Your Camera’s “Light Meter,” so what the heck is that?

Some of you may have left our discussion on apertures and shutters the other day wondering, “Wait a minute, so how do I know WHICH aperture and shutter to use?”

Well the answer to that is complicated, and it will take several weeks to answer that question in full….But it begins with your camera’s LIGHT METER.

So what is your camera’s meter?

Well, your camera has a little indicator built into its interface — a little “guide” — that will indicate whether or not you’re getting the “right” amount of light..

But hang on a minute! If you simply do exactly what that indicator tells you to do, doesn’t that sound suspiciously like automatic photography? Doesn’t that just mean the camera is choosing your settings for you?

So then how is that any different from just putting your camera on Auto mode?

The truth is….it isn’t.

If you always just do what your camera’s meter tells you to do, then YES, you’d actually get the same result as if you put the camera on “auto mode”….. because your camera’s “auto” system uses the very same meter in order to determine what settings to use.

So in the long term we’re not just going to do what the meter tells us to do.

In the long term, we’ll be using our camera’s meter in order to MEASURE the light in our scenes. And then, once we’ve done that, we can determine for ourselves which camera settings we prefer to use.

But we’re not there yet. We still have several more steps of learning before we’ll get there.

For now, I just want everyone to know how to “read” their camera’s meter.

So for this week…yes….we’re just going to do what the meter tells us to do. But only for this week.

Ok, so what is your “meter,” exactly?

The meter is an INDICATOR on your camera’s interface that will indicate if you’re getting the “correct” amount of light It often looks something like this:

**If your meter doesn’t look like this, no worries, I’ll provide more examples below**

The best way to understand the concept is, if you remember my analogy about filling a measuring cup with water, I said that the reason filling a cup seems so easy is because there is a “line on the cup” that indicates when we should stop filling the cup with water.

Well, your meter is the closest thing we have in photography to “a line on the cup.”

The way it works is that, once you've set your aperture and shutter, the meter then tells you if you’d be letting in TOO MUCH light, or TOO LITTLE light.

Or in photographic terms, it tells you if you’d be ‘overexposing’ or ‘underexposing’ your image.

And then your job is to adjust your camera settings (either the shutter OR the aperture) until your meter is happy with the amount of light you’re getting.

That’s the idea in a nutshell.

So first, here are some examples of what your meter might look like on your camera’s interface.

Most cameras will have something that looks like a horizontal scale — with a PLUS symbol on one side and a MINUS symbol on the other:

And then some cameras will choose not to have a “scale” at all, but instead will just indicate PLUS or MINUS more directly:

Finally, whichever type of meter you have, the way it works is this: if the meter indicates PLUS, it thinks your current camera settings are giving you too much light (ie: it thinks your current camera settings will “overexpose” the image).

And here is what that might look like on your interface:

…..and if the meter indicates MINUS, then it thinks your current camera settings are giving you too little light (ie: it thinks your current camera settings will “underexpose” the image).

And here is what that might look like on your interface:

But if the meter indicates “0” (zero), then the meter is “balanced” or “satisfied,”….. it means the meter likes the settings you’re using.

Here is what that might look like:

Or for those of you who have that other type of meter (the one without a horizontal scale) this is what it will look like when the meter is balanced or satisfied:

Ok, so that’s what the meter is. It’s a tool that indicates if it “likes” the camera settings you’re using….or if it “doesn’t like” the camera settings you’re using.

A bit like the old Goldilocks fairy tale: are your camera settings “too hot…. or too cold….or just right?”

But honestly, I don't want you to think too much about the LOGIC of it just yet.

This week I just want you to concentrate on something much more superficial. For now, we just want to develop a muscle-memory regarding how to "fiddle with your dials" until the meter appears to be satisfied.

That’s all.

No logic, no strategy, no specific intentions. We just want to get used to the device itself.

So here's exactly how to do this. IE: here is your “homework assignment:”

Step 1) Point your camera at pretty much anything, and see if the meter is indicating "minus" or "plus." (Note: on some of your cameras the meter may be dormant until you very lightly tap your trigger button, at which point it then “activates” the meter).

Step 2) On most cameras if the meter indicates Minus, then you will need to turn your dials toward the LEFT in order to “balance your meter” (and that’s true for either the aperture OR for shutter).

And if the meter is indicating Plus, then you generally have to turn your dials to the RIGHT (and again, that’s true for either the aperture OR for shutter).

So first, just figure out WHICH WAY you need to turn the dials in order to balance the meter. Just develop that ASSOCIATION.

Step 3) Finally, once you have a good idea of WHICH WAY the meter wants you to go with your dials, now work on getting faster at doing it. Until it becomes a quicker reflex response.

So that’s the assignment.

The idea here is that we eventually want to get to where you can point your camera at anything in the world, and instead of having to stop for a moment and think about what you’re doing, you’ll have a very quick reflex, a muscle-memory, whereby you can just INSTANTLY and MINDLESSLY know which way to spin your dials in order to get your meter balanced.

If you can develop that reflex in these first few weeks, then it helps us out a TON later on down the line when we finally start trying to do more specific and more complicated things.

So to start us down that path, if you can, please just spend maybe 10 minutes practicing this before our next class.

And I’ll remind you again, we don’t need to know what any of this “means” just yet. We’ll have some very thorough discussions about what your meter “means” to you, and where it fits into our strategies.

For now we just talking about developing a totally superficial muscle-memory.

You just need to know WHICH WAY to turn your camera dials based on what the meter is indicating. Even if you don’t know what that means yet,

Fair enough?

Cheers! And have fun!