Light Metering Basics: What is a spot meter?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ธ.ค. 2018
- This scene is an excerpt from a Light Metering Video: • The Ultimate Guide to ...
Spot meters read reflectance and try to expose to middle gray. In this video, I'll cover how the spot meter works and how I use it to calibrate my camera/meter's perception of middle gray.
Win a Sekonic L-858 Speedmaster
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HUGE THANKS TO MY AWESOME CAST/CREW
B camera: Jeremy Le
C camera: George Mentchoukov
AC: Fausto Darquea
AC: Tyler Stefanelli
Stills: Mike Paragas
Grip: Blake Gilmore
Grip: Shane-Mark Gallo
Audio: Q
Model: Savanah Joeckel
Model: Danny Shepherd
Gear used in this video:
Sekonic L-858 (Light Meter): amzn.to/2Bp5BtR
ColorChecker Video (Color chip/grayscale): bhpho.to/2FFfWWp
Camera
Sony FS7 (A, B, C camera): bhpho.to/2FDOsAA
a7R III (D camera): bhpho.to/2FPV4vE
128GB XQD (FS7 media): bhpho.to/2FH4Lg9
Metabones Speedbooster (Lens adapter): bhpho.to/2FDrA4o
FS7 Extension Unit (Timecode Generator): bhpho.to/2FH3rdb
Tentacle Sync E (Timecode Generator): bhpho.to/2FIgGKx
Wooden Camera UMB-1 (Matte box): bhpho.to/2FHOlEa
Schneider RHOdiums (ND .3-2.1): bhpho.to/2FHth0r
HyperCore 150 Gold Mount (camera batteries): bhpho.to/2FFf2t3
Miller CX8 (tripod): bhpho.to/2FHb6rY
Inovativ Scout 42 (camera cart): bhpho.to/2FBfB7c
Monitors
SmallHD 1703 (Production Monitor): bhpho.to/2FDGoQr
SmallHD 703 (7" UltraBright monitor): bhpho.to/2FD43Af
SmallHD 503 (5" UltraBright monitor): bhpho.to/2FPWer0
SmallHD FOCUS (5" on-camera monitor): bhpho.to/2FHa4fA
Atomos Ninja V (4K recorder): bhpho.to/2FE3N40
I like SmallHD...
Audio
Zoom F4 (audio recorder): amzn.to/2S7bwJs
Sennheiser AVX (wireless mic): amzn.to/2FFPcFg
Sanken COS-11D (lavalier mic): bhpho.to/2FDpRvW
Lights
Lowel Rifa eX88 (1K softbox): bhpho.to/2FH0ppe
Aputure 120D (LED light): amzn.to/2TywguX
Aputure 300D (LED light): amzn.to/2TK8HzJ
Butterfly Frame (8x8 diffusion): bhpho.to/2FHaUZM
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I'm not in film school so this channel has been a huge help to my career as a learning DP. This channel was recommended to me by a professional industry DP so I just wanted to thank you for helping me learn industry standard knowledge
Love these!!!
Hell yeah!!! Dude I'm eating breakfast, it's like a series I'm following.
Give me some
What's up Robert! First off - just want to say that I appreciate you putting this out. I've got a couple pages of notes going from your 4-5 light meter videos, and I just want to make sure that I understand why exactly you're using the color checker & spot meter in this video. You're essentially calibrating your camera & meter to accurately work in tandem so that whether you're using the incident meter to check how much light is thrown in a specific direction or spot checking for dynamic range, you're always receiving an accurate result... And you do this because out of the box, even though the meter is meant to project 18% grey, you'll have to calibrate the meter/camera for the most accurate results because every camera sensor reads 18% grey differently?
Appreciate you man! Keep killing it.
That's correct- the meter is calibrated to 18% grey, but different camera sensors/gamma profiles interpret middle grey differently. Any time I use a new camera, I'll shoot a color checker and expose middle grey to the appropriate IRE, then adjust my meter's ISO until the meter matches up with whatever T-stop I'm at. This essentially "calibrates" your meter to your camera.
Thank you!
awesome channel bro. how about you explain how to "expose to the right"?
Did you have to calibrate your light meter to match your camera
Hey Robert, your light meter videos have been so helpful to me the past few weeks, thank you for making them!! Question - I also find that with my FX6 and my Sekonic L-758 Cine meter, if I expose based on my meter, middle grey does not land on 41% IRE. It’s about 1 stop darker. Do you find the same issue from the FS7 persists onto the FX6 and FX9 series, at least when it comes to the Sekonic meter?
Hopefully you can help me with this one.
When using th incident meter, I am getting an f8. But when using spot, I get an f8.7
So I am wondering, is the spot meter not calibrated properly? Shouldnt they both be equal to f8?
I adjusted my spot meter to match the f8, using the +/-5ev setting, but im not sure if thats 100% correct, if the spot meter should match the incident meter
The spot meter is trying to expose whatever it's looking at and trying to bring it to middle grey. Unless you're spot metering something that's middle grey, it will probably be different than the incident meter.
@@robchado i once heard someone saying that comparing his incident meter to it's spot meter and getting similar results is how he knows his light meter is correctly calibrated...
I wonder about that....
So hopefully this isn't a dumb question but this has always stumped me: When do you personally switch between spot and incident metering? i.e. I've always used spot over incident because I was taught the zone system. So if I know I want to film a Caucasian subject at f2.8, I know that key light needs to be f4 since caucasian skin (zone 6) is usually 1 stop higher (or 1 zone higher than middle grey / zone 5). I feel I need to learn something new or change my way of thinking to fully understood incident metering since it's not about reflectance, just the light falling on the dome. I've also used spot because you can meter far off objects or even fire.
Good question! The zone system is great! It's more of a preference; I usually like using the incident meter to "throw" a specific amount of light in a general direction. A lot of times, there's nothing to reflect light from, so the spot meter wouldn't be of much use. I mostly use the spot meter to see where how bright an object is in relation to my dynamic range. I use my f-stop as my reference point, then count however many stops above/below that to figure out if its within my dynamic range. It's also great for metering things that are far away.
@@robchado creepy, I was reading this paragraph as the video was playing and as I read "i use my f-stop as my reference point" you said it at the exact time in the video. WEEEIIRRD
@@robchado Hi Robert, so if my final delivery is going to be rec 709. When I use a spot meter to measure the dynamic range of the object, do I meter for rec 709 dynamic range (+3 and -3) or the camera log profile dynamic range ( let's assume +7 and -7) thanks.
@@byronchang4330 It depends if you plan on grading yourself. If you want to shoot log, meter for the full dynamic range. If you're baking in your look, meter for lower DR.
Great video Robert! Have you ever tried the Illuminati instrument IM150?
I haven't! Looks pretty sleek though!
*WAIT* . I'm confused. Since you threw that speed booster into the mix, so that you get a +1 stop from it - you said you calibrated your light meter to underexpose -1 stop to balance it out..... Then I began to question myself if light meters are built to refer to full frame only (=35mm like film?) And that if you're using a micro 4/3 or super 35 sensor camera - then you need to somehow manipulate the light meter accordingly to balance out any quirks?
This got a bit confusing..
Also MFT (micro 4/3) loses -2 stops of light for any lens fstop, so I understand. Sounds like a mess to meter externally.,
Is middle grey placed differently for different camera models or for different gamma curves?
Yes, and usually each manufacturer will have documentation online detailing more info about their specific gamma curves
Noel Wiggins ok so Sony’s slog-3 places middle grey (41 IRE) the same across their consumer cameras and their cinema cameras?
@@petrub27 What do you consider consumer camera? Almost each log ,curve have different middle gray value and you should know it.
What about red Komodo