How to Use Your Camera’s Light Meter (7 Days to Mastering Manual Mode)

Understanding Your Camera’s Light Meter

Welcome to Day 2 of Mastering Manual Mode!

Now that we have covered the important reasons WHY you should be learning to shoot in manual mode, let’s move on to an overview of your Camera’s Light Meter, how to use it, and how it will impact your photos.

It’s ALL About the Light!

Your camera needs light in order to take beautiful photographs.  And it needs just the right amount of light to make a well-exposed photograph.

3 Ways of Letting Light Into Your Camera

Your camera has three ways of letting light in – the aperture, the camera shutter (shutter speed), and the sensitivity of the sensor (ISO).  These are often referred to as the exposure triangle.  I call them simply “The Big Three.”

Shooting in manual mode is all about balancing these three camera settings to let in just the right amount of light.  And your camera’s light meter is what you use to balance The Big Three!

When looking through your camera’s viewfinder, the light meter will look something like this:

How to Read Your Camera Light Meter

When looking at your camera’s light meter, note the plus “+” sign on the left side and the minus “-” sign on the right. 

• When your light meter has lines or dots toward the plus “+” symbol, it is a sign your photo is moving towards being overexposed.

• When your light meter has lines or dots moving toward the minus “-” symbol, your photo is moving toward being underexposed.

Using Your Camera Light Meter to Balance the Big Three

You can and should use your camera’s light meter to tell if you have too much or too little light coming through the lens.  The goal is to have it somewhere near the middle.

Balancing the Big 3 (aperture, shutter speed, and ISO) is like balancing on a three-way teeter-totter. 

• If you let MORE LIGHT in one way, you may need to reduce the amount of light you let in through one of the other ways.
• If you let LESS LIGHT in one way, you may need to increase the amount of light you let in through one of the other ways.

One Final Note

Remember that Manual Mode is different from Manual Focus! 

When we are talking about shooting in manual mode, I know that some people get confused and feel like when we shoot in manual mode, that also includes manual focus.  We are not talking about manual focus – that is something completely different.  

Continue letting your camera auto-focus – which I do 95% of the time!

Congratulations! You’ve just completed Day 2 of Mastering Manual!

But Don’t Stop Now!

Make sure to read the rest of our series to help you Master Manual Mode.  If you’ve missed any of these posts, you can read/review them anytime by clicking these links!