light meter

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Kugar13

Well-known member
I was watching Light Like a Pro last night and it was suggested to purchase an incident (sp?) light meter when testing light on a green screen. I don' t know much about light meters in regard to brand, type, etc.

Does anyone have any advice, or know of any great articles on the subject? I checked B&H, but the options are confusing for someone who doesn't know anything about them.

Thanks!
 
An incident meter measures direct light; a spot meter measures reflected light, which is actually more useful for lighting a green screen. You can buy meters that have both combined.
 
If money is no object the Sekonic Cine L-758 is the industry standard. You will it used on every movie set in Hollywood. You can buy 758 on Ebay from a Hong Kong reseller for cheaper, the only difference is the radio flash trigger wont work in the US. If you dont need that function it will save you a $100.
 
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I have the Sekonic L-508 Cine Zoom Master which is an incident and spot meter, I love it. You can zoom in on the viewfinder for a more precise reading or widen out for an average, which is very helpful.
 
Kugar13 said:
I was watching Light Like a Pro last night and it was suggested to purchase an incident (sp?) light meter when testing light on a green screen. I don' t know much about light meters in regard to brand, type, etc.

Does anyone have any advice, or know of any great articles on the subject? I checked B&H, but the options are confusing for someone who doesn't know anything about them.

Thanks!
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I think the Sekonic Cine L-758 would be the top choice. An incident meter will measure the amount of light falling on the scene... and if you know all the relative reflectivities of the materials in the scene, that would do.

But if you want to make sure the various ratios are right, then measuring the actual reflected light with the spot meter will be the only real way to do that.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Well, do you have to use it as a camera as well... or is there a cheap price option when you are only going to use it as a light meter???
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If the OP was to be shooting a Key screen we could safely assume he has a camera on set.

If it happened to be an HVX ...he could use the spot function to check out the reflected light levels from his BG.

I suppose he could buy an HVX just for this purpose :-) or he could spend $600-700 dollars on a Spectra Cine Spot /Incident meter or maybe he could use a waveform monitor or maybe even use the zebras.

Does Pentax still make a Spotmeter? ( A great simple spot meter of which I have a couple of them as well as a few Spectras.)
 
Shooter -
That's my combination. I have the Spectra for incident and the old Pentax spot for reflective. They work great together.
 
Kugar13 said:
I was watching Light Like a Pro last night and it was suggested to purchase an incident (sp?) light meter when testing light on a green screen. I don' t know much about light meters in regard to brand, type, etc.

Does anyone have any advice, or know of any great articles on the subject? I checked B&H, but the options are confusing for someone who doesn't know anything about them.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Another good indicator (and no additional cost) for lighting a green screen is using the zebras on a Video Camera. This method has given me the results required when my battery has been flat in my light meter (Sekonic 608C).
 
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