From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Using a light meter

Using a light meter

From the course: Creating a Short Film: 07 Cinematography

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Using a light meter

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- In order to determine the exposure of your shot, you have a few tools available. First of all, almost every camera will have some tools for determining how much light is hitting the sensor, but many cameras don't quite give you enough information to make an informed decision. These cameras might tell you about the light in the shot overall, but not about the light that's directly hitting your subject and that's what you really want to expose for. So DPs and gaffers will often use a separate light meter to get an exposure reading for a specific shot. You can input your shutter speed and ISO into the light meter and it will tell you the f-stop you need to properly expose that area. Now I didn't use a light meter on the assurance, but our gaffer, Chris Taylor, did. I also find that I get great results from mobile light meter apps. This one is called Pocket Light Meter, which I found on the iPhone App Store. We'll talk about this and several other apps for cinematography later in this…

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