iPhone as a light meter?
iPhone is the multi-hyphenate device.
You use it to get around, paying for our coffee, looking like a cat, throwing a private dance party.
and keeping up with our friends.
But for all of you photographers out there, did you know that you can actually use the iPhone
as a highly accurate light meter?
Let’s take a look.
This is the Lumu Power 2 Pro.
It snaps right into your iPhone through the lightning connector and with the Lumu light
metering app, gives you a full featured, light meter right on your iPhone.
The best thing about the Lumu 2 is the flexibility of the app.
You have all of these high-end, light meter and color meter features right at your fingertips.
Now a traditional light meter, they’re awesome.
Traditional color meter it’s fantastic.
But if an engineer comes up with a new feature, or a new way to use the interface, it’s
not like they can just add another button or dial somewhere.
There is a lot of flexibility doing this on a phone.
Quick tip.
You don’t have to fire the meter off here on the screen.
You can actually use the volume buttons.
So, is the Lumu 2 pro a replacement for a light meter or a color meter?
Yes and no.
It’s highly accurate.
It’s very, very precise.
If you are using it for landscapes or cityscapes, natural light conditions, natural light portraits,
constant light portraits, I think it’s an excellent choice.
It gets a little sticky if you are shooting with strobes.
It can read flash, but it doesn’t sync with flash.
And that could be a deal breaker for certain photographers.
On the color meter end, this is an amazing value.
The only issue for a DP of course would be if the set banned wireless devices or phones.
So, that’s something to definitely consider.
You know the thing that surprised me the most about the Lumu 2 pro was the implementation
of the spot meter.
I wasn’t sure how that was going to work.
It actually leverages the iPhone camera to get in and get that tiny, tiny precise reading.
And it was awesome.
It’s a really well-designed UI.
That’s very considerate of a field photographer.
Alright, so what I’m doing now is using the spot metering function.
This is really cool.
It leverages the iPhone camera.
I’m looking at the small percentage of the composition.
And I’m just using this little circle which I can move around.
I want to give priority to Matt here.
So, I’m looking at Matt, got the meter right on him.
Raise my shutter.
And, lower my ISO a bit here.
That looks good.
You can click in on hold and that’s grabbing Matt there.
And my exposures gonna be ISO 125-ish.
ISO 100 maybe.
f/2 and 1/640th of a second.
Now, we may go third of stop under, third of a stop over, but that’s a pretty great
place to start.
Alright, ready to shoot Matt?
Alright!
You are gonna want to look right at me.
Tilt your head just a little bit.
Bring it back.
Yeah – touch more.
Alright coming in.
The iPhone has gotten so good at so many things, it’s this wonderful general-purpose device
that helps folks navigate their lives a little better.
The Lumu Power 2 pro meter, you pop it in there you get a very, very powerful professional
grade light meter you can use for photo and for video.
It fits right into this perfect little leather pouch slide it into your pocket with the iPhone.
Go anywhere, do anything.
For more on the Lumu Power 2 Pro, photography and all things imaging, visit B&H.
I’m photographer David Flores, see you next time.