Photographing car with a light meter?

[LeDave]

I have a shoot coming up with my friend and his Audi RS5. What do you guys think about using a light meter in ambient mode to take the photos? I have tried it on people for portraits and it works great but never tried it on a car before.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Not sure the same portrait principles apply ......the illumination area for portraits is much smaller(face generally) and you are looking for
average ambient and/or reflected light to set any local illumination and/or fill light.

For cars would be guided by your exposure compensation, shutter speed and in camera histogram with exposure set based
on any particular Car Highlights to avoid blowing them out and raise the shadows in post processing if needed.

You dont indicate if the shoot is inside or outside night or daytime. Based on outside daytime the above would apply, for inside
with mixed lighting, a meter may well be required to evaluate average and/or directional lighting before setting camera and/or
strobe/flash variables.

 

[Landshark99]

With a non moving object you can just bracket exposures as well, but either the camera meter or handheld will be fine. If you are concerned about too many highlights, shoot the car right after sunset or just before sunrise and the sky becomes a big soft box

 

[liggy]

Next time I do a car shoot I'm going to use a CPL. Metering hasn't really been an issue in the past IIRC.
Mmmm... RS5. Lovely sleeper of a car.

 

[Tinopener]

Hi all
Being quite new at this photography lark .. What does a light meter do and how does it help the photographer ... PS sorry it seems a silly question

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

The meter measures reflected ambient light(in stops of light) in the absence of other lighting and thereby
provides illumination information to enhance or limit your subject exposure by adjusting your cameras
settings accordingly.

In scenarios wherein you are using strobes or flashlights to illuminate your subject, either outdoors or more
often in a studio environment, this is where the meter really comes into its own by being able to "measure" the
reflected background light from your subject or background and then based on your light source arrangement
be able to set the power of your light sources in sequence to achieve the overall subject look/illumination and
exposure you want to achieve. Often for multi light source shooting the camera is first set to eliminate the
ambient reflected light on your subject and achieve a black screen before imposing the light from your light
sources at appropriate powers to achieve a wholly artificially illuminated appearance.

As you can gather from the above it takes a good bit of practice to become proficient but essentially is a process
wherein you add/or subtract light meter values from the various light sources to achieve the desired subject or
background look.

These days many photographers do not use light meters but instead use their experience and camera settings to
achieve the subject/background look they want....the technology built into cameras(exposure meters etc) these days
can help to do this.