I was looking into light meters and came to the topic of correct exposure. (working with an old camera fearing the battery might run out and where only the light meeter stops in this camera)
It clarified what a stop was for me, I wanted to share.
When we look at a scene we can now what the light is, we do not need a meter for that. OK it takes some exercise, but humans are not bad at it.
Now depending on the light you need to adapt your ISO, shutter speed or aperture.
I learned by heart: Normal sunlight is EV15 ISO100 1/1000s f5.6
from that you can change 2 parameters in opposite direction and you still have correct exposure (change the same number of stops):
For ISO and shutter speed 1 stop is *2 or /2.
For aperture 1 stop is the next in line in the series: 1; 1.4; 2; 2.8; 4; 5.6; 8; 11; ... (this is 1; 1.4; 2*1; 2*1.4; ....)
So normal sunlight is also EV15 ISO200 1/2000s f5.6 or EV15 ISO100 1/500s f8.
When you see clouds the light is a bit less, that is about a stop: EV14 ISO100 1/500s f5.6; ...
I tried it on different scenes at lunch (under tree, skyline exposure, different sides of the tree, cars, sun/cloudy, etc...) and even if I do still miss 20%; 80% of the time this allowed me to manually set my camera in a position where I have maximum 1/3 of a stop of deviation without using the internal meter to set the parameters.
Obviously you can also work in between stops (on 1/3ds) in this way.
It seems very useful to me to check what your (internal) light meter states by looking at the light yourself and maybe correct (EV+-) and to evaluate material purchases, when knowing the relationship between capabilities and the effect in stops.
P.S. some use the sunny 16 rule, this should work similarly.
It clarified what a stop was for me, I wanted to share.
When we look at a scene we can now what the light is, we do not need a meter for that. OK it takes some exercise, but humans are not bad at it.
Now depending on the light you need to adapt your ISO, shutter speed or aperture.
I learned by heart: Normal sunlight is EV15 ISO100 1/1000s f5.6
from that you can change 2 parameters in opposite direction and you still have correct exposure (change the same number of stops):
For ISO and shutter speed 1 stop is *2 or /2.
For aperture 1 stop is the next in line in the series: 1; 1.4; 2; 2.8; 4; 5.6; 8; 11; ... (this is 1; 1.4; 2*1; 2*1.4; ....)
So normal sunlight is also EV15 ISO200 1/2000s f5.6 or EV15 ISO100 1/500s f8.
When you see clouds the light is a bit less, that is about a stop: EV14 ISO100 1/500s f5.6; ...
I tried it on different scenes at lunch (under tree, skyline exposure, different sides of the tree, cars, sun/cloudy, etc...) and even if I do still miss 20%; 80% of the time this allowed me to manually set my camera in a position where I have maximum 1/3 of a stop of deviation without using the internal meter to set the parameters.
Obviously you can also work in between stops (on 1/3ds) in this way.
It seems very useful to me to check what your (internal) light meter states by looking at the light yourself and maybe correct (EV+-) and to evaluate material purchases, when knowing the relationship between capabilities and the effect in stops.
P.S. some use the sunny 16 rule, this should work similarly.