Light meters

[charliemopps24]

Hey, is there such a thing. I think i've heard of people using them at indoor photo shoots and it lets you know exactly how bright it is on the set, right? If you take it outside on a sunny day, what would it read?

[accord dude]

Well their is more than one type of light meter. Their are incident and reflected light meters.

Cameras use reflected light meters.

The light meter reading for a sunny day can vary alot. Their is the sunny 16 rule but it is kind of a guide to go by. Sunny 16 says if you shoot iso 16 with say 100iso film you you choose 1/100 as your shutter speed.

But you can get a meter reading for say f2, f3.5, f22 and so fourth... so I dont really know what you are asking.

[charliemopps24]

Actually i was wondering about indoor plant growing with artificial lighting and how you would compare the lumen output to what the plant would get outside. It's like 30 degrees outside my house at night now, so nothing short of a pine tree will grow.

[hellomynameis]

Originally Posted by charliemopps24

Actually i was wondering about indoor plant growing with artificial lighting and how you would compare the lumen output to what the plant would get outside. It's like 30 degrees outside my house at night now, so nothing short of a pine tree will grow.

i think i see where you're going with this. although a light meter is obviously not meant for this sort of thing, it should work in theory. i don't know if the fancier, more expensive light meters will give you an actual lumen count. i've never seen one that does, but you can always just try to compare/match exposure levels using the shutter speed and aperture readings.

maybe you can search on fleabay for an old light meter. i think they should go for pretty cheap (under 30-40USD or so).

let us know how it goes

[Tadashi_Photo]

Originally Posted by accord dude

Well their is more than one type of light meter. Their are incident and reflected light meters.

Cameras use reflected light meters.

The light meter reading for a sunny day can vary alot. Their is the sunny 16 rule but it is kind of a guide to go by. Sunny 16 says if you shoot iso 16 with say 100iso film you you choose 1/100 as your shutter speed.

But you can get a meter reading for say f2, f3.5, f22 and so fourth... so I dont really know what you are asking.

i think you mean to say
sunny 16 says that with 100 speed film (or iso 100 if you dont use film) that your exposure would be
f16 @ 1/100.
16 being the aperture not the speed.
(recap ISO standard of speed for film based on films sensitivity to light.)

as far as light meters i use a sekonic light meter for in studio shooting, but it does not display lumens. I havent seen one that does, but like the guy before said they are out there im sure.