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Light meter for video
  • stoneystoney


    My friend was taking strobist shots without a light meter. It was... like finding a needle in a haystack. Countless number of shots... until he got it right. I wonder if a light meter is useful for speeding up adjusting video lighting.
  • 34 Replies sorted by
  • MikeLinnMikeLinn

  • MikeLinnMikeLinn

  • MikeLinnMikeLinn

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    SEKONIC SPEEDMASTER L-858D

  • brianlbrianl

    Since a lot of people are using the BM Pocketcam, light meter is something I think is arguably a necessity for that particular cam. Pocketcam's only tool is lousy crude zebras. External monitors are fantastic, however the pocketcam is handicapped by a lousy mini HDMI interface.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Lumu light meter

    http://lu.mu/index.html

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    The light meter is essential for matching and to get your head around light ratios as a young cinematographer. If you look on the monitor and you like the way it looks, the mood and the color tone, then get in there and read those levels and read the color temperature. These are all building blocks of your memory of light.

    http://www.hurlbutvisuals.com/blog/2014/01/reading-a-light-meter/

  • DanPVDanPV

    Ryan E. Walters compares professional light meters with light metering apps available on the iphone:

    I decided to compare 5 light meters in 2 different environments to evaluate the results.

    The 5 meters that I'll be looking at are the

    • Sekonic 758Cine ($822),
    • 478D with Spot Attachment ($498 total),
    • Pocket Light Meter (Free - $4.99 + Dongle)
    • Cine Meter ($4.99 + Dongle),
    • and the internal "brain" of the Canon 60D ($1,299).

    The first test environment was in the controlled environment of my studio. The second environment was in my kitchen - uncontrolled lighting, using the overhead 5000k CFLs, lovely green spike and all. For every measurement I took a reading from the same area on a Kodak Grey Card.

    http://www.ryanewalters.com/Blog/blog.php?id=1222011888909495377

  • dumiledumile

    about to buy a light meter, but I'll wait til some reviews come out on these new touch screen sekonics

  • cordvisioncordvision

    A light meter is an invaluable tool on a digital set when you try to keep a constant ratio between key/fill/background etc. Having a monitor doesn't help you too much in that case. If you shoot the reverse shot to another shot you have taken a couple hours earlier, you probably won't be able to recreate the same ratios just by looking at your monitor.... A light meeter helps you to keep everything consistent from one shot to the next, even if many hours or even days passed in-between filming the shots...

  • TobsenTobsen

    Yep!

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    This guys really need to start selling software for smartphone and small hardware addon. :-)

  • TobsenTobsen

    That looks very interesting considering what @shian says about exposing in zones. The software included determines the DR of your cam and safes it for later use so you can measure your scene and check if it is within that range. I like!

  • shianshian

    nice

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    image

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    New Sekonic meters

  • AmandaNLAmandaNL
    I had a lightmeter but never used it...
    The histogram and highlight peaking is your friend !
  • davhardavhar
    @ andres

    My confession is that I'm new to this digital way of shooting and right now I just use my internal spot meter and histogram as I learn to make sense of what my eyes are seeing on the LCD…which is way too small but seems to be pretty accurate as to what I get. I am just shooting exterior stuff in the harbour, right now, daylight vistas, birdies on the balcony and the like. When I get to shooting stuff 'on set' as such then I'll do as DPs and gaffers always do in every situation on every set -use a meter. Yes the DIT dude is doing his thing if you can afford him and his gear, but if you (I mean me) can't then say yes to the histogram and check the meters you've got as well
  • andresandres
    I trust my lightmeter with film because I know in which zone I stand and how will the film react constantly. Video doesn't respond the same in every situation. Normaly i trust the camera's histogram way more than anything else there I see if I can over expose and then bring down in post.
    I could use a lightmeter only after a lot of testing with one camera, if I change the camera then I could not trust it any more.
  • stoneystoney
    I guess a same light meter can be used for both photo and video.
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    @davhar

    Exactly.
    If you are skilled with light meter, it works perfect.
    It is very useful stuff.
  • davhardavhar
    Wireless monitors are great for the director but when it comes to exposure…I don't know. A meter read and a squint may sound old fashioned but waveforms and vectorscopes and histograms and whatnot…can be helpful or just get in the way. Depends on what works for you…and that depends on how you've worked and what tools you're comfortable with
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev
    Other important thing to remember is that monitors are, essentially, computers.
    And progress here will be fast. Various stuff now considered high end (like color waveforms, vectorscopes, etc) will be in cheapest stuff with time.
  • brianlucebrianluce
    Wireless HDMI must be the ticket. GH2 has many ways to measure exposure, spot meter, highlight clip, histogram.
  • davhardavhar
    Used to be you'd never trust a monitor for lighting at all because they were utter crap. They were just used for camera- composition/framing. Now, of course, monitors are great but if you want to pre-light, for example, you have to be able to measure how much light is here and there, etc. And on set as well when the camera guys are setting up their dolly move or whatever we're busy lighting…and not waiting to see what's on the monitor. And an incident reading is really what you need to good on…unless you've got a great DPs eye that just squints to see the contrast and modelling and hair light, etc… and then just uses the meter to get the F stop for camera. But still…we don't rely on a monitor for it
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