Purpose of EV reading on light meter?

Started Apr 24, 2010 | Discussions thread
Contributing MemberPosts: 835
Something simple to use...
In reply to seem, Apr 26, 2010

EV is measured in stops. Although there are several reasons to use EV, the best way may be for someone that doesn't want to do a lot of math on the fly.

Say a given exposure gives you an EV of 8, your film or sensor may only have a 4 stop range from lost blacks to blown highlights (4 EV range). You can use this to measure the area around your metered subject, shadows under that tree and the sun hitting that white wall to the left as an example. This can tell you if you need to throw a little light in the shadows to lower the contrast to get detail.

Of course you can use your meter as a standard f/stop and shutter speed reading to figure out the same thing but for some it's harder to think in stops on the fly. I personally don't know all the f/stops in 1/3 increments but I know them in whole stops and I just call it f/5.6 +2/3 and I just do the stops that way.

Hope this makes sense...

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