Spot Meter

A reflected light meter with a small field of view which measures the intensity of light reflected from a scene or a specific part of a scene.

A spot meter is used by the director of photography to evaluate the brightness ratio within a scene. By looking through the spot meter the DOP, gaffer, or any member of the camera team can read a reflected light value in f stops of a particular part of the scene being photographed. For example a bright window might read f22 and a dark shadow might read f2.0 giving a tonal range of 7 stops for the scene. The DOP can then decide where to set the camera's exposure to render the scene accurately or whether it's necessary to add fill light to reduce the overall contrast ratio.