Light Meter

DannyDMR

DannyDMR

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Hiya guys, I bought myself a light meter last week, Sekonic 308. I got to use it for the first time Wednesday but only had a small time frame so didn't really get the time to experiment fully.

Problem I had was, I would hold the light meter near the subject, set to 1/250 at ISO 100 facing the light source, fire the test button, i would adjust the power on my flash until i hit the f-stop i wanted (F11)

I dialled in 1/250 ISO 100 F11 on my camera (D7000) and take a test shot, It was at least 2 stops underexposed.

What am I missing?
 
I shall be watching this thread !!!


This is something that I would like to get my head round :(
 
I'll ask the obvious but did you have the Sekonic on flash setting ? I made this fatal mistake when I first used it and spent 20mins thinking my camera had gone mad :)

I have one of these too and was in the studio yesterday. Ramped the Bowens up to F8, set the Sekonic to flash, iso100 at 1/125 took the metered reading which gave me F8 too and happily shot away with some nice images.
 
trying to watch a howto on Youtube but I have the 308B and can only find the 308S are they the same to use? is everything in the same place
 
The 3 modes are indicated on the screen.

1st is daylight
2nd is flash
3rd is flash with cord.

How to meter with it is included in the instructions but I found playing with it and taking lots of different shots quickly made it easier to understand :)
 
yeah mines different mine has

Flash (Lighting bolt)
flash with cord (Lighting Bolt with C)
ambient (Sun)

I got my used so no instructions

I'll have to have a proper play, unwell atm why i asked on here lol
 
Didn't look at mine but that's the order I thought it was so probably the same :)

I took dozens of shots before things really became clear and I wouldn't be without it now especially in the studio :)

Enjoy...
 
DannyDMR said:
Hiya guys, I bought myself a light meter last week, Sekonic 308. I got to use it for the first time Wednesday but only had a small time frame so didn't really get the time to experiment fully.

Problem I had was, I would hold the light meter near the subject, set to 1/250 at ISO 100 facing the light source, fire the test button, i would adjust the power on my flash until i hit the f-stop i wanted (F11)

I dialled in 1/250 ISO 100 F11 on my camera (D7000) and take a test shot, It was at least 2 stops underexposed.

What am I missing?
Click to expand...

What lights are you using?
 
Can you post the images you refer to? That may be helpful. I have a 308 and find it flawless. There are no parts that need user calibration and no adjustments are possible; it's a solid state device, so it's unlikely to read inaccurately

Why are you facing the meter to the light source? I would only be doing that if the lighting was from the side, or a sharp angle and I wanted only the lit side to be correctly exposed. With flat lighting, or anything less than a 2:1 ration I'd be pointing it back to camera.

As silly as it sounds, you have got the invacone over the sensor haven't you?
 
im pointing the light meter to camera as the light is next to me, so pointing it at both tbh.

Lights im using are lencarta elite Pro 300's

I dont have any samples atm as i have delted them now but will setup up later and have a play
 
The other invacone is just more directional so you can take individual light ratio measurements without turning the other lights off. To do this you fit the invacone, then meter towards each light to get individual readings to work out your ratios.
 
It does sound like a strange one, those lights should be fine. The only thing I could think of is to make sure you aren't blocking the lights in any way when taking the reading and also take several readings to ensure it stays at F11.

If you are using more than one light, perhaps trying with just one light straigtht on - perhaps the sensor is faulty on the lightmeter?
 
I took a reading using only a elite pro 300 with 90cm softbox (Oct) and it gave me a reading atleast 2 stop under exposed, i took a reading on a smart flash 200 with beauty dish and it gave me a reading atleast a stop and half over exposed.

Ill take a few test shots later to show you
 
Could be the lightmeter? It's not dirty or anything? (the sensor etc)
 
I know they are not the same meters but i have a polaris meter, gives me ambient, flash and flash corded. And a handy function of manual calibration. This allows the user to dial in compensation if the meter is reading a bit high or low
Not sure this is an option on your sekonic but may be an avenue to look down once you rule out user error
 
must have been user error as just tried it with a softbox and it seems ok, light is to camera right at 45 degrees facing downwards, lightmeter pointing straight at camera with reading iso 100, 1/250 at F11

Shot in Raw and straight conversion to JPG using lightroom 4 nothing else done to it

lm.jpg
 
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