New Light Meter,,,can this be true,,,,

[rangiku]

Thanks for the explanation, Nat. I've been putting off getting lights, but it going to happen soon.

P.S. I still use film: black and white with a 4 X 5 camera shooting and developing using Ansel Adams Zone System. And, I print my own color film.

[Donald]

Try metering on your plants. You're going to notice a big difference in the readouts.

[FrankP999]

Originally Posted by rangiku

What is the proper way to take a meter reading for plants? In photography, you meter on the object. Do you take your meter reading on your actual plants or on the area around the plants. Vast difference between the two, especially if you are metering on a white windowsill.

Think Incident Light Meter for a photographic term.

Frank

[rangiku]

Exactly, Frank. Not reflective. Time to google the conversion to foot candles.

[gnathaniel]

Originally Posted by rangiku

Thanks for the explanation, Nat. I've been putting off getting lights, but it going to happen soon.

P.S. I still use film: black and white with a 4 X 5 camera shooting and developing using Ansel Adams Zone System. And, I print my own color film.

That's cool that you still use film! I used to love shooting and printing B+W but I've never tried printing color. I finally switched to digital a few years ago for convenience and it is nice in its way, but I miss a lot of the subtle qualities the film media brought to my photos...

I have a good friend who shoots mostly 4x5. He worked at a photo equipment store for a while so he was able to pick up a lot of gear for cheap. Definitely nice for some enormous blow-ups.

--Nat

[Connie Star]

Originally Posted by BobInBonita

Gnathaniels absolutely correct about photography measuring light reflected by the subject, whereas in growing we measure the light hitting the subject (the intensity of the source). One idea (using the camera analogy) that helped me understand window lighting better:
Imagine the orchid as a relatively wide angle lens pointing at the light.
When close to the window, the field of view of the lens is completely filled, and it is just like being outside. The intensity is pretty much the same as being outside (unless there is screening or the window is dirty).
Once you get far enough away that the field of view is not filled, the window acts like a point source and the intensity falls off with the square of the distance from the window.

That is a great explanation! Thanks.

[rangiku]

Off topic, but, in photography both reflective and incident light meter readings are used. Reflective is used for the most part when the sun is the light source; incident is used when studio lights are used.