jvue wrote:
Get a light meter. Saves you time from trial and error. You'll be thankful - especially when you're rushed through a shoot.
i dont believe in light meters unless you still shoot 35mm. at times i have 7 shoots a day throughout a whole state and never did i need to use a light meter bc i was in a rush.
Thats Fresh wrote:
i dont believe in light meters unless you still shoot 35mm. at times i have 7 shoots a day throughout a whole state and never did i need to use a light meter bc i was in a rush.
I'm not sure where you're getting this from. In 15 years of shooting, when working with lighting gear, I've never seen a light meter increase the time a shoot or setup takes...it's been totally the opposite. You remove all the time spent on trial-and-error, shooting a test frame and adjusting exposure and shooting a test frame and adjusting exposure and shooting a test frame...with a light meter you meter the scene and set the camera, fire a single frame to check it, then move on. How can that possibly take longer?
Thats Fresh wrote:
i dont believe in light meters unless you still shoot 35mm. at times i have 7 shoots a day throughout a whole state and never did i need to use a light meter bc i was in a rush.
Using a light meter has little to do with shooting film (if that's what you meant by 35mm). A meter is instant feedback as to what to set you camera to and you're done. Whereas using your camera's LCD you have to continue to tweak AND you do not get the exact exposure. LCD is more of a "guess what looks good" on tiny monitor thing. Don't get me wrong, I use my LCD too, but I find that the meter is more accurate and faster.
Rico, just out of curiosity, but what's the second catchlight in your subject's eyes and the edge-light on the back of his arm? Does the gold Litepanel leave that defined a reflection and that sharp a light? I've only used the white/translucent ones, so I'm used to thinking of them as very soft and diffuse modifiers.
I bought a Litepanel kit from B&H, including three fabrics: White/Silver, SoftGold/White, and Translucent. The SoftGold is a mix of gold and white surfaces arranged in a 50% pattern, and the effect is a bit schizophrenic. The tall panel invites unexpected effects: at the correct incident angle, a specular quality is exhibited with the golden tone (smaller catchlight, darker side of head), otherwise you get a softer and whiter light (back of the arm). Here's an illustrative crop at 1x scale from the same group:
... Scratch the schizophrenic remark, I was confused. The SoftGold surface is half gold, half silver, so the specular effect is 100%.
