Digital Photo Pro recently sat down with Sekonic rep, photographer, and educator Lorenzo Gasperini to discuss why light meters are still essential tools. Gasperini stresses the importance of using a meter and how it accurately informs him of what his exposure reading will reveal about what he’s getting in the highlights and shadows of his photograph.
He also details the limitations of most in-camera meters when it comes to measuring incident light as accurately as a dedicated light meter. For those photographers who are used to relying on their histogram, Gasperini says, “Histograms are only statistical charts that show you where tones have been plotted and how often they show up. They really have very little to do with the actual exposure. Where a histogram is helpful is to show you where you’re going to lose on the extreme ends, but who cares what happens in the middle. It’s nice because it basically shows you where all the tones are going to fall but it doesn’t tell you if you’re going to get a good or bad exposure.”
Check out this very insightful interview below: