Comments on: With Digital Photography Do You Think The Need For Light Meters With Strobes Is Being Eliminated?

By: Nicholas F

Nicholas F — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:20:15 +0000

I like and grew up with light meters. To me light meters made me think about what light I was reading (back lite subject), and the type of lighting and shadow I wanted to render on film. I owned 18% gray cards. Course digital you can get instant feedback, and use software, but if you start off with a near superior product, that helps. Digital cameras are great, some have superb zoning meters, but you know all the pictures start to look the same, like garish tourist postcards. The colors are too bright, vibrant, no pastel hues. I still cling to the f16 rule in my head, and spot meter everything with the camera. At the end of the day, the light meter made me think of what my vision was. Chow

By: Evan B

Evan B — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 11:36:56 +0000

Yeah, you can get your ratios from a gray card if you want to spend all day about it… and even then its probably only accurate to within .5 EV….
My Sekky with pocketwizard tx speeds me up significantly.
Once I get the lights set, I’ll check the histo and expose to the right if there’s any room left over (to improve S/N ratio), so that’s different than film.
As a professional, I’d rather pay $300 for a good meter that saves me 30 cumulative minutes a shoot…. pays for itself.

By: Edwin

Edwin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:06:30 +0000

Serious photographers still use a hand-held light meter for critical exposures.
Flash meters are still used for critical flash work.

By: Cheap Stock Photos

Cheap Stock Photos — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 04:49:09 +0000

I will always use a meter for anything other than snapshots.
I think continuous lighting will become more popular with digital. Although most newbie models think strobes are sexier.