RE: [Leica] Alastair's NOT strange

["Stewart, Alistair" <AStewart@gigaweb.com>]

Mike,

thanks for reinforcing this. (The exposure estimating, that is, not my lack
of strangeness).

Maybe we should administer an EV estimating test, prior to acceptance to the
LUG? :=) BIG GRIN, JUST A JOKE.

Oops, sorry, this is the LUG. We should administer a test to see who knows
how much plastic the beanie babies put in the M6. Sorry, just for a moment I
thought this group was for Users. My error. I forgot it is for fondlers.

Eric Welch, past and current reigning King of signature lines, I have a new
one for you:

"As it is really the Leica Fondlers Group, why is it called the LUG?" :=)

Just got back from a day chasing images and wierd books in NYC. Gotta go
soup. 

best of acufine,

Alistair




- -----Original Message-----
From: Mike Johnston [mailto:michaeljohnston@ameritech.net]
Sent: Friday, November 12, 1999 11:07 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: [Leica] Alastair's NOT strange


>>>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