Getting to Grips with Light Part 2: Light Meters

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

If gauging the light doesn't come naturally to you, or you are new to photography and not yet adept at recognising exposure values, then a light meter will make life a lot easier. Nowadays cameras have built in light meters that warn you if you're about to under- or over-expose an image, but with box cameras you'll need a separate bit of kit.

An obvious, and often free solution, is to download a light meter application on your phone. These can take pretty accurate readings of the light and you can either use them to read a scene and see if your camera settings are capable of shooting it, or, you can dial in your camera settings and then point your meter at subjects until you find one at the desired exposure value.

We saw in Getting to Grips with Light Part 1 that the film ISO will determine the light conditions in which your box camera will perform best. If the camera is set to shoot optimally at EV14 therefore, that's the exposure value you want to shoot in. Do not get hung up about shooting in perfect conditions though. That way madness lies and you'll be frustrated at all the shots you want to take but "can't". Film latitude is such that you can shoot in sub-optimal conditions without worrying too much. You'll still get good shots one stop either way. So, if you're set up to shoot at EV14, you'll still get good results at EV13 or EV15. Beyond this you'll get usable results. So you can still shoot at EV12 up to around EV17 (film is more forgiving if you overexpose - try and avoid underexposing by more than two stops, the results won't be great). Note: Slide film is less forgiving. Don't go more than one stop over or under.

Best advice is just to go out and shoot test rolls. The results will show just how far you can push your luck.

My Ikophot light meter

It may be however, that you don't want to use a mobile app and would prefer a more old-school approach (you are shooting analogue after all, some of these box cameras are nearly a century old). I'm going to make some assumptions now:

1. You already have a vintage light meter, which may well have come with the camera when you bought/inherited it.
2. You are keen to buy a light meter and want a nice vintage one to complement your vintage box camera.

I may be wrong, and you may already have/want a modern digital light meter, in which case, you'll probably find the information about how they work in this article helpful.

If I'm right though I can totally relate, because I bought a vintage model very cheaply and am delighted with it. Most of my Ful-Vues are from the 50s, so I searched for a period correct light meter to use with them. There are loads of different vintage makes available, and they are frequently listed on eBay and usually don't cost much. They are a nice piece of history to complement the one you're shooting with.

BUT...

Beware. There are a lot of variables in meter design, in terms of how they measure the light, how sturdy they are etc. This is a good article to read on the topic. Also, as with any second hand purchase there is a risk that the meter may no longer work. Some of them are rather old after all. If purchasing on a site such as eBay, look for item descriptions that say whether the thing is working or not.

If you want one that will work without batteries then you may want a photoelectric selenium cell meter. That's the sort I have. I have an Ikophot Rapid (above). Cadmium sulphide readers are more sensitive and may give more accurate readings, but battery availability may be an issue. According to this article on Analogue Wonderland, a good choice is the Sekonic L308, as it takes normal batteries and is highly reliable. Of course, it comes with a higher price tag.

Note: If you go for an Ikophot make sure it has its slide-on flat diffuser for incident light readings.

There are loads of different makes and models out there. This is a good primer. You can also look to contemporary literature for guidance. The book on the left came free with another purchase I made on eBay, but has some really good tips for how to use the different types of light meter in different lighting conditions.

I was also lucky in stumbling across a Focal Press guide to using the Ikophot. It's full of tips for how to use my light meter and shows example photos with correct camera settings.  Books like these are great for providing you with some mini projects to you hone your skills as a photographer. For example they school you in large shadow areas, allowing for bright skies, flat subjects, contrasty subjects, indoor lighting etc. If you become adept at metering in all these situations, ok the box camera won't be set up to shoot in all possible light conditions, but if you know in advance what conditions you'll be shooting in you can plan ahead.

You may be wondering why you should practise metering in scenarios better suited to an SLR. It's all about honing skills. The better practised you are at metering different lighting scenarios, the more automatic it will become, and pretty soon you'll be able to just look at a scene and know if your box camera can shoot it. A light meter is a tool, and there's more to using them than just pointing them at a subject. Mastery of using a light meter will require regular practice. That's why the Ikophot guide on the right is 96 pages long! Master your metering and take better photos.