Heya ppl.

I'm a night time person. I've been a projectionist for 9 years or so. Dark gloomy atmosphere. I've worked in kitchens for a few years from dish pig to cook, always prefered night work. My last job was night shift at Aussie Post starting at 8pm and finishing at 4am. I'm used to seeing in the dark.

Suprise, suprise, all my photos come out dark when I download them to my computer. Even when I look at the LCD screen of my shot on the back of my camera during my photo outings, I try to take lighter shots, yet they look washed out to me and I think I've got what I need. But when I get home.....

Its gotten to the point that I'll take 3 or 4 shots starting at, say, 100th/sec, then 200, then 300. The 300/sec looks fine to me on the LCD. But it turns out that the 100/sec is still too dark.

Are light meters worth a few dollars to help pinpoint the ISO, exposure, Aperature etcetc....??

I think I need one to point me in the right direction, but don't want to spend too many $$$.

This sounds more like that you need to calibrate your monitor than a problem with light metering what happens if you post an image from the camera without doing any adjustments on your PC .. Or post something here so we can see what you mean..  I  do sometimes use a seperate light meter in tricky light or to get a reading from the subject or towards the camera they can be very accurate for such work. But the metering is not often out in a modern day digital..

I have a handheld meter but as Danny said, it is out of its case rarely.  When I really need it is there but that honestly has not happened much.

I'd try the other options first before purchasing the meter. 

Hello,

From my own experience, I only use my light meter for studio works.
Light meters shows you basically what is the best aperture for a certain ISO and Speed configuration. ex : f./8 @  100 iso 1/125th. You choose the ISO and speed settings ( some very basic light meters the ISO and speed settings can't be selected)

Of course light meters can be used "outside", but imagine what the nightmare it is you have to go near the object you want to photography point the light meter in the direction where you want to take the picture. Go back to that point adjust your camera settings and shoot .... and damn! Those clouds have moved during the light controlling. Some light meters have spot metering system so you haven't to move near the subject but those ones are very "expensive".

In short terms, light meters are only useful where you have a certain control on the light sources and/or the subject.

I don't know what is your camera.  But normally you have a semi-automatic mode when you push the shutter button the 1st time the camera will calculate the best exposure/speed ( it's called a pose meter ) and after you can adjust by yourself the exposure and speed.

So what is the solution in your specific case ? Testing testing and testing again take some notes and when you've got for a certain situation a "good" picture analyses the parameters.

There's something I don't understand very well, do you check the histogram display when you are reviewing  your pictures on the LCD ? Understanding what the histogram ( luminosity ) means and shows could be very useful on your case.  But again keep in mind that the histogram (and the LCD)  are  only there to show you the general trend of the final picture. They help you to take a good picture but they don't make a good picture.

Hope it will help you.

Aegy

jedink, does your camera have a menu option for showing the histogram? Aegipan mentioned that and it may help if you check it out.  Perhaps you already have and it is all in your computer, I don't know.

Here are 3 quickies taken a moment ago of histograms of the same subject with different settings.   Note, the further to the left the darker the image and further to the right the brighter. With the graph intensity nearer the middle is supposed to be the most balanced exposure of light and dark.

The first is underexposed.

About right for this subject...a perfectly balanced graph centered in the window is perfection but I have yet to find natural balances of light and dark to meet those standards...and that is what makes some photos much more appealing than other..the action of the light overall.

Overexposed.    Sure, this is a quickie and not a perfect example but it shows what the histogram is all about.  Greatly overexposed will push most of the graph to the right.  Greatly underexposed will do the same but to the left side.

If your histogram shows a good balance of light and the image looks ok on the LCD, the problem is not in the camera capture in my opinion.

As I remembered, your gallery images show fine exposure...Danny may have hit the nail right on in the first reply.
At least, this gave me a chance to snap a few snapshots and perhaps will help someone else along the way.   : )

Cool, cheers muchly for responses.

I've checked out a moniter calibration webpage a while back on my own comp. not this one. I think I'll check out a few more to see if I can average it out. I must admit I didn't even think of that.

I use the Canon 400d. It does have a historygram function, I'll just have to dig out my manual to learn how to use it.

I'll try these before I even think of shelling out some coin.

TY people.