Light metering

[KevinBoyette]

Newbie to Helicon. Sorry if this is an ignorant question. I want to use this software on my android as a remote to increase the number of exposure stops for HDR photographs. I use a Canon T4i and the default is only 3 stops. I use this for real estate photography. I am testing this software to use but the one issue I am having is how to see the light meter and adjust the shot using live view. I dont see the light meter scale on the application. is there an auto setting for this or will I have to do this on the camera body? If on the body do I have to turn of live view every time i compose a picture? Sorry, i'm just a bit confused.

[Stas Yatsenko]

There is no lightmeter support in Helicon Remote yet. Apart from that, you should be able to make any necessary adjustments from the program's interface. As for setting exposure with the help of live view picture, that's possible with enabling live view exposure simulation (menu -> Tools -> Live view on Windows / Mac; Live view tab on Android). Since exposure simulation is not always accurate, don't forget to check actual exposure using Fast Preview feature of the program.

[KevinBoyette]

Thanks for the quick response. I sort of solved the issue by going to the Canon settings and turning "Keep LCD on during live view" then I can adjust the exposure time with the camera dial. Still accomplishes everything I need to on the tripod. Only issue I have is shooting from my extension pole for elevated shots of the house. The simulated exposure is not quite good enough for that especially trying to look at the LCD screen and judging exposure while outside on a sunny day. Other than that I have really enjoyed testing the software. Thanks a bunch.

[Stas Yatsenko]

The histogram and "highlight overexposed areas" feature should help in this case.

[KevinBoyette]

Yes, I have been working with those to try to get consistent results. Not perfect but I will manage. Is there a technical reason the light metering will not work? Or is there a way to start a bracket series automatically at "0" (or some predefined stop) through the software interface?

BTW - I'm not complaining, just curious.

[Stas Yatsenko]

When I've investiated the lightmeter, its reading were only available when live view is off which makes it useless for most users. We considered it not worth spending time to implement. Maybe it has changed since then, we'll look into it when an opportunity arises.

I'm not sure I understand your question. Select a number of shots and step for the exposure bracketing and it'll make a series (if you mean exposure bracketing).

[KevinBoyette]

So to clarify... When I photograph a home I always use exposure bracketing to compensate for lighting variances especially when I am photographing indoors where there is good subject matter through the windows (like a pool or waterfront property). my workflow is that I compose the photo then read the available light, then adjust the shutter speed to where the exposure bracket is "centered" at "0" . So assuming a 5 photo bracket there would be two underexposed photos and 2 overexposed photos and 1 normal exposed photo. Occasionally, I don't start at "0" but normally I do. So, I am wondering if there is a way to automatically start at "0" as the center point rather than having to adjust it for each shot. I assume the answer is no since you are saying that there is not any light meter support. This would make the workflow much faster. Again, not complaining, just wondering.

[Stas Yatsenko]

Have you used exposure bracketing feature of Helicon Remote? It should do exactly what you need: http://goo.gl/IB3DTJ

Or maybe I still don't understand the question, in that case please rephrase it.

[KevinBoyette]

yes, I have tested it quite a bit, and am overall very impressed. I'm just trying to find a reliable way to shoot some shots with just the remote without having to use the camera body controls. The only thing I can't really do is meter light without using the histogram and overexposure overlays. These work fine indoors where I can easily read the lcd display but outdoors the tablet/phone display is hard to see so trying to get it right is a bit difficult without the little "Exposure compensation meter" . It did help when I dropped the transparency of the histogram to 40%. This is not huge deal, just trying to make sure I am using the software to its full potential. One helpful feature might be to enable the volume buttons on the phone to adjust certain parameters. For instance I usually adjust the shutter speed to balance the photo's exposure. It would be easier to use the volume buttons instead of the onscreen adjustment since it is difficult to see outdoors. Not sure how possible this is. Thanks for your patience. Keep up the great work.

[Stas Yatsenko]

I see! Well, as I said, we have lightmeter in mind and will probably get to it as soon as we're done with the current tasks. Using volume buttons for customizeable controls is not a bad idea, it should go nicely with another idea that we have. Will add to our to-do list.

[KevinBoyette]

Thanks for listening. I have one more thought/request unrelated to the previous topic. As I stated previously, Most of my photography is for Real Estate. Is there a way to set an exposure bracket where one or more of the shots trigger the flash selectively? My reason is that when I photograph a room where there is a lot of light variables such as overhead incandescent lights, lamps, and natural light through skylights or windows, I tend to get a lot of inconsistency of results. If I increase the number of bracket shots to like 7 or 9, then it gets better, but then my post-production time increases substantially and the whites tend to be a little muddy. (each home I photograph will have 50+ shots). I have tested this theory where I shoot a 3 or 5 shot bracket with 2+/- stops in between, then manually shoot one shot at "0" with the flash (usually off-camera flash) then blend all of the results in Photomatix using Exposure Fusion. The results are much better and there are less shadows in the resulting shot. I would also, love to have "presets" where I can save my typical settings for future re-use. By the way, I love the app. It has been very stable to use on both my android phone and on a android tablet.

[Stas Yatsenko]

Presets is another thing that's already on the to-do, although I don't when we'll get to it, it's not trivial to implement.
As for the flash - I'm not sure if we can force it to trigger or not to trigger programmatically. Don't think it's possible, but I'll look into it.

[KevinBoyette]

Thanks for checking into this.