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How to Convert Light Meter Readings to Foot Candles

When you take a reading from your light meter in lux and need to convert it to foot-candles, you divide by 10.75, the number of lux in a foot-candle. Since lux and foot-candles are units that measure ambient light, it is easy to convert one into the other and back again.

Instructions

- 1
  Take a measure of the light using your light meter by pointing the light receptor (usually a white hemisphere) at the camera from the subject of your shot. Make sure there's nothing blocking the light and that the light is consistent.
- 2
  Divide your reading in lux by 10.75 to convert it to foot-candles. For instance, if your reading is 50 lux on the light meter, that would be 4.65 foot-candles.
- 3
  Get a quick reading without using a calculator. Simply drop the last digit from the lux reading. Here, 50 lux is roughly 5 foot-candles. This won't be an exact conversion but close enough for most purposes.

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