A Question Of Exposure

[Stealth3kpl]

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Keith's photograph here

In the past I would have taken an incident reading at the bark of the tree and let the highlights take care of themselves. I now have a spot meter. So looking at this scene I have a couple of options

1) shoot a grey card or the palm of my hand in the shadow 

2) shoot a grey card or the palm of my hand in the shadow then underexpose a stop

3) Take reading of the highlights then hit the H button which will move the highlights into zone 7ish (i.e. it will overexpose the highlights but not wash them out) - Prob the worst option?

4) Take a reading from the darkest shadow I want detail in and put that in zone 3 by hitting the S button (it drops the exposure just over 2 stops)

5) Take a reading from the bark and the highlights and push the A button to obtain an Average reading which will mean neither the shadows or highlights are lost.

I'm thinking about B+W film, Tmax, Delta, Neopan, TriX. 

I'm also thinking option 4 might be the best option? Of course, my wife were sitting at the base of the tree I would probably meter her face and might even move her fair skin into zone 6.

What are your thoughts?

Pete

 

 

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[Keith (M)]

Well, I could waffle at great length all the points I considered when assessing the scene, the methodology chosen to ensure shadow detail without burning out the highlights, the optimum position to achieve the most favourable composition etc etc.  Or I could tell the truth...

TBH Pete I have no idea what triggered your questions - it is just a snapshot of a patch of sunlight that caught my eye. When I scanned the negs I almost did not bother to do anything with this particular frame.

[wattsy]

Yes, I'm with Keith on this. I had to give up reading your post, Pete, because it started hurting my brain.

My own approach would depend whether I was using my film or digital camera. If the former, I'd either guess based on experience or use my incident meter (and then probably make an exposure adjustment based on the reading – i.e. still guess). If using digital I'd almost certainly chimp and adjust the exposure accordingly. With a spot meter and film, I think again it is just a personal judgement call based on how you envisage the resulting photo to look. I personally tend to err on the side of overexposure but I'm not one of these internet "gurus" who seem to advocate overexposing (esp. colour neg) by 2 stops or more from a typical grey card type reading.

 

Edit: I've now read your post to the end, Pete, and see that you are referring specifically to B&W film. This doesn't change my approach much other than, with silver based film, I am mindful of not being too gung ho with the highlights. For Keith's photo I'd be inclined to meter both the tree trunk and the highlighted ground and choose something in between. I'd probably also bracket if I felt the photo might be important to me.

Edited December 27, 2018 by wattsy

[Stealth3kpl]

6 hours ago, Keith (M) said:

 

TBH Pete I have no idea what triggered your questions - it is just a snapshot of a patch of sunlight that caught my eye. 

Haha, it's just that I'm often in this sort of situation where there's a nice shaft of light coming through the woods. Just interested in what others do in this situation.

Pete

[250swb]

If you are using a spot meter and taking highlight or shadow readings you should also be adjusting your development times for each individual exposure, they work hand in hand to make a negative with full tonal detail. Not very practical if it's 35mm you are shooting, for which an average mid tone reading reading is best. Expose for the mid tones or towards the shadows and let the highlights take care of themselves. As a workaround when you get home consider what the bulk of the exposures are on the roll, and if your best photo is among them adjust development to suit your potentially best photo. So you are in a forest, exposing to retain detail in the dark bark of a tree, and the background is bright sunlight. Doing this you've potentially over exposed the sunlit area if the highlight exposure exceeds the dynamic range of the film, so you under develop the roll. 

Edited December 28, 2018 by 250swb

[Pyrogallol]

I have never really used a spotmeter, but I guess that you have to be careful to decide what spot you are metering and where it falls in the overall range of tones in the picture. Good if you are an expert on the zone system and using sheet film, but maybe go back to bracketing exposures on 35mm?

[adan]

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Paraphrase of a parable from Leica photographer and technique/gear columnist Bill Pierce:

"I had a dream the other night, in which I was trying to photograph a flower. I was spot-metering each petal and leaf, top and bottom, when I felt a shadow fall over me. I turned and it was Ansel Adams. He leaned over and whispered in my ear - 'Bracket!' "

Appeared in Camera 35 (or maybe Pop Photo) sometime in the 1970s, under the column title "Down-and-Dirty metering."

However:

option 2 - hand palm "brightness" obviously varies from person to person, but for caucasian skin, it usually falls in Zone 6 (as you mention) - a stop brighter than an "18% gray card." If you meter such a hand or other light skin, give one stop MORE exposure than the meter reading. When I am adjusting digital pictures of caucasian skin, I aim for a general skin brightness of 180-200 on the 0-255 scale, while a "gray card" should be about 120-128. Always allowing for "creative license" in any particular picture.

option 4 - how Ansel would have metered for B&W neg film (but yeah, yeah, the Zone System is not the be-all and end-all - especially with 35mm film, where each individual frame cannot receive its own specific development).

If I were using a M's "semi-spot" meter on neg film, I'd probably aim for the dividing line between sunlight and shadow, to get some influence from both. "Narrow-area averaging."

[Keith (M)]

1 hour ago, adan said:

 

If I were using a M's "semi-spot" meter on neg film, I'd probably aim for the dividing line between sunlight and shadow, to get some influence from both. "Narrow-area averaging."

Which is pretty much what I did with the MP when taking the photo...