a little bit wet, so don't stand again. It's just very nice and focus on closest I and make the shelf on 2.8 and I get a relatively okay exposure. However, if I wanted the perfect exposure, I'm still going to use my light meter. Now outside, you can do exactly the same thing as inside. Of course. Use incident meter reading, making sure that you get the proper exposure on your model. The only thing I have to change now is have to go to the sun modes. So turn my dial to son and I have two options that are importance shutter priority or aperture. Priority. Ineptitude Priority. I actually set the aperture I want to use in this case. 2.8, and my light meter will give me the proper shutter speeds. So there we go. We go to exposure and we go to my F stop 2.8. I'm going to meet her. The area I want correctly lit and I get exposure reading off 125th at 2.8. Meaning if I put my camera on 2.8 125th manual mode, I will get a proper exposure. So let's see if that really works. Shouldn't go on, go to 125th. 2.8 s 0 100 Very nice. That's cool. That's really nice. Okay, thank you. And I have a proper exposed model. The fun part about this is that if you have high contra sliding and now it's very flat and win the But if you have a very high contrast lighting, let's say in bright some this is way more accurate than a V mode or TV modes and again on the light meter, it's very simply just aimed towards the area you want correctly lit. So in this case, the front of her face, You aim that way and shoots from here, and the front of her face is correctly. Let's. But of course we want to play a little bit more because I love the moody sky. So let's bring out some strokes and see how we can balance daylights well, what's left of daylight and strop's to get a really high contrast image. Okay, so now we're for model minimum. We have a beautiful dark backgrounds, and I want to have a really nice day to night feel now. Normally, people would set it up like this. They will just meet a stroke and it will just shoot it and we'll see what happens. That takes a lot of time. What you can better do is use the same tricks with a light meter again. Now, the one thing I want is a really dark sky. So what I can do is with reflective metering, I can actually go to the sun modes. And now I know that the limitation off my camera for strokes is 125th off seconds. So I'm gonna spoke meter, sky. So let's see what happens. And I'm on a time mode off 125th. So it will give me the aperture for 125th of a second. I s 0 100 Okay. Now gives me the reading off 8.6 If I would be shooting on 8.6 that's two clicks up from F eight or one click down from F 11 11 18% gray sky. I don't want it. 18% gray. I wanted to really dark, so if we wanted really dark, I'm gonna add, let's say two extra stops. So I'm going to shoot. Not on F 11 not on F 16 but I'm gonna try to shoot around F 22. That's a lot of light. I'm gonna put on my model. Now. I know for sure that the background will be really dark, probably too dark. The fun part of shooting outside is that you have a me and lights combined with Strop's, and I can very easily play with this. If I set it up for the darkest possible shut I would ever take on 125th I could still change my shutter speeds. The epicure is controlled by my stroke, so that will be F 22. But if I look at my image and I say, well, it's a little bit too dark, I can still shake. Change my shutter speed, Let's say to 1/60 or 30th 2 lettingme or off the available light so your temperature issue strope. Your shutter speed is actually the aim being light. So get the darkest possible readings or, in my case, F 22 eyes a 100 to get it sky really dark. And if you look on your computer, if you shoot tear it or on the back of your screening, say, Well, this is way to dark change. You shut us be to let in more off the Amy and Light, and this trope will stay exactly the same because that's a fixed pulse. So it's really short. Okay, so let's put this one on F 22 for our baseline. We go. There's one other tip. How do I know if the model is in the hot spot off the light, right? Because he has to be in the hot spot because that gives me the most amount of light. At this point, I'm using an L Ingram moxie light with a great If I want to make sure that my model is in the hospital, the only thing I have to do is ask her. Okay, look straight to the great. Sure, I don't have to angle the light cool, because if she can look straight through the great, you know she's in the hot spot because the great will actually block off light and make sure that the beam gets narrower. If you can look straight through, seize in the middle, so that saves you a lot of time on location to set up your lights from now on. 11.7123 And now in F 16 and I'm gonna add another 10 clicks. There we go. And I won't have 22. I will re meet her and f 22. Thank you, Lynn. The only thing I have to do it said my camera on F 22 many remote I s 0 100 a shutter speed of 125th. And make sure, of course, that I include some off the sky because that's my main point to make the sky really dark. So why don't they look a little bit into the light? Really nice. Awesome. That's cool. So now shut two shots on 125th of a second and the sky is really dark. It's a really nice day to night feeling you can still see the sky because I'm not 4.5 stops down, but it's really dark. So now let's play with the shutter speed a little bit. So now, actually going to go down to 1/60 offer seconds. That's really nice. Cool. And now you can see a lot more detail in the sky. I know. Let's go to it. Serious to lettingme or ambient light and mine owners and calls. Yeah, we go. Awesome. That's really nice. Thank you. You can see you control your shutter speed for the Amy and Light. Um, picture for this tropes. If you spoke meter do backgrounds, you make sure that they're still detailed. You can go date tonight, but let's say 2.5 3 stops. But I normally used to for these kind of skies because they're really how do you call it Moody? 13. Chapter 10 : app and Yashica: now showed you almost everything on the table except this one. But we'll get to death one later, and you also see an iPhone and my own personal favourite old camera. My Yeah, chicha. Now let me start with the iPhone in the iPhone. Believe it or not, there's also a light meter EP. You can download it, and it's very, very cool. If, for example, he used an old film camera and who doesn't have a light meter, you can actually use your iPhone as a light meter. Do remember. It's a reflective light meter, but it's very accurate. It's very cool, and it's a nap that's free. So that's always good, because I'm Dutch, right? So if it's free, it's Oh, shoring anyway, So use the app in your iPhone. There's also a little get shit now for the iPhone. It's a little device you put into your headphone. You actually have an incident light meter, and it works pretty well. It's not a screw this this Iconix, because you have to start up your iPhone. Start up the ad putting something in your headphones and, well, I just like the normal live near now. Do you, Sheikha camera. I love to shoot film. I always say to people in my work, I'm a 99% digital photographer, but in my heart I'm a 100% and look photographer. I just love shooting film, and mostly I love shooting film on the street. Now I bought this camera because it's just awesome. It's a very, very nice camera. 26 by six medium format camera shooting film gives you a ridiculous amount off resolution if you scan it correctly. But there's one problem with most of these cameras. There is no light meter insight, and yes, Sheikha actually has a light meter in sight. So that's why I bought a year, Sheikha. So if you're looking for a great film camera and you love the look off, the twin reflects get one of two years she got. You get a light metering side in the next chapter, I'm going to show you how to celebrate your life meter because trust me, that's also very important 14. Chapter 11 : why calibrate and Colochecker: Okay, so now let's talk a little bit about calibrating the light meter, because if you buy it, it's already accurate. But it's not 100% perfect, because every camera is different, right? For example, I'm shooting Sony cameras, and we have something called on National T Mirror Inside. It's not a real mirror, but it's something that's translucent, but it takes away a little bit off light. So if I would use to like me to straight out of the box, I would always get a little bit under exposed images. So that's not the fault of the light meter. But it's actually because I'm using a national team mirror, which takes away a little bit off the light. So I need to calibrate my light meter to my camera house. Iconic has great. So for for this and in this next video, I'm going to show you how to use that so far, and I'm actually going to use something, and I was called this the most important thing off a photographer. It's called the Color Checker Now, normally use this for proper color balance, but also for a proper profile for your camera and the funding is in this iconic so far, You don't need to buy the very expensive targets you can very simple now used to call a checkup passport. So in the following segment, I'm going to show you how to use the color check passport with this iconic so far, and you can see that calibrating your life meter. It's a 123 deal. It's very, very fast. Okay, Now I've set up a very big soft books in this case, the 1.5 meter from El Ingram, and it's aimed straight at my color checker. It's very important that you have a very flat quality off light, so no light fall off. So don't use light from the sites or hard light sources. The biggest light source you can get. And if you don't have big light sources just bounced off the ceiling. I don't care, but it has to be very fled lighting quality. You hold your light meter in front off the color checker and you meet a delight. Okay. Okay. So meter F 11 now in your camera, it's very important that you use the same i e isso. So in my case, I s 0 100 F 11. So in my camera. Now, if I issue a 100 F 11 and shutter time, it's 120 15 seconds. Okay, so you see the big 1.5 meter in the back and don't stand in front of the light. Of course, because then you're blocking the lights will make sure that I'm out of the light and zoom in on your collar checker. Fill the frame as much as possible with the color checker. So I'm going to shoot first on an 11. That's my first shot. And I'm going to go three stops up. So I'm going to go to F 32 gonna take exactly the same shot, and I'm going to go back to F 11 and then I'm gonna go three stops down, so I'm gonna go to F four. I'm gonna take the same shot. Can I have three shots off the color checker? One perfectly exposed. 013 stops higher and 13 stops lower. Gonna load them into this iconic sulfur and show you how to calibrate the light meter. Okay, so we're behind the computer now to create a profile. Now, if you're on a Mac or PC. It doesn't matter. The Sofaer works the same on both systems. You go to the data trends for suffer from psychotic. Now, as soon as it starts up, it will actually do a firmware update check. But in this case, that's okay, because everything is in order, of course now to create a new profile. It's very simple. You just go to create new profile and we're gonna choose to quit mount. You have to choose your targets. In this case, we use the X right call a check of targets. And in my case, it was the passport. Select that one. You press next, you choose the same setting she used during the shoot. So you shoot on. Aperture was 11 and there were no extra digits on the light meter. We got every 11.0. And normally, of course, you also do reflective. Now let's for the test. Just said it's on F 11 now because we didn't do reflective press next. Now it will actually ask you, where are your files? So you go to your desktop. In my case, go to this folder and there they are. Now, you see those RJ pecs, and this is very important. And you really have to listen to this because this will actually determine if your calibration is correct or not. If you're a light room user and you go into Photoshopped straight after light room, your role conversion is done in light room. If you're Anapa to use when you go from aperture to photo shop, euro conversion is done by a picture. So my case I'm using D XO or capture one, and these shots were actually processed in Get you one. It's very, very important that you choose the same settings you normally use when going into Photoshopped. So if you're using a linear occur for all your shots, keep the linear curve. If you used the General Nick profile for your A seven are or any other camera, use death profile. If you don't know what I'm talking about at the moment, don't even bother way that just create shape X. Now make sure that you crop him already in your or comforter and straight him out because it makes works a little bit easier. In this case, we created J picks Adobe RGB. He's so you go to open and it will now show you this three color checkers Now, because there are no other J picks in the folder, there are no other images here. Normally, there will be more images in there and you just select three shots you took for calibration and press next. Now what you have to do is make sure that the sulfur knows where to look. So you press on the 1st 1 You take these markers, they put him into corners. No, that's what he's one. It is better to shoot something like this from a tripod because then the markets will be already dinner. You go perfect. Now, press next, it will measure and calculate. And now you can see the whole curve and the dynamic range with the camera. According to the so fair and you press safe, you just give it a profile name. In my case, a seven are and press OK. The light meter is now connected for USB and as you can see, we have number 123 Current profiles in the camp in the light meter are actually camera one default to entry. Now, if this one the new one, so the only thing I have to do is select that one and just put it in. Number one pressed a button transfer to light meter, and at that point it will actually override the profile in my light meter on number one. And now, if the A seven, our profile on number one, I have still to left, for example, for other cameras. Or if you have a lens that differs from other lenses in exposure you can use does, of course, for those lances. 15. Chapter 12 : how to trigger the lightmeter: Okay, So how do you trigger the light meter? Well, they're three different ways. The first thing you can do is build a controller inside your meter. So in death case, you just press the button and strokes will fire. So you, if your exposure the other one and it's very simple to do, you just press moat and you go to your cable release. Now you need a cable that runs from your meter to delight. Source. I'm not going to show you that one. The other one. That's the lighting bolt itself. Now you need a separate controller in this case, have an extra sky port. And what I now conduce I pressed the button. Now it Chris, the sky port and a stroke will fire an amenable register. So if you don't have a meter that supports your trigger system, it's very simple to just do it with separate trigger. The media will wait for this trope. I just fired it right. There's no stroke. Now I have to stroke and my meter will give the correct exposure. Now, if you using a small flesh system with same thing works in this case I for forex, Odin system and I just compress the test button on this one and my small strokes will fire and amenable registered a stroke. So whatever way you want it, you can trigger you meet are very simple. 16. End titles: