Advice on M metering coming from DSLR?

[oysterboy]

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Hi All,

 

Awesome forum!

 

I am about to get my new M digital and currently shoot with a 5d2 canon which I like but i am excited about rangefinder photography in general.

 

What are the general rules if I am used to shooting DSLR of things I have to change/adapt, especially in the metering? ( I am familiar with manual focusing as I do so with my TSE lenses all the time on my 5d2) but from what I read it seems like the metering between the M digital and the DSLR's is quite different?

 

 

 

Any articles or links about this?

 

Thanks for all the advice.

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[vanhulsenbeek]

With all respect, but why don't you first read the manual, try things out, and then come with questions?

In case you do not have the paper manual yet, you can read.download it from here:

http://en.leica-camera.com/service/downloads/rangefinder_cameras/m9/

[giordano]

Exposure metering on M cameras is (depending on your viewpoint) either very crude or very straightforward in comparison with current DSLRs. It's explained in the manual (which you can download from the Leica website) and there's plenty of information in these threads among others:

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/113535-metering-exposure.html

 

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/leica-m9-forum/115658-tips-exposure-please.html

[diogenis]

We have mentioned it many times over, the problem is, that the camera's lightmeter and any lightmeter from other cameras is calibrated at a very specific level or mix or ratio of lights/shades. What's more with the m9 is, that it's meter only sees a central area around this patch thats used for focus. So this is the main difference with dSLR: the dSLR may or may not take into account other regions of the scene and compensate for that.

With the leica you simply have to do this compensation with your mind.

So, you can do this either by dialing in a permanent EV compensation using the ring, or my using it to fully manual, and offsetting(from the central round led towards the left or right leds) as many stops as you like under or overcomposing.

After that I suggest that you enable preview with info and histogram to hunt 9do a bit of chimping)for highlight burns. You can expose to have only very little burnouts (just some tiny redspots on the scene) so that you can secure the whole shot.

After some time, you will learn this and you won't need to chimp.

[lars_bergquist]

The point is that there are no little electronic imps inside that try to 'think out' the exposure for you. You do it yourself. For this, you have to know what the camera is metering. The manual, unfortunately, does not do a very good job of that.

 

In the absence of both a SLR finder, and a continuously working sensor, metering has to be done from the shutter curtain. The system is simple. First we have that white shutter slat, surrounded by two grey ones. This array is read by a meter sensor. The result is a metering pattern that looks like a not too well delimited sausage or zeppelin, including the RF patch but with a width about equal to that of the 75mm frame in the finder. The actual meaning of this, in degrees of arc, varies with the lens mounted, of course. I would say that ninety percent of the reading comes from that 'sausage'. What's outside that patttern is simply not considered.

 

In very many straightforward situations, without a large contrast range or very uneven lighting, an automatic metering from that pattern does serve the bill. If the light is tricky, my procedure is to ignore 'compensation' which is more than 50% guesswork, and switch over to manual, metering the area of the subject that is the best approach to medium light -- think of a grey card. This is faster and less 'iffy' than compensation, which I have never bothered with with any other camera either. So, use the meter as a semi-spot one.

 

I second the suggestion to activate the 'button hold down preview', and a look at the histogram, if you are setting up for a sequence of exposures. Keep the curve to the right, up to but not much beyond the white point. When working fast, there is no time for this however. Learn by doing.

 

A very meaningful accessory is a handheld meter (or maybe an ExpoDisc) giving you the ability to meter an artificial diffuse highlight, which is the critical parameter. If that is right, everything else is right, and varying subject reflectances like snow scenes or coal holes cannnot deceive you. A correct metering does also give you maximum shadow exposure, and correct midtones.

 

The old man from the Age of Selenium Meters

[diogenis]

Lars, you can use an expodisk to also find correct EV ?

[lars_bergquist]

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Certainly. Aim the camera (with the disc in front of the lens) from the subject, in the direction toward your taking position, and set the exposure manually. Exactly the same procedure as with a hand meter with that little opal dome moved in front of the meter cell. Both the ExpoDisc and any hand meter with incident light capability will have instructions in the manual.

 

Remember that it is the light that falls on the subject, not the light reflected from it, that you are metering. If the subject is inaccessible (maybe it bites) you hold the rig in light that is the same as that which falls on the subject, and point it in a direction that is parallel to that from subject to taking point.

 

Note that you don't point the camera/meter toward the light source. That is valid only if you will have the light source directly behind you when making the shot (flat lighting). Sidelight will require more exposure, so you meter the sidelight. -- Incident light metering is the most precise method there is, and it has been the only method used by cinema photographers.

 

The old man

[viramati]

personally I don't carry a disc but in backlight or difficult situations I will take a reading from the back of my hand. Ok this is obviously not as accurate as grey card but has always worked for me

[Overgaard]

As you most likely have used "intelligent" matrix or other metering in the dSLR where the camera figure out 70-90% of exposures based on exposure-mixes it has stored in it (the ones where it doesn't work is strong backlight and other 'tricky' light situations), the Leica M9 will be different.

 

In most cases it will measure correctly simply pointed towards a scene, and in the cases with tricky light or backlight it will need help. As the light metering is based on a rather acoustic (non-intelligent) metering of the center of the lens dependent area (see manual; the area changes with lenses), it's like a broad spot-meter. So you can point it towards something middle-grey, lock that exposure by pressing the shutter-release half down, then reframe and shoot. I actually find that easy to work with after a while; because you can use that as a short-cut to lock the exposure to anything you want, without having point the camera and press the shutter where your finer anyways is.

 

You can see in the viewfinder (when on A mode) that the top dot of the two dots between for example 5:00 is lighting constant, that the exposure has been locked.

 

It's 5.00 and then you press the shutter half down, and then it is 5:00 and that means the exposure has been locked.

[thrid]

The camera has about 8.5 stops of useable range, so imagine you are shooting with really good slide film.

 

Expose for the highlights to avoid blowing them out and open up the shadows in post.

 

Using exposure compensation you can split the available range of the sensor.

 

Try 4 stops below gray and 4.5 above.

Or 3.5 stops below gray and 5 above.

 

Find a middle gray value (caucasian face) in your scene and use that to meter from through the viewfinder. But be aware of how much higher the highlights are. Again, you can dig detail out of the shadows.

 

Shooting the M9 is very different than a DSLR with good matrix metering. Basically you need to understand exposure and how that sensor reacts.

 

Part of the problem is that the M9 relies on a meter that was primarily designed for film. It's a 'dumb' or 'passive' metering system that does not think for you.

 

A matrix meter will compare it's readings to a huge library of exposures and pick the 'correct' one that is closest to what it thinks it is seeing. This can be extremely reliable. The Nikon matrix metering system is unnervingly good.

 

The M9 basically has a fat spot meter than only tells you what to set exposure to, to make that object 18% gray. It does not take multiple readings and average them together or similar. Basically it is counting on you knowing what you are doing.

 

This was not a big deal with the film bodies.Negative film can deliver up to 15 stops of range and is a lot more forgiving when it comes to exposure errors. Slide film and digital are not very forgiving at 7-9 stops of range, so you have to be smart about how you expose. But the good news about digital is that the shadows are quite noise free, so you can recover a lot more detail from them compared to film and artificially boost your dynamic range. So, expose for the highlights, because if you clip them you will have an ugly picture that can't be recovered.

 

I strongly advise you to get a hand held incident meter like the Sekonic 308 and learn how to use it.

 

Just start shooting and you'll get the hang of it.