Sekonic Light Meters: Exposure Meters and Color Meters for Professional Photographers and Cinematographers

Vincent Laforet on Sekonic and Light Metering

7/22/2011 - Control the Light and Improve Your Photography: Part I – Portraiture using Available Light

Control Light With Style: L-308DC Free Skin

Controlling Light with Matthew Jordan Smith

Flashmaster L-358. User-friendly affordable meter with advanced features and optional wireless triggering.

Controlling Light is an essential skill for photographers, videographers and digital filmmakers. Sekonic makes tools such as light meters, color meters and illuminometers to help you measure and control light for the perfect exposure. Save time and money by getting it right in-camera instead of in post-production. Need inspiration or guidance? You've come to the right place. Please enjoy our tutorials, articles and videos. Read more »

Videos

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L-208: Getting Started

L-358: Getting Started

L-308S: Getting Started

Off-Camera Metering with Steve Sint

L-758DR Quick Start Guide: Part 1

L-308DC: Compact Light Meter Made for Videographers

Vincent Laforet on Sekonic and Light Metering

Why You Need a Light Meter for Photography

Why You Need a Light Meter for Cine/Video and HDSLRs

Video

Now Streaming: Lighting 101: Using a Meter for Cine
Cinematographer Ryan E. Walters explains why using a meter is vital to lighting a cine set, and demonstrates how he uses his L-758Cine to ensure correct exposure and craft the look of his lighting. View video »

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ArticlesRSS

Overcast Day
How do you take advantage of the soft, even light of an overcast day without ending up with images that look flat and unflattering? Don Marr explains in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book Available Light. Read more »

Digital Portrait Photography: Incident Light Meter Positioning
Positioning your meter and yourself can affect the accuracy of your readings and the look of your images. Steve Sint covers the fine points of metering technique in this excerpt from his Lark book, Digital Portrait Photography. Read more »

The Separation Light
How do you highlight or play down specific areas of portrait subjects and make sure that dark hair doesn't merge with the background? Jeff Smith explains how to set up and meter separation lights in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book Corrective Lighting, Posing, and Retouching for Digital Portrait Photographers. Read more »

Light Placement
In this excerpt from his Amherst Media book Lighting Techniques for Photographing Model Portfolios, Billy Pegram shows how to bring out a model's beauty, change the tone of a shot, and play up specific physical features. Read more »

Metering at Night
What are your odds of getting exposure right with an in-camera meter at night? Let's just say you shouldn't put any money on it. Jim Zuckerman explains how you can get better results with a handheld meter when lights are low. Read more »

Studio Lighting: Understanding Ratios
Determining exposure and working with shadows are the basic elements of studio photography. Jim Zuckerman explains how to meter and apply lighting ratios, position lights, and place shadows to craft the look of your studio images. Read more »

Metering 101: How to Choose a Light Meter and Why You Need One
Ever been confused about why you need a light meter and how to choose one? Learn the basics about light meters. Read more »

How to Use a Handheld Meter
Bewildered by how to use your handheld light meter? Join professional photographer Jim Zuckerman as he explains Incident, Reflected and Flash metering modes and how to use them. Read more »

Jim Zuckerman on Landscape Photography: Shooting into the Sun
Photographer Jim Zuckerman explains how to meter and compose images that use the sun as a key element. Read more »

Incident and Reflected Light
Allison Earnest explains how to evaluate, manipulate, and meter incident and reflected light to sculpt a portrait. Read the excerpt from her Amherst Media book. Read more »

Lighting Rooms
How do you light a space featuring two models, one product, fifteen reflective materials, overhead tungsten lights, and a window? Robert Morrissey explains in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book. Read more »

Selections from Wes Kroninger's Lighting
Commercial and editorial photographer Wes Kroninger tells the stories behind his images, providing lighting diagrams, technical details, and tips in ten selections from his Amherst Media book. Read more »

Portraits Against a White Background: Step by Step
Kirk Tuck explains how to get lighting and exposure right when shooting a portrait with one or more people against a clean, white background in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book. Read more »

Greenscreen
Want to photograph your subject in front of the Taj Mahal on a zero-dollar travel budget? You can drop in any background you like when you shoot photo and video subjects in front of a greenscreen. Learn how to set it up, light it, and drop it out with this excerpt from Amherst Media book Christopher Grey's Lighting Techniques for Beauty and Glamour Photography. Read more »

Flash Photography for Macro and Close-up
Robin and Rod Deutschmann explain how to light and expose the foreground and background of your images when you're shooting close-up in this excerpt from their Amherst Media book Flash Techniques for Macro and Close-up Photography. Read more »

Balancing Flash with Ambient Light
How do you combine flash with ambient lighting to balance foreground and background exposure in a scene? Jim Zuckerman covers the metering modes, camera settings, and processes that will give you creative control. Read more »

Common Metering Mistakes
So you metered your scene and checked your settings twice, but the shot just isn't coming out right. Jim Zuckerman explains how to avoid seven common metering mistakes. Read more »

Exposing for Sunrises and Sunsets
Photographer Jim Zuckerman explains how to meter to control exposure and tonal range when the sun is low in the sky. Read more »

Shoot Better, Edit Less
Wish you spent more time shooting and less in front of a computer, fixing less-than-perfect photos? Jim Zuckerman explains how to capture stronger images in the first place. Read more »

Understanding Middle Gray
It's the guiding light for reflected modes such as spot metering. Jim Zuckerman explains how understanding middle gray will help you control exposure and tonality. Read more »

Wildlife Photography
Photographing animals and birds in their natural habitats requires many skills, including the ability to handle a multitude of lighting situations. Jim Zuckerman explains how to work with light when you're out in the wild. Read more »

Concepts for Flash Photography
When should you use high-speed flash sync, how do shutter speed and sync speed relate, and what the heck is propagation delay? Neil van Niekerk explains it all in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book Off-Camera Flash. Read more »

The Five Basic Portrait-Lighting Setups
Paramount. Loop. Rembrandt. Split. Rim. Bill Hurter provides light-by-light instructions and diagrams to show you how to create these essential portrait setups in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book. Read more »

Exposure with Off-Camera Flash
Allison Earnest explains how to take control of the balance between background and subject exposure on a location shoot in this excerpt from her Amherst Media book The Digital Photographer's Guide to Light Modifiers. Read more »

White-Line and Black-Line Lighting
Dr. Glenn Rand demonstrates how to use lights, reflectors, flags, and mirrors to create precisely controlled shots of glass objects in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book Lighting and Photographing Transparent and Translucent Surfaces. Read more »

Pro Digital Portrait Lighting: Mixed Light Levels
Learn how slight changes in your two-light setup will affect the look of your portrait subjects with this selection of lighting diagrams and images from Peter Hince's Pixiq book, Pro Digital Portrait Lighting. Read more »

Digital Portrait Photography: The Avatar Studios Shoot
How do you light a crowd of people in a beehive-shaped recording studio? Photographer Steve Sint explains the process of executing a tough group portrait assignment in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book Digital Portrait Photography. Read more »

Lighting Ratios
Don Marr explains the fundamentals that any working photographer needs to know: metering for two or more lights, using fill and back lighting, and how to light broccoli. Read the excerpt from his Amherst Media book. Read more »

Incident vs. In-Camera Metering
Photographer Jim Zuckerman sheds light on the difference between incident and reflected metering modes, and explains why handheld meters can handle situations that in-camera metering can't. Read more »

The Characteristics of Light
Stephen A. Dantzig gives a lesson on how to control exposure by understanding the quantity, quality, color temperature, and additive nature of light. Read the excerpt from his Amherst Media book. Read more »

Lighting for Photography: Control
Dr. Glenn Rand explains how to calculate exposure and how to test your digital camera to determine its true ISO equivalent in this excerpt from his Amherst Media book. Read more »

Harmonizing Flash with Ambient Light
Learn how to set your flash and exposure to capture natural-looking images of people in mixed light with this excerpt from Steve Sint's Pixiq book Digital Wedding Photography: Art, Business & Style. Read more »

Lighting Large Products
Is it bigger than a breadbox? In this excerpt from his Amherst Media book, John Siskin explains how to light and expose product and still-life subjects that won't fit on your shooting table. Read more »

Lighting Ratios for Small Flash Photography
How do you control contrast and use light to shape your subject? Learn to apply lighting ratios with this excerpt from the Amherst Media book Bill Hurter's Small Flash Photography. Read more »

How to Light and Meter for a White Background
Would you like to light a white background perfectly? Claudio Basso has a great step-by-step instructional on how to get those perfect even whites. Read more »