Posted by Nilanjan Das on November 4, 2008 at 2:24 PM
Hi
I generally use an incident light meter to set exposures and keep my camera ( D200 and D300 ) in manual mode. But last sunday while photographing butterflies I got into situations where the butterflies at times were in both light and shade. I was a little unsure about taking readings from the light meter and switched my camera to Aperture Priority and kept the metering in matrix. But am not too happy with the results. What should I have done in this kind of a situation ? Still trusted my light meter ? Switched matrix metering to center weighted or spot ? I would be highly benefited if the experienced macro photographers kindly respond to this mail.
I don't know what you have for an incident meter, but I discovered that the wand for my old Minolta works just fine on my Sekonic. With the 3' cord I can reach it into small places. One of my best tools for macro in difficult lighting. Looks like Sekonic lists a unit of their own.
In macro photography some light is lost due to extension and needs to be compensated for. A TTL meter (i.e. the one you have built into your camera) will take this loss into account, but a hand-held meter reading will need to be compensated.
Either way, if you are using digital, you can easily judge exposure based on the histogram and adjust as necessary. If you don't want to spook your subject, you can make an exposure in an area with similar light, adjust as needed, then make the actual shot.
" In macro photography some light is lost due to extension and needs to be compensated for."
Excellent point. I use incident meters so much in my scientific and illustration work that the need for- and degree of- compensation is almost intuitive, but it will lead to disappointment if you forget. That's a very good reason to shoot RAW, especially when you're starting out.
Posted by Nilanjan Das on November 5, 2008 at 4:49 AM
I thank you all for your kind suggestion. I would get back to the region as early as possible and start using my incident light meter and use compensation when needed. May be I just need to select the places of my choices and wait for the butterflies as there are millions of them now and might end with shots of my choice, I too use a sekonic and shoot RAW as well.
"May be I just need to select the places of my choices and wait for the butterflies as there are millions of them now and might end with shots of my choice..."
That's my strategy with any difficult or highly mobile subject. You might also consider shooting earlier in the morning when temperatures are lower and the butterflies are a little less mobile.
In a way that is related, one of the best "action" photographers I know is Sam Abell. He doesn't use a motordrive or zoom lens and in fact usually shoots from a tripod. He gets such great action shots by pre-composing and pre-metering a scene, then waiting for the action to develop. That's much like you propose to do, and creates better opportunities for brilliant compositions to complement your subjects. Be sure to post your results!
Posted by Nilanjan Das on November 7, 2008 at 10:42 PM
I tried that on a fly hovering near and on a flower of my choice. Got a few ok images but not sure if they were great action shots :), at least am not very happy with the results. Would share soon and would love to learn from your comments. I tied various shutter speeds keeping the focus on the same flower.
Discussion
6 repliesI generally use an incident light meter to set exposures and keep my camera ( D200 and D300 ) in manual mode. But last sunday while photographing butterflies I got into situations where the butterflies at times were in both light and shade. I was a little unsure about taking readings from the light meter and switched my camera to Aperture Priority and kept the metering in matrix. But am not too happy with the results. What should I have done in this kind of a situation ? Still trusted my light meter ? Switched matrix metering to center weighted or spot ? I would be highly benefited if the experienced macro photographers kindly respond to this mail.
regards
Nilanjan
Either way, if you are using digital, you can easily judge exposure based on the histogram and adjust as necessary. If you don't want to spook your subject, you can make an exposure in an area with similar light, adjust as needed, then make the actual shot.
Guy
Excellent point. I use incident meters so much in my scientific and illustration work that the need for- and degree of- compensation is almost intuitive, but it will lead to disappointment if you forget. That's a very good reason to shoot RAW, especially when you're starting out.
That's my strategy with any difficult or highly mobile subject. You might also consider shooting earlier in the morning when temperatures are lower and the butterflies are a little less mobile.
In a way that is related, one of the best "action" photographers I know is Sam Abell. He doesn't use a motordrive or zoom lens and in fact usually shoots from a tripod. He gets such great action shots by pre-composing and pre-metering a scene, then waiting for the action to develop. That's much like you propose to do, and creates better opportunities for brilliant compositions to complement your subjects. Be sure to post your results!