Which instrument reads the light reflected off the subject back to the lens?

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

Answer: (A)

Spot metering reads the light reflected from a very small portion of the subject through the camera lens. Because it samples a tiny area, it gives you an exposure for that specific spot, which is perfect when you want precise control over a highlight or a particular part of the scene. In practice, you meter that spot and set exposure so that area falls at a midtone in your scene (often treated as around 18% gray), then adjust if you want more or less brightness there.

This differs from an incident meter, which measures the light falling on the subject (you hold it at subject level with its dome facing the camera), giving exposure for the overall lighting rather than a specific spot. A color meter focuses on color properties like color temperature and color rendition, not the brightness of a particular area. A flat meter is an older or less common type and isn’t defined by reading reflected light through the lens in the same way as a spot meter.