Exposure metering

[Annibale G.]

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Just to know or some advice. Where do you usually measure the exposure?

Annibale

[wparsonsgisnet]

Annibale, I use a 1-degree spotmeter so meter the zone I am interested in capturing, when standing at the camera position.

 

For example, with b/w, I meter the (caucasian) face and open up 1 stop, setting the face to zone vi as recommended by Ansel Adams.

 

For color, I meter the face and keep the reading. Zone v for the face works for me with color film.

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[earleygallery]

It depends on the scene/lighting. Outside on a bright day I will take a few readings and use the average. You can read a neutral tone like grass for example (equivalent to a grey card) or if you have an incident meter, from the light source.

[Mountaineer-American]

The metered zone of the M6 is essentially a big spot meter. I point it at an area which is about medium in light value for the scene. I shoot Tri-X with my Leicas & that method is usually correct. With my earlier, un-metered M cameras I go by experience or a simple, Gossen Pilot hand-held meter I have carried for over 40 years.

 

"Don't start vast projects with half-vast ideas."

[Annibale G.]

Is it correct with darker skin to mesure on the face and compensate in - 1 ?

[wparsonsgisnet]

Annibale, that's what I would try. Are you digital, and can you see right away? If not, I'd try bracketing till I figured out how darker faces are represented in images.

 

I just shot some sikhs and it is difficult to keep warm detail in the zones below v. Fortunately, the M8 retains lots of detail in the lower zones.

[Jean-Michel Komarnicki]

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Hi,

Buy a package of Grey cards (the standard cardboard cards from Kodak are ideal, you may cut one in half so it fits in a cameara bag or large pocket). Measure of the card and measure off the subject where you put the card; you will soon learn to assess if a subject you are metering is darker or lighter than middle gray. For instance, you will find that measuring of your palm (caucasian) is almost exactly one stop higher than middle gray, i.e.: if the meter says 1/125 at f8 off your palm, set the exposure one stop more, i.e. 1/125 at f5.6. Spend a day doing this and you will soon get a good fel for what you want to be middle gray. Or just frame the grea cards, after all they represent the ideal photograph from the camera and lightmeter's perspective! ;-)

Jean-Michel

[lars_bergquist]

All exposure metering based on reflected light is guesswork, unless you do know the exact reflectance of the subject or target, and the only subjects for which I know the exact reflectance after seventy years is new snow – 90% – and a Kodak 18% Gray Card (which is more or less what meters are calibrated to). Refleced light metering is quick and dirty, and it does often work under average, sun-over-your-shoulder conditions, because of the latutude of negative films. But when shooting reversal film or digital, reliability becomes marginal.

 

So, either you use a Gray Card or a hand meter for incident light (my choice) in doubtful situations. These are the only certain methods to ensure that your highlights will hold detail. In both cases you should ideally hold your meter under the nose of the subject, the way the old cine and studio photographers did, but it is usually easy to find a place where the lighting is the same, and meter that. At least when the illumination comes from the sun.

 

The metering of the M6, M7, MP and M8 is really not spot metering – that would mean 1° – but selective area. Fortunately! A spot meter demands brainwork by the user. When using one of these cameras, aim the center of the finder image at an important part of the subject, with about average reflectance (i.e. 18%), and hope for the best. Increase exposure by about 1 1/2 f-stop in backlit situations, or between one and one half in pronounced sidelighting. Do keep a small meter with that little opal hemisphere somewhere in your pants, for the hairy situations. As when reflectances are way off average – the proverbial baker in a snowdrift, or chimney-sweep in a coal-hole.

 

Bracketing exposures is an old respectable pro technique. With slide film or digital, make extra exposures at about one half stop over and under. With negative film, more leeway is needed – about one to one-and a half.

 

The old man from the Age Before Meters

[rob_x2004]

Or point your camera in the right direction and rotate your palm round in front of the lens for sunlit, shadow, bit of both. Wont take long before you get the hang of exposure.