Manny_Film Posted April 14 Share #1 Posted April 14 Advertisement (gone after registration) Greetings, I recently purchased an M2 and I’m using Sekonic light meter however all of my images are coming out overexposed, flat and really grayed on TMAX 400. Can anyone give me insight on exposure please. thank you, Manny Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Quote Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/420472-m2-overexposed/?do=findComment&comment=5786280'>More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted April 14 Posted April 14 Hi Manny_Film, Take a look here M2 overexposed. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
Carlos cruz Posted April 14 Share #2 Posted April 14 Looks underexposed or underdeveloped tbh. What’s your modus operandi for taking exposure reading? Can you post a pic of a negative frame not inverted with some perforation around it and some space between two pics? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stray cat Posted April 14 Share #3 Posted April 14 (edited) How experienced are you with developing? At first guess it looks like your film has been fogged. Can you post a show of the actual negatives? (Edit) just saw Carlos's post. A look at the negatives would be good. Edited April 14 by stray cat 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.noctilux Posted April 14 Share #4 Posted April 14 Hello Manny, welcome here. Can we see the whole (or strip if cut) of the negative TMAX 400. The pictures seen here said anything (for me). Are you certain of the freshness of the film in use and chemical + time, etc. ? edit Carlos "said" about same "pic of negative" 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smudgerer Posted April 14 Share #5 Posted April 14 Not taking the p**s here, but the totally black frames, could you have left the lens cap on? The two images look way under exposed or even as Carlos cruz suggests, underdeveloped........Maybe both. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgeenen Posted April 14 Share #6 Posted April 14 We need to see a view of the negatives including frame numbering to help. Typically, very flat positives hint to strong underexposure or underdevelopment (the negatives should be very light). Overexposure or overdevelopment are instead very contrasty and grainy. Comparison of density of the negatives and the frame numbering will help to identify if the issue is more the result of wrong development, wrong exposure, a user (did you set ASA/ISO correctly?) or a camera fault. Your samples look underexposed or underdeveloped and not like overexposed or overdeveloped. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted April 14 Share #7 Posted April 14 (edited) Advertisement (gone after registration) In order to help us rule a couple of things out could you let us know whether (a) the shutter-speeds of the camera sound about right and (b) that the lens' optics are clear? If both the above seem fine then we can then pretty much assume that the film / processing is at fault somewhere along the line. Philip. Edited April 14 by pippy 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny_Film Posted April 15 Author Share #8 Posted April 15 Greetings! thank you all for the response and thank you for the nice welcoming. I’m not an expert developer. I have been shooting my Leica for about 15 years and I have rarely come across this. I did fail to mention that I played Russian roulette and developed my film with Expired TMax developer. After my film came out purple I read up on it and it mention that it was under-fixed. The next day I got new chemicals and I got better results. Dark blacks and no purple. My exposure have been fairly good with my M6 however I’m still interested to understand best settings for underexposing or overexposing on the M2 while using the sekonic light meter as at times is not syncing with my M6. Thank you all for the help. Manny Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Quote Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/420472-m2-overexposed/?do=findComment&comment=5786709'>More sharing options...
Manny_Film Posted April 15 Author Share #9 Posted April 15 Looking at the film it was TMAX 100. My apologies. Manny Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny_Film Posted April 15 Author Share #10 Posted April 15 The second image was developed with fresh batch of chemicals. Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Quote Link to post Share on other sites Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! ' data-webShareUrl='https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/420472-m2-overexposed/?do=findComment&comment=5786714'>More sharing options...
jgeenen Posted April 15 Share #11 Posted April 15 You are aware on the difference between incident and reflective light metering? Most Sekonic light meters are incident light meters and nead to be oriented in the direction of the light sources instead of the subject. Wrong handling can easily cause substantially different readings. How do the readings from the Sekonic meter compare to the M6 readings? 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos cruz Posted April 15 Share #12 Posted April 15 1 hour ago, Manny_Film said: Greetings! thank you all for the response and thank you for the nice welcoming. I’m not an expert developer. I have been shooting my Leica for about 15 years and I have rarely come across this. I did fail to mention that I played Russian roulette and developed my film with Expired TMax developer. After my film came out purple I read up on it and it mention that it was under-fixed. The next day I got new chemicals and I got better results. Dark blacks and no purple. My exposure have been fairly good with my M6 however I’m still interested to understand best settings for underexposing or overexposing on the M2 while using the sekonic light meter as at times is not syncing with my M6. Thank you all for the help. Manny Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here… Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members! Negs don’t look too bad if we’re talking about those in sleeves. If I understand correctly you treated 100 as 400 and you probably did it on both occasions when exposing and developing so it’s -4 stops, a bit too much to cover error. If you are bent on rescuing negs there are intensifiers you can still use (chromium, selenium or copper) but more important could be the way you measure light and decide on exposure. If you want to be really thorough with it you measure whole scene with reflective meter look where your lights and shadows are remember that meters are calibrated to 18% gray interpret it accordingly and decide on f stop and shutter speed. Or just do quick measurement when light dramatically changes, after a while you’ll remember correct settings for most scenarios. When in hurry I usually take one reading for shadows (from the lawn, asphalt road) and go from there. Negs are really forgiving until your error is within two to three stops. When in doubt it’s always safer to err on over exposure side. I am not a great fan of post m5 light meters in leicas, you don’t make any note of shutter speed or f stop when setting exposure you just have a dot and two arrows. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
250swb Posted April 15 Share #13 Posted April 15 Making a mistake in the development is a minor part of the problem, the big issue is where you are pointing your meter. Your M6 gives you a reflective reading and you seem to be happy with that, so mimic that with your Sekonic meter, make sure the invercone (the white plastic dome) is pushed to one side and isn't over the metering cell and find something.......... .....like the Sekonic Support site that has the manual for your meter and shows you how best to use it. https://global.sekonic.com/downloads/ 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny_Film Posted April 15 Author Share #14 Posted April 15 Thank you all! I will take note of and practice all these suggestions. The film on the sleeve came out good, as I used the new chemicals, but you are correct. TMAX is very forgiving, but I must have done something wrong. I don't want to waste any more rolls of film with bad exposure. Manny 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
a.noctilux Posted April 15 Share #15 Posted April 15 If I'm correct, this is human error plus expired chemicals. That is a lot. I wonder how can anyone uses TMX100 and consider as TMAX400 ? My conclusion is "lesson learned". Don't worry Manny, we do sometimes so many errors. Each time ... error=lesson (for me). 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manny_Film Posted April 16 Author Share #16 Posted April 16 Thank you all for your help. Anyone have any good readings on how to get better with exposure on M cameras? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos cruz Posted April 16 Share #17 Posted April 16 Ansel Adams the negative, or anything that explains zone system, essence shouldn’t be more than two pages. Just as a side note his ideal negative is bit stronger(denser) than scanners like but it’s a ⅔ of a stop difference. For me taking light meter readings everywhere was a great learning experience. Key is understanding where you want your lights and shadows on characteristic curve. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jakontil Posted April 19 Share #18 Posted April 19 I think the expired developer seemed fine? Looking from the film strips.. however did you mean to push a 100 iso speed film to 400 speed? Developing time would increase tremendously I got better when i learnt and got used to sunny16 rules, sometimes the light is deceitful, telling lies to the built in LM.. from then on.. if i feel lazy and just looking at the built in LM, i would just shoot overexpose by at least ½ stop or more i use sekonic when i need that accurate readings mainly when shooting portraits.. but other than that, just built in LM 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fotoklaus Posted April 19 Share #19 Posted April 19 Ilford has a good basic information for film developing: https://www.ilfordphoto.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Processing-your-first-black-and-white-film.pdf In the beginning I would start with a standard film and a standard developer and stick to the manual. Use a good thermometer and stopwatch and stick exactly to the tempereatures and times. if something goes wrong you can exclude those variables. Fresh Tmax 100 and fresh Tmax- developer is fine. T- Grain films need longer fixing times than regular films, remember that. You experienced the purple colour of a too short fixing time already. A stop bath is not needed for film processing necessarily, a inbetween rinse with water after developer and fixer is enough. For the lightmeter: Lightmeters are calibrated to a 18% greycard. If you do a direct reading from the camera towards the subject and your subject reflects as about a 18% greycard would your reading is correct. Greycards often are used as a claibration target. https://www.kodak.com/en/motion/page/gray-cards/ I f you have a lot of white or black in your subject the reading will not be correct. Black cat on a black chair -> overexposed, white cat on a white chair ->underexposed. Or you want to take alandscape picture and the lightmeter measures too much of the bright sky. Then you have to turn the meter a bit more towards to the ground and not straight forward. For those cases the incident reading is a better method. You now measure the incoming light no matter what the contrasts or colours are. Therefore you put on this white calotte in front of the cds cell of your meter and take a reading from your subject in the direction of your camera or from where you want to take the picture. https://sekonic.com/classroom/the-benefits-of-using-light-metering/?srsltid=AfmBOoqozyx72xDIvhH7KMs3KEA6qrixk4TszD-YFUPwPgVOJ03quQ35 I do incident metering whenever it is possible. Gives the best overall results. And in the end you can develop a test film where you know exactly your conditions. Lighting correct, exposure correct, developing correct. This is helpful to exclude errors of the camera. A measured (on your greycard 🙂 ) 125/8 should give the same results as a 250/5.6. or a 500/4 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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