Are you ready for a professional light meter?

Ray ⋅ Equipment, Guest Article ⋅ 0 Comment

Light meters are an essential tool for anyone who calibrates light-producing or light-sensing equipment. From indoor and outdoor digital displays to photography and even to indoor lighting, a professional-quality light meter should factor in any and all calibration systems.

From digital screen calibration to photography there are many cases when a professional light meter is an essential tool. Light meters work by analyzing ambient light through a sensor, or by detecting light at a specific location through the use of a probe, and reporting back multiple metrics on that light to a technician. Metrics that are reported include overall brightness, color range information, and exposure data. There are many scenarios that require a professional light meter and they include, but are not limited to:

• Calibrating and adjusting digital displays. From calibrating in-home HD-televisions to ensuring that industrial and medical monitors are easily read in high-light conditions and that they don’t dazzle an operator in low-light conditions it’s important to ensure that the light output of a monitor remains constant and accurate. The importance of correct color and luminance of a monitor goes beyond ensuring that it’s comfortable to use, however, as clear and accurate color reproduction is often essential in medical and engineering applications.

• Preparing a scene for photography and ensuring that a camera’s settings are calibrated and adjusted accordingly. In photography there are many important factors that mean the difference between a bright, vivid, and life-like photograph and a dull or even blurred image and one of the most important aspects for a photographer to control for is lighting. While a digital light meter doesn’t give the photographer control over the Sun or even indoor lighting, it does give her the ability to know ahead of time what the effects of lighting will be on camera exposure and in her photographs. From sports photography to field journalism it’s often necessary to make quick decisions regarding exposure settings and filters and a light meter goes a long way in helping the photographer make quick and informed decisions.

• Managing power costs, decreasing pollution and increasing productivity. Lighting in offices and other buildings is typically controlled either by a manual switch or is set to a timer and while these mechanisms give managers control over whether the lights are on or off, they do not offer fine-tuned control over the amount of light that the lighting systems produce and, more often than not, the available light from windows and other sources means that indoor lighting doesn’t need to be working at 100% all the time. Thus, many businesses and government agencies have turned to light meters which help the indoor lighting systems detect how much light they need to produce rather than simply working at full capacity. This fine-tuned control over lighting not only helps manage power costs but, also decreases negative impact on the environment as well. Finally, many studies have shown that internal lighting is often too harsh and can cause eyestrain and other types of stress on personnel. Light meters help businesses monitor and adjust indoor lighting to a more comfortable level and this decreases stress on personnel, resulting in less down time due to eye strain and other stress-induced health problems.

Whether you’re an audio/video technician installing in-home theatre equipment or medical display monitors or whether you’re a professional photographer and you have to get the lighting just right, a professional light meter is essential in not only detecting ambient luminance and color information but, also, in keeping your own equipment adjusted and calibrated just right every time.

Paul McKergee is a freelance writer interested in Konica Minolta. Learn more about the applications of Light meters and color analyzer by visiting us today.