Meter Mania.

©2009 Kirk Tuck

A Sekonic Meter, circa 1955.  A meter has always been a wonderful tool.  It was probably a lot easier to understand the need for a light meter when there were NO cameras with built in meters at the time.  And no LCD screens to preview.

Let’s start by admitting that not every project in the world needs the accuracy and precision of a separate light meter.  And let’s go on record understanding that, while meters may be objectively accurate many times cameras and lenses, as closed loop systems, may not be quite so objectively accurate.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could take a highly accurate and flexible meter and program it to “understand” the inconsistencies of your particular camera and lens system?

Let me put this in real terms.  I have a Nikon D700 and I love to shoot it with my 60mm AFS lens.  But, when I shoot in a way that makes stuff look good on the rear LCD it ends up being way to dark on my carefully calibrated computer system back at the studio.  Bummer.  That means I’ll need to use levels and curves to “pull up” the exposure to get the distribution of tones I was originally looking for when I took the shot.

Photoshop geeks may think, “no big deal.” But every time I pull those peaks and valleys in the histogram over to the right hand side of the graph I introduce the potential for banding in the lower tones and I end up shadows that lack real detail.  Being a bit compulsive I’d like to start out with the right exposure.  And believe me, relying on the histogram as it appears on the camera LCD is not the way to get there.

Here’s a novel assertion:  The camera histogram sometimes lies!  Really.  Honestly.  Camera manufacturers set the histogram “panic points” (blinking highlights, etc.) to trigger well before the file overloads.  And there may be different set points for different file types.  Finally, small bits of bright light may throw off the accuracy of the histogram at the top end of the graph.  The camera’s metering and evaluation system may obsess about not allowing a specular highlight to go to 255 and, as a consequence, may underexpose a scene radically in order to preserve those bright points of useless information.

Most pros who cut their teeth on short latitude color transparency films still carry and use incident light meters to combat the less gifted, in camera, reflected light metering system.  But in the last few years I’ve found that there is an bizarre relationship between accurate metering and the overall “transmission value” of digital cameras and their lenses.

(Transmission value is a metric introduced by filmmakers who are obsessed by getting it right in the camera the first time because they don’t really have the option to “fix” each frame in PhotoShop(tm).  Each film camera and its attached lens is tested to determine how much light actually gets to the film plane at each aperture.  The directors of photography know that lens coatings, mechanical tolerances and more can affect the actual transmission capability of all lenses.  The “t-stop” is the true value as it relates to a sensor or film gate).

Most photographers take the f-stop information provided by the camera manufacturer at face value.  Studies from the film industry (where much more expensive and hand calibrated lenses are the norm) indicate that there can be anywhere from 1/3 of a stop to a stop and a half of leeway in most optical systems when comparing f-stops to  t-stops.  And the camera’s set point for white point warnings is non uniform as well.

Sekonic meter, circa 2008-09.  The L-748DR has the distinction of being the first commercially available meter to feature the power to store camera system profiles to increase the accuracy and targeting of exposures.  This weatherproof meter has a built-in Pocket Wizard trigger and a slew of other nice stuff.

So, rather than curse the darkness, or spend countless hours doing triage in post processing, what is the dedicated perfectionist to do?  That’s precisely what Sekonic asked.  And they’ve provided a viable (if time consuming) way of working all of this out.  The technology comes packed into their new L-758DR Digitalmaster light meter.

This is the first affordable light meter that can accept camera/lens profiles and have them available to the photographer during the actual metering process.  You’ll have to read the manuals and load the software, but here, in a nutshell, is the basic process:

1.  Acquire calibrated, printed chart from Sekonic (additional $169).

2.  Evenly light chart with constant lights.

3.  Set up shooting camera and lens.

4.  Take incident meter reading from subject position and transfer the reading to the taking camera.

5.  Take test photograph.

6.  Download test photograph into supplied exposure processing software and process.

7.  Take the profile and transfer to the meter while it is attached to your computer via USB.

8.  Select that profile while metering for that specific camera and lens combination.

9.  Enjoy highly accurate exposures calibrated for your particular capture system.

10.  Eliminate several painful and destructive steps in post processing.

Note the Sekonic L-758DR’s standard USB port.  Should be interesting to see how much more power they can build into this thing.  If I could design the ultimate meter it would have one button and one read out.  But I tend to be a real “Luddite” so take that with a grain of salt.…..

Could you do the same thing by shooting a subject with the meter reading and then evaluating it on your monitor?  Pretty much so.  But can you really keep a number of camera and lens combinations in your head and refer to them in real time?  Some of you can.  I can’t.

None of this would matter if the L-758DR was already a meter worth owning.  But it is.  I’ve owned a number of Sekonic meters and they just keep getting better and better.  The L-758DR is my “go-to” flash meter in the studio and my reference ambient incident light meter on all locations and I would venture to say that in the two months that I’ve owned it I’ve shaved hours off the usual post production chores.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the meter it is one of the “Swiss Army Knife” meters that provides both ambient and flash readings,  incident and reflective readings, average and spot metering.  And it does all of these things with a high degree of elegance.  It also comes with a built-in Pocket Wizard trigger.  You can “test flash” your lighting set up without a sync cord or a push on the flash test button.

The ISO and exposure (EV) range are more expansive than even the latest cameras and the whole thing  class four splash proof.  It has all the bells and whistles you would expect from a top meter and then some.

Why do I still like to take incident light meter readings on all my shoots?  Here’s my favorite meter story. ……  Back in the early 1990’s I spent a lot of time “street shooting” in Europe.  I used two different camera systems,  a Leica M4 with a 35mm Summicron and a Nikon F5 with a short zoom.  The Nikon had a state of the art evaluative exposure system which even took subject color into consideration.  The Leica had no built in meter so I carried a small incident light meter with me. 

I shot Kodachrome 64 in both cameras.  I began to notice that the exposures from the Nikon F5 were all over the place.  Generally within a stop of the optimum exposure but nearly always 2/3’s of a stop over or under.  That made the images harder to print and harder to sell to photo editors.  The Leica was a different story.  I would take an incident light meter reading and keep shooting at the same settings until the light changes.  (I took readings about every fifteen minutes or every time I moved into a new lighting situation).  The Kodachromes from the Leica were amazingly consistent (why wouldn’t they be????) and very accurate.  And here’s why:  The light falling on a subject rarely changes during a shoot but reflective light measures much differently depending on the shade, the color and the absorbency of the subject’s surface.  Just shifting a reflective meter by five percent was enough to change the reading.  A subject with a black shirt or a white shirt was enough to throw off objective exposure accuracy by an unacceptable percentage.

My take away lesson from all of the above is:  When money and time are involved in a shoot, bring along an incident light meter.  Does it have to be the top of the line?  Of course not.  The important thing is to know the relationship between your meter and your camera system.  The Sekonic L-758DR is like the icing on a cake.  It’s another level of precision beyond your competitors and it will save you time. 

And, it looks cool to whip out a fabulous meter and take the magic readings.  That’s what photographers do in movies and that’s what clients love to see.…

Revisiting the Medium Format Thing..

If you are a regular reader of my column here you probably know that I’ve had the unique opportunity to test three leading medium format solutions, in depth over the last six months.  I tested the Leaf AFi7s with it’s Leaf 33 megapixel digital back and the latest Zeiss and Schneider lenses.  I put the Phase One camera with it’s 45+ 39 megapixel back through my torture test with a raft of Mamiya lenses.  And, I gave the Mamiya DL28, with its 28 megapixel back a very good workout.

Many of my photographer friends took me to task saying that there was “no way” these cameras produced results that were so clearly superior to the Nikon, Canon and Sony solutions that they justified thousands or tens of thousands of dollars more to own.  And in some ways I agreee.  If your business mainly supplies images for web or broadcast use I’m right there with you.  If the biggest image your clients routinely buy is eight by ten inches you won’t get any argument out of me. 

Most of my friends say that they just can’t see the difference.  And I’ll admit that looking at my 23 inch monitor I can’t see much of a difference either so I decided to put the whole Medium Format versus 35mm Digital format to the most important test of all.  The litmus test we call, CLIENT.

I had sixty C-prints done in a size that all of the cameras are acknowledged to be capably of filling without breaking a sweat, 12 by 18 inches.  I had C-prints done because they are still the “gold standard” for shadow detail and color accuracy.  I boxed up my favorite 45 prints from four different cameras and went out to visit some of my favorite (and pickiest) clients.  These were art directors with twenty or more years of print experience who routinely work for national clients on huge accounts.

I opened the box of prints and let them meander through.  The images they routinely liked best came from the Medium Format systems.  The winner by a whisker was the least expensive system, the Mamiya 28DL.  That in itself is a bit funny as I was using an old 150mm 3.5 manual focus Mamiya lens for most the work I did with that camera.  Picked it up for $150.

The last place finisher was the Sony a900.  The consensus of all the art directors was that the MF stuff had more substance.  Not more detail.  Just something that they each designated as “substance” or “presence” or “solidity”.  To a person, each of the art directors mentioned that they loved the way the focus fell off compared to 35mm digital images.….

So often you’ll read camera reviews where a reviewer has played with a camera for a week and then thrown up three or four images as examples.  Usually these examples are printed less than half a page on a magazine paper stock that’s barely better than notebook paper.  The interpretation of the results is less than scientific.  Less than objective.  If you want a real test shoot with the camera for a month and then find a picky art director who spends his days working with images and toss a bunch of big prints in front of him.  Now you’ve got a real test.

The downside?  Now all three of the art directors want to give me assignments but the assignments are contingent on using their favorite camera system from the “taste test”.  Will the “wallet abuse” never end?

Of course,  you could always show up with one of these.….Certainly would eliminate a lot of decision making.  And how long has it been since you’ve had a camera made with “Bakelite”?  Found in my parents’ garage.

Marketing in the recession. 

It might be harder than ever to get a signed purchase order from your corporate clients but the silver lining may just be that it’s easier to get in front of clients now.  When our corporate clients have the “peddle to the metal” they aren’t really interested in “changing horses in midstream”.  (love to mix up the metaphors.….).  But when things slow down and deadlines disappear you might just find that some of the clients who never let you in the door now have time to review their options, meet and evaluate new suppliers and partners, and recalibrate their relationships.

The buzz words in marketing these days are “SEO”  (search engine optimization= the voodoo of coming up on the first page on a Google Search.….) and “Social Networking” (spending time adding more content to blogs and forums ).  But if you scratch the surface of marketing you’ll find old and new marketers have the same non-viral message:  The most powerful marketing is direct, face to face selling.  Singlepoint marketing.  Getting in your car and going to see someone face to face and show them something interesting that you’ve done while engaging them in conversation and learning more about what they want, how to deliver it and how to profit by it.

If you are in commercial photography you know that one successful sales call could yield a payoff of anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000 of work from a single project.  The lifetime revenue from one really great and loyal client could be well over a million dollars.  It makes the prospect of face to face meetings a lot more comfortable and a lot less like playing the lottery.

Position yourself well during the downturn.  Meet the people who were too busy before.  Market your strengths to the people you want to work with and you’ll leverage much greater success when the market finally turns around.