ABSTRACT
Modern camera light meters work out the brightness distribution in an image. They also take account of the lens focal length and the point at which it is focused. Strong colours may throw the light meter off and produce a lighter or darker black-and-white rendition than is expected. One technique for black and white is to ‘meter for the shadows’. Some photographers will use substitute metering. A ‘grey card’ is a known reference point that approximates closely to the standard to which all light meters are calibrated. A spot meter is a reflected light meter but reads a much smaller spot than a normal camera meter or even a camera meter set to the spot metering mode. The incident light meter measures the light falling on the subject instead of the light reflected from it.
