N-Photo - The Nikon Magazine - USA (2019-07)

Light meters

THIS DEVICE WILL KEEP YOUR

EXPOSURES ACCURATE

An incident light meter can be useful when

working out a manual exposure. It takes

a reading that details the amount of light

falling on your subject. This can be more

accurate than the camera’s metering

system, which bases its reading on

averages of the reflected light in the

scene. We hold the meter towards the

camera from the position of the subject,

then simply input the reading into our

manual exposure controls on the camera.

A light meter is also useful for flash

photography as it captures an accurate

reading of the flash light, which is

impossible to judge either by eye

or in-camera metering.

So we’re going to show you how to abstain from
auto and take full control of your photography.
We’ll begin with manual exposure, but this is not
the only form of manual control. We’ll also look
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MANUAL EXPOSURE
Mastering manual exposure is one of the biggest
steps you can take as a photographer. In Manual
mode you have complete control over the three
factors that make up an exposure: the aperture,
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described as the exposure triangle, because
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compensate. The aperture control enables you to


 
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f-number for shallow focus, or a high f-number for
greater sharpness across the scene. The shutter

speed control lets you adapt your exposure length to

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to freeze action, or a very slow setting for creative



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lets you determine the sensitivity of the sensor to

l ight , w it h lower sett i ng s y ield i ng better qua l it y.

Slowly but surely

If you’re new to t he idea of ma nua l ex posu res, t hen

jumping in at the deep end might not be the best

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ISO. This means you set the shutter speed and

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Manual exposure can

b e ve r y u s ef u l o n a n

outdoor portrait shoot

in overcast conditions

like th i s , a s o n c e yo u’ve

set it you can be sure

th a t eve r y s h ot w ill b e

consistently exposed.

MASTER MANUAL