Underexposure with an ND filter

[Andi_77]

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Your exposure meter must be out of adjustment. I don't use any compensation and my exposures are normally spot-on. If it is meant as safety buffer, you are throwing away nearly one stop of dynamic range.

 

When I have enough time to meter properly, it is spot-on, absolutely perfect.

In other situations it's a bit more complicated, but it's not its fault. Imagine you notice something interesting and you point and shoot really quickly, without the time to use the AE lock on a specific part of the picture. Imagine that "something" is not fully lit and it is beneath a really bright sky.

What will happen is that the meter will choose a "middle of the road" solution in terms of exposure.

I prefer to have the subject a bit darker and the rest correctly exposed, with less or no clippings, rather than the opposite.

It is difficult to explain (maybe it's my poor English) but it's something I've always done on any camera.

I prefer to "open up" the shadows in post-production, rather than increasing the risk of clippings.

[honcho]

The -0.7 exposure compensation is my standard setup without the ND filter......

 

Oh well, you've now learnt the folly of adopting bad habits.

 

Try the advice you've been offered here for long exposures. Hopefully you should see improved results. Good luck!

[Andi_77]

Sure!

 

I was only making myself clearer, but I will definitely try the advice I received

 

Regarding the rest: I honestly thing there's no such thing as a "bad" or "wrong" habit as long as the histogram of the image is fine (no clipping on the right hand side and decently "workable" shadows...).

[jaapv]

When I have enough time to meter properly, it is spot-on, absolutely perfect.

In other situations it's a bit more complicated, but it's not its fault. Imagine you notice something interesting and you point and shoot really quickly, without the time to use the AE lock on a specific part of the picture. Imagine that "something" is not fully lit and it is beneath a really bright sky.

What will happen is that the meter will choose a "middle of the road" solution in terms of exposure.

.

That won't happen to me ; the metering is usually on manual, I use it like an M6. Much faster and accurate. I never use AE lock or EV compensation.

[250swb]

We all have our ways of doing things, it's the results that count.

 

The MM meter (and M9) does reduce in effectiveness the darker the situation or filter you put on the lens. So while there is no reciprocity failure in digital photography increasing the exposure as if there were a reciprocity failure compensates to some extent for the camera's meter. But using a hand held meter, or metering without the 10 stop filter, should give you an accurate exposure if you calculate the ten stops difference. By the time you are near the MM's maximum exposure (four minutes) then half a minute either way won't make much difference. And you are going to be getting increased sensor noise and heating anyway, so rules go out the window and you have to start deciding what you will accept rather than worrying about making a perfect image.

 

Steve

[jaapv]

Sensor noise due to heat is effectively eliminated by the dark frame noise reduction

 

We all have our ways of doing things, it's the results that count.

 

Very true.