apa sih incident light meter reading gimana caranya? bedanya dengan metering biasa apa? kelebihannya apa?

USING INCIDENT-LIGHT METERS

To use an incident-light meter, hold it at or near the subject and aim the meter's light-sensitive cell back toward the camera. The meter reads the amount of light illuminating the subject, not light reflected from the subject, so the meter ignores the subject and background characteristics. As with a reflected reading, an incident reading provides exposure information for rendering average subjects correctly, making incident readings most accurate when the subject is not extremely bright or dark.

When taking an incident-light reading, be sure you measure the light illuminating the side of the subject you want to photograph, and be careful that your shadow isn't falling on the meter. If the meter isn't actually at the subject, you can get a workable reading by holding the meter in the same kind of light the subject is in. Because the meter is aimed toward the camera and away from the background light, an incident reading is helpful with backlighted subjects. This is also the case when the main subject is small and surrounded by a dominant background that is either much lighter or darker.

The exposure determined by an incident-light meter should be the same as reading a gray card with a reflected-light meter. Fortunately, many scenes have average reflectance with an even mix of light and dark areas, so the exposure indicated is good for many picture-taking situations. However, if the main subject is very light or very dark, and you want to record detail in this area, you must modify the meter's exposure recommendation as follows:

• For light subjects, decrease exposure by 1/2 to 1 stop from the meter reading.
• For dark subjects, increase exposure by 1/2 to 1 stop from the meter reading.

You will notice that these adjustments are just the opposite from those required for a reflected-light meter. An incident meter does not work well when photographing light sources because it cannot measure the light directly. In such situations you will be better off using a reflected-light meter or an exposure table.

If the scene is unevenly illuminated and you want the best overall exposure, make incident-light readings in the brightest and darkest areas that are important to your picture. Aim the meter in the direction of the camera position for each reading. Set the exposure by splitting the difference between the two extremes.

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Sumber.
BTW, gajahnya lucu juga ya? Siapa namanya?

Ada penjelasan/teori tentang penggunaan light meter di sekonic.com

yah, intinya incident light meter (ilm), tidak seperti reflective yang biasanya ada di kamera, mengukur kekuatan cahaya yang datang, bukan yang dipantulkan obyek. alatnya memiliki kubah putih setengah bola, diarahkan ke sumber cahaya.

kelebihannya adalah akurasi, dalam arti bila pada frame ada obyek berwarna sangat gelap dan/atau sangat terang, anda akan memperoleh full latitude karena keduanya (plus midtone tentunya) akan tertangkap secara maksimal.

kekurangannya, full latitude tidak berarti full detail, melainkan justru mengorbankan obyek yang tidak berwarna netral. oleh karena itu, sebagaimana bung judhi katakan, perlu adanya sejumlah kompensasi untuk subyek foto yang memang berwarna cenderung gelap atau terang (...meskipun ini juga berarti tone subyek tidak lagi se- terang atau se- gelap aslinya).

jadi harus pake lightmeter yang handheld ya? ga bisa pake yang TTL dari kamera?

Lightmeter di kamera dirancang untuk mengukur cahaya terpantul (reflective), kalau mau coba2 sih sebetulnya bisa saja modifikasi kamera poket atau dengan memodifikasi sebuah lensa SLR untuk mengukur cahaya langsung (incident). Tinggal dikalibrasi saja dengan meteran cahaya yang betulan.

Terus terang saya sendiri sih tidak terlalu bergantung pada lightmeter handheld. Disamping emang gak punya, juga karena saya pakai kamera digital, tinggal jepret2 aja bbrp kali (bracketing) tanpa harus sayang filem. Demikian juga kalau mau motret pakai film, supaya lebih yakin maka akan saya jepret dulu dengan kamera digital. Nanti hasil pengukuran yang paling tepat baru saya terapkan di kamera analognya.

terima kasih semua...sekarang saya udah tau...kalo ada kamera digital ga usah beli lihgtmeter...bukan begitu mas judhi? :D

Hehehe itu kan saya, cuma alasan aja karena ga mampu beli lightmeter beneran :))

beli aja sekonic l308b II itu murah dan bagus.. saya pake dan dibandingakan dengan Minolta Flashmeter IV teman saya hasilnya sama.. padahal Dome-nya minolta lebih besar...