Talk me off the incident metering cliff

[Chris CS]

I bought an Sekonic L-398A to use with my new 4x5 camera. My previous experience being medium format and digital with built in meters.

The incident meter works as I'd expect indoors or outside in shade. I'm having problems when it comes to sunlit subjects outdoors (what I almost always shoot as a street photographer)

I made some example pictures today to illustrate the problem (excuse the digital/test images ;p)


First I metered the scene as I understood incident meters are to be used

[Rick A]

Incident metering is normally done by holding the meter in front of the subject being photographed and pointing it back toward the camera, exposing the photocell to the same light falling on the subject. If thats not possible, then hold the meter in approximatly the same light as the subject and take the reading. I've been using an L-398 for years, its one of the finest meters on the market. Have you read the instruction manual for it, its very explicit on how to meter for all situations. If your subject is in bright sun, but you cannot get next to it to meter, just hold the meter out in the bright sun and take a reading. This will give you the correct exposure. If its in shade, try to get a reading in the same approximate lighting, once again, correct exposure. I will assume you know when to insert the "high" slide, as well as using the lumidisc or other accessories.
BTW, I dont see any images on your post(just the little red x in a box)

[Chris CS]

Clicked 'Submit' instead of 'Preview' then my internet connection failed and it was too late to edit.

Here are the images. This was an winter afternoon in New Zealand. About 2:30pm with the sun somewhat low but still intense.

I used the 'high-slide' and metered like so. Meter says 320 foot-candles/15EV.


Set the 'H' mark to 320 gives us F16, 1/125 at 100iso.

Results appear badly underexposed.

[Chris CS]

Bracketed exposures for comparison.

[Chris CS]

This is how the EOS 40D's reflected light meter reads the scene. Overexposed, but easy to correct for as it's expected.





What am I doing wrong with the L-398? I just want accurate/consistent exposure. F11 looks true to the scene. Why is my metered result so under-exposed?

Any help much appreciated

[Walter Calahan]

With 100 ISO film, and exposure of 1/125 @ 16 in bright sun would an 1/3 of a stop underexposed. Your exposure should be 1/100 @ 16; thus your 1/125 @ 13 is a more accurate exposure.

If using the sunny 16 rule, you must use the reciprocal of the ISO as your shutter speed. 100 ISO film shot at 1/125 with the sunny 16 rule will result in the slightly under exposed image.

[Mark Barendt]

This is how the EOS 40D's reflected light meter reads the scene. Overexposed, but easy to correct for as it's expected.
What am I doing wrong with the L-398? I just want accurate/consistent exposure. F11 looks true to the scene. Why is my metered result so under-exposed?

Any help much appreciated

You are not doing things wrong, there is just more going on here, it's not the meter.

The 40D is processing your shot in camera and adjusting the contrast. Go into the menu and set your 40D to it's lowest contrast setting and it will look more like the raw scan from the 4x5.

Negative film is a low contrast media and it needs to be worked to look right. The narrow histogram hump is normal.

[D. Bryant]

Go into the menu and set your 40D to it's lowest contrast setting and it will look more like the raw scan from the 4x5.

There is no contrast setting on the 40D or any other digital camera that I know of. He can adjust the shutter speeds by 1/3 of a stop,

The OP is metering correctly.

He just needs to practice with real film and adjust his metering technique and/or ISO settings.

For B&W negative materials a shadow reading can be made by shading the meter with ones hand or body.

Don Bryant

[Mark Barendt]

There is no contrast setting on the 40D or any other digital camera that I know of.

Yes there is, for the 40D see page 63 in the owners manual (at least it's page 63 in the PDF I found online). Right there with the saturation and sharpness and tone adjustments.

Nikons can do the same thing. My daughters little Olympus P&S does the same too.

The contrast setting can even be automatic by choosing a certain camera "modes". This auto mode may even be the default as delivered on many cameras.

[D. Bryant]

Yes there is, for the 40D see page 63 in the owners manual (at least it's page 63 in the PDF I found online). Right there with the saturation and sharpness and tone adjustments.

Nikons can do the same thing. My daughters little Olympus P&S does the same too.

The contrast setting can even be automatic by choosing a certain camera "modes". This auto mode may even be the default as delivered on many cameras.

Those are Picture Style modes which affect JPG only. Additionally Picture Styles can be applied to the RAW with Canon's DPP software during post if one wishes.

So for RAW capture there are no contrast settings.