Sekonic L358 help!!

russellsnr

russellsnr

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Russell
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Hi, OK this is maybe to some a really novice question but!!.
I have looked on-line to try and find an explanation on how to actually read the meter.
I bought it along with the spot meter attachment for landscapes but so far all I seem to get are blown out clouds and highlights.
I am attaching a photo of the meter (Taken at 1600 ISO)
a little OOF.
What is the shutter speed reading here please? (F stop not important on this)
Is it 5th sec, 50th sec
Thanks in advance
Russ
rrtjzb.jpg
 
1/5th at F40 (??!)


For landscapes set your aperture that you're going to use, take a reading off the sky, remember the reading, then take a reading off the foreground. Take the foreground reading from the sky reading and that is how many stops brighter the sky is.

I usually subtract one stop from the difference (in that the sky is usually brighter than the foreground) and then add filters for the rest.

As an example if your foreground at f11 measured 1/60th and your sky measured 1/1000th you've got a 4 stop difference ( 60th / 125th / 250th / 500th / 1000th ) so I'd use a 3 stop graduated filter to balance the scene.
 
I don't understand how you've not been able to find the answer if you've looked on Google. I found the answer within seconds.

This very fuzzy reading is showing a shutter speed of 1/5th sec at f40.0 and what looks like iso160 but that bit is too fuzzy to read properly.

I don't undertstand your statement that f stop is not important in this case. Is that because you can read it and understand it or because you genuinely believe it doesn't matter? Of course it matters, as soon as you alter the aperture then the shutter speed will also alter.

I'd also be interested to know why you are using a light meter for landscape photography. I have one that I use in a studio and occasionally for portraits outdoors but I really can't see any use for one for shooting landscapes. I'm not a landscape photographer though.
 
-Rob- said:
I'd also be interested to know why you are using a light meter for landscape photography. I have one that I use in a studio and occasionally for portraits outdoors but I really can't see any use for one for shooting landscapes. I'm not a landscape photographer though.
Click to expand...

I posted earlier how a spotmeter is useful for guaging ND grads. That said I usually do mine by eye, you get a feeling for it. It is useful to avoid recomposing if you've got the tripod set up.
 
-Rob- said:
I don't understand how you've not been able to find the answer if you've looked on Google. I found the answer within seconds.

This very fuzzy reading is showing a shutter speed of 1/5th sec at f40.0 and what looks like iso160 but that bit is too fuzzy to read properly.

I don't undertstand your statement that f stop is not important in this case. Is that because you can read it and understand it or because you genuinely believe it doesn't matter? Of course it matters, as soon as you alter the aperture then the shutter speed will also alter.

I'd also be interested to know why you are using a light meter for landscape photography. I have one that I use in a studio and occasionally for portraits outdoors but I really can't see any use for one for shooting landscapes. I'm not a landscape photographer though.
Click to expand...

Hi, Thank you for the reply.
What I meant by the F Stop not being important in the reading on the meter was that it was the 5 that I did not understand I just changed the F Stop to get it to show that shutter speed for the question.
Thanks again
Russ
 
Hi, Ok you are now reading what a 110% idiot was doing wrong:bang:
With the spot attachment one end is larger than the other and as it came without instructions this idiot assumed you looked through the large end as when you do you see a little dot in the finder however when you have a moment of madness you look through the small end and see a + sign and then you get a correct reading:clap::bonk:
Thanks again
Yours IDIOT:cuckoo: (RUSS)
 
Russel, learn to read the histogram. It's not difficult, much quicker than messing around with a meter, and absolutely accurate.

Also, you can't do ETTR properly without referring to it. Not sure what you're hoping to achieve with a hand meter. Waste of time in that situation IMHO.
 
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