Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>>>And I'm curious, really, what's strange about anticipating subject lighting and setting your camera up ready, which what I'm saying? I often do the same for focusing with 35 and wider, if a dynamic situation demands it. I see so many folks twiddling the settings, when the light hasn't changed significantly, and wonder how they ever make the image that they saw when they went into the situation. The flashing LED's suck you into chasing them as the moment decisif passes by....When it died, I used my brain for a change, the lightbulb went on a little later, and the contact sheets never looked back. <<< Alastair is right as rain here, IMHO. This is an essential part of Leica M photography. There are only about 7 different EVs you can encounter in outdoor daylight with any one film. It's not rocket science: you can learn them. Actually, there are two advantages to using your brain. First, you are sure of your settings and are more free to shoot. Second, difficult metering situations become trivial. I'll give you an example or two. Once, back when I lived in Georgetown, I looked out my window one day and saw a bare winter tree briefly illuminated by light from the setting sun coming from between two buildings. All of the background was in deep shadow. Beautiful. To meter such a subject would have been exceedingly difficult EVEN WITH A SPOT METER, much less an averaging meter, because the delicate sunlight rimming the branches was too small in area to meter. But since I knew my standard exposure for late-afternoon sun-above-the-horizon sunlit objects (one-and-a-half stops open from my "key stop" or full daylight EV), I just used that plus an extra half stop to get richer shadow detail in the background. Perfect negative. And then suddenly--no more sunlight. I cannot imagine a meter which would have given the proper exposure with anything but blind luck. On another occasion, I was waiting for an autograph from A.J. Foyt. Suddenly, a person in front of me in line held up a printed program with Foyt's picture on it, mirroring the appearance of the real thing a few meters further on. I bring the Leica up to my eye. But Foyt himself is in deep shadow--and right in front of me, taking up a lot of the picture frame, there is a young girl wearing a white sweatshirt, and she's in full midday sunlight! I've got the Leica set for the light Foyt's in--but then I notice that only ONE red delta is lit! Doubt leaps in. I quickly set the deltas; but no, I'm metering just the sunlit white sweatshirt! I meter Foyt--FOUR stop difference! The fellow with the program is reading it, holding it perfectly for me--but he won't be for long. What to do? Solution: ignore the deltas. Use the bright daylight key stop, open two stops for deep shade, extra half stop for good measure, compose, shoot. Fellow lowers program, shot disappears. The negative is just right: the girl's sunlit sweatshirt is glowing with overexposure, but still has detail; Foyt's face, halfway "back in the bokeh," is dark with shadow but richly detailed; the printed program, where I focused, is crisp and perfectly exposed. The negative isn't even difficult to print. And I'm thinking, hoo, boy, those damned deltas almost made me miss my shot. I can show anybody both prints, too, I'm not just "talking into the ether" here. If you can't walk into a room and know instantly where you'd set the aperture and shutter speed on your M6, you ain't there yet. And here's how to learn: carry a small meter when you're not carrying your camera. Wherever you find yourself with a few seconds of idleness, pick a scene, guess the exposure, then check yourself with your meter. I *GUARANTEE* that within a few short weeks or months you will start to find it trivial to set your camera without metering first. At first, your exposures will get worse. Last through that, though, because then, they'll start getting better. And you just won't believe how pleasurable it is to feel instantly certain about your exposure settings in tough situations. That's Leica rangefinder photography. It's an essential element of the ethos of the cameras. The meter in the M6 is just a good backup. Metering every shot is for people with auto-everything cameras. If that's what you do, you might as well put your M on the shelf and start carrying that Nikon or Canon everywhere. - --Mike