Which type of meter reads the amount of light reflected off of the subject back to the lens?

Which type of meter reads the amount of light reflected off of the subject back to the lens?

• A. Spot meter
• B. Incident meter
• C. Flat meter
• D. Color meter

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how a light meter gauges brightness to set exposure. A spot meter reads the light that is reflected off a small area of the subject and comes back through the lens. This makes it ideal for_metering a precise part of the scene, especially when you want to expose for a particular tone or detail in that spot. An incident meter, by contrast, measures light falling onto the subject, not the light reflected from it, so it tells you about the scene’s overall illumination rather than the brightness of a specific area. A color meter is used to evaluate color characteristics like color temperature or color balance, not to determine exposure from reflected brightness. A flat meter isn’t a standard term for this purpose in photography. So, the type that matches “reads the amount of light reflected off of the subject back to the lens” is the spot meter.

The main idea here is how a light meter gauges brightness to set exposure. A spot meter reads the light that is reflected off a small area of the subject and comes back through the lens. This makes it ideal for_metering a precise part of the scene, especially when you want to expose for a particular tone or detail in that spot.

An incident meter, by contrast, measures light falling onto the subject, not the light reflected from it, so it tells you about the scene’s overall illumination rather than the brightness of a specific area. A color meter is used to evaluate color characteristics like color temperature or color balance, not to determine exposure from reflected brightness. A flat meter isn’t a standard term for this purpose in photography.

So, the type that matches “reads the amount of light reflected off of the subject back to the lens” is the spot meter.