Jeff S Posted January 23, 2015 Share #21 Posted January 23, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Indeed. I avoid using EV comp in general….either A mode or manual….that's simple enough for me. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 23, 2015 Posted January 23, 2015 Hi Jeff S, Take a look here Exposure Compensation on M9 and MM. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Jean-Michel Posted January 23, 2015 Share #22 Posted January 23, 2015 Hi, Dialling a plus or minus EV value simply tells the camera to increase or decrease the 'normal' exposure by that amount. This is regardless of whether you are in 'A' mode or in manual mode. In olden days we would measure light (incident or reflected) with a handheld meter and mentally adjust either aperture or exposure time, or set the meter with a higher or lower ISO than printed on the film box. Typically I would set Tri-X (nominally ISO 400) to ISO 320, and Portrait 160 to 100 -- that is one type of exposure compensation. The other type of exposure compensation is when the measured scene is not an 'average grey'. All exposure meters assume that we want the exposure to result in an average grey photo -- the 18% Kodak grey card is the ideal photograph according to light meters! The M9, and most likely all other M's remember the dialled over or under adjustment when setting the exposure. When setting the plus or minus EC you are really telling the camera that there is too much or too little light reflected from the measured area to result is a medium grey. You can also use the adjustment to achieve an adequate ETTR exposure. Jean-Michel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted January 23, 2015 Share #23 Posted January 23, 2015 In olden days we would measure light (incident or reflected) with a handheld meter and mentally adjust either aperture or exposure time I still occasionally use a small incident meter in tricky light (as do many others here). The exposure setting (speed, aperture….and ISO) is done manually without regard for the camera's meter, and without need to dial in EV comp. That was my earlier point about manual being manual, especially when one sets the exposure without regard to the camera's meter. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmahto Posted January 23, 2015 Share #24 Posted January 23, 2015 I guess the most unclear thing here for me (and going by responses, others as well) was the fact that exposure compensation in M affects the inbuilt light meter. This is why even in manual mode our exposure will be affected if we rely on the inbuilt light meter that is being compensated. It is similar to A mode with the only difference of me (rather than A algorithm) turning the shutter dial to match the arrows. You learn something everyday... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pop Posted January 23, 2015 Share #25 Posted January 23, 2015 I guess the most unclear thing here for me (and going by responses, others as well) was the fact that exposure compensation in M affects the inbuilt light meter. This is why even in manual mode our exposure will be affected if we rely on the inbuilt light meter that is being compensated. It is similar to A mode with the only difference of me (rather than A algorithm) turning the shutter dial to match the arrows. You learn something everyday... Quite, and it does not even matter if we happen to forget it again, as we can find out in the field what the meter does when changing the exposure compensation. Just change it and observe the exposure the meter will demand. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Michel Posted January 24, 2015 Share #26 Posted January 24, 2015 Hi again, There is no 'compensation' by dialling in a plus or minus ev what we essentially do is change the ISO for the meter. By dialling a plus 1 ev you basically tell the meter that the ISO is, say, 200 rather than 100. The meter then recommends an exposure that the meter thinks is normal for the ISO 200, the camera ISO remains at 100, just as when we set a handheld meter to 100 for an ISO 200 film. It may be that for a particular camera you may find that setting a plus or minus adjustment generally gives you a more desirable exposure. With my M9 I find that oI generally find a plus .7 ev gives me the exposure I want. It is of course important to meter for the 'zone 5' area. Or, figure out that on this side of the street the generally good exposure is 1/125 at f/5.6 and leave it at that. I have decades of contact sheets with this kind of exposure setting and with very few unusable frames in all those. Way too much fretting for the one-tenth of an f aperture settings! Jean-Michel Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmahto Posted January 29, 2015 Share #27 Posted January 29, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Hi again,There is no 'compensation' by dialling in a plus or minus ev what we essentially do is change the ISO for the meter. By dialling a plus 1 ev you basically tell the meter that the ISO is, say, 200 rather than 100. The meter then recommends an exposure that the meter thinks is normal for the ISO 200, the camera ISO remains at 100, just as when we set a handheld meter to 100 for an ISO 200 film. It may be that for a particular camera you may find that setting a plus or minus adjustment generally gives you a more desirable exposure. With my M9 I find that oI generally find a plus .7 ev gives me the exposure I want. It is of course important to meter for the 'zone 5' area. Or, figure out that on this side of the street the generally good exposure is 1/125 at f/5.6 and leave it at that. I have decades of contact sheets with this kind of exposure setting and with very few unusable frames in all those. Way too much fretting for the one-tenth of an f aperture settings! Jean-Michel I am asking a serious question. Does this minute adjustment (.7ev) make sense in digital post processing workflow? You can always adjust exposure for the mood you want later. As long as nothing is blown, IMHO exposure is good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbywise Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share #28 Posted January 29, 2015 It's kind of why I asked the question. I want to avoid blowing highlights on the MM, and use Manual mode quite a bit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IkarusJohn Posted January 29, 2015 Share #29 Posted January 29, 2015 I guess it begs the question of why you're using manual mode if you also use exposure compensation. I have found that both the M9 and Monochrom require reasonably accurate exposure (a bit lik slide film). Care need to be taken to avoid blown highlights (particularly with the Monochrom). So, you either take an incident light reading and adjust accordingly, or you understand how your centre weighted meter works in your camera, and you adjust accordingly. You either use A mode, and set an appropriate EV compensation using the thumb wheel, or you set the shutter manually. I can't really see any advantage in setting the shutter manually and using EV compensation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbywise Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share #30 Posted January 29, 2015 I had the idea of using manual mode, and setting the exposure compensation so that the light meter would under expose. Then, if needed, treat in post processing. I know I can use aperture priority, but was trying to come up with a system to constantly under expose in manual mode (i.e., I set the amount of exposure compensation that I want, then get the meter to display only the dot in the middle). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Michel Posted January 30, 2015 Share #31 Posted January 30, 2015 I am asking a serious question. Does this minute adjustment (.7ev) make sense in digital post processing workflow? You can always adjust exposure for the mood you want later. As long as nothing is blown, IMHO exposure is good. Hi, 0.7 ev is not large but not minute, it is two-thirds of a stop. The M9 meter reads about one-third of the sensor area, it is centre-weighted. I find that the exposure for a typical scene that this reading gives me tends to be somewhat under-exposed and requiring an adjustment of around plus .75 to 1.0in LR. o I have my profiles set with a plus .7 ev. That lets me use either "A" or manual and I know that my exposures will be plus ,7 ev. This way, in manual, when the red dot appears the exposure will be plus .7. You still can add or subtract 'compensation' when metering a darker or lighter scene. For example, earlier today I photographed some snow scenes and knew enough to add 2 extra stops of exposure from what the meter recommended. In film days, we would do some sort of Zone Sytem test to calibrate our cameras and films. Makes sense to do a digital calibration that works for you digitally Jean-Michel Another way, in manual, is to not have any compensations set in the profiles and simply use the arrows to estimate the plus or minus expposure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
IkarusJohn Posted January 30, 2015 Share #32 Posted January 30, 2015 I had the idea of using manual mode, and setting the exposure compensation so that the light meter would under expose. Then, if needed, treat in post processing. I know I can use aperture priority, but was trying to come up with a system to constantly under expose in manual mode (i.e., I set the amount of exposure compensation that I want, then get the meter to display only the dot in the middle). I can see the benefit if you consistently want the same under-exposure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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