Color Coded Light Metering™ is in actuality a modern implementation of the instant film proofing process-- without the cost, the messy packaging, or the chemicals. In addition, Color Coded Light Metering™ can simultaneously display important exposure information about key areas of your image:
Color Coded Light Metering™ displays this information in rapid fashion, in about 2 seconds. Color Coded Light Metering™ can be modified to display the above important aimpoints for any image target. Or, other, different sections of the scale between highlight-and-shadow can be tagged with the Color Coded Light Meter™ to display points or segments of the transition of tone from highlight-to-shadow; it’s your decision as to what gets modified and displayed. Modifications of the basic settings can be saved to disk for later recall. You can set up different settings for different paper targets.
Using Color Coded Light Metering™ is simple. Make a Meter capture by clicking the Meter checkbox in the function window at the far right side of the user interface and then click Capture. A single flash will produce a multicolored image displayed over a grayscale image. Adjust the most important highlight with the aperture control on your lens. Fill the shadows appropriately so that the display numbers mirror your idea of where separable low values fade to black. Use the Capture Curve to modify the transitions between highlight-and-shadow (in concert with your best lighting). Once you’ve gotten the Meter Capture where it looks appropriate, shoot a color capture to check the values carefully. Zoom into the scene to closely monitor reflectances and their transitions.
There is something to keep in mind when you use Color Coded Light Metering™ and that is in metering reflectances that are considered minus green. Because we use the green filter for the meter capture, any reflectance that contains red or contains a red component (for example pink or orange), that reflectance will render in the meter capture as lower in value than it really is. To check those colors in Color Coded Light Metering™, make a color capture, and choose from the menu bar atop the monitor, View>Luminance and click Range from the tool box at the far right in the function window. That will use the RGB data rather than only green data for the color coded display.
One trick you may want to investigate is the use of the Color Coded Light Meter™ when in Live Focus mode. Make a meter capture, adjust the aperture so the high values are kinda right and note the basic distribution of range colors. Put the camera in Focus and click Range. Range colors will display on the live focus image. Adjust the aperture (AutoStop™ is great for this because it will remember the focus aperture) until the displayed range colors approximate the distribution from the Meter capture. You can now move lights and get them close to the placement you’ll want to use.