Incident meters vs reflective meters

13 years 2 months ago #32001 by KenMan
I'm reading up on light meters right now and wondering which of these is more widely used? I'm not understanding why you would use one over the other? Incident meters reading light that is falling on the subject were reflective meters pull the light reflecting off the subject.

Why would you use one over the other?

Thanks for the help in understanding this.


Photo Comments
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13 years 2 months ago - 13 years 2 months ago #32045 by Joves
The choice is really of what you shoot. Shooting landscapses I would use an incident meter because the light that was available was all that mettered. If I had something in the foreground then I would use a spotmeter to measure the dark areas and the midranges for more accuracy. The reflective meters are good but, sometimes give under exposures. I think the newer meters actually do both or all thee. The spot is the most accurate for subjects such as people and objects, but sucks for landscapes where there is nothing to meter off of.
Why I used one was to get in the ballpark of where I needed to be exposure wise.


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