Re: [Leica] Which Ultra-Wide, Heliar 15mm or Heliar 12mm

[Isaac Crawford <isaac@visi.net>]

"Rodgers, David" wrote:
> 
> Isaac
> 
> >>I "overrule" my meter every time I use it! I think that it's
> unavoidable with a reflective meter. In fact, I think that this is the
> problem that the original poster was having, they weren't overruling
> their meter and they got incorrectly exposed film...:-) Use the meter as
> a guide and you'll be fine, follow it blindly and you're doomed...<<
> 
> As the original poster, I think you missed the point. You talk about
> overruling a meter every time you use it. I can't always do that. In this
> particular instance, 
	<snip>
	OK, I'm talking to two people now... There are always instances where
one type of exposure decision is better than another. Sometimes its
better to carefully meter different areas and average (a kind of ugly
step child of zone system), sometimes its better to take a "base"
reading and adjust off of that, and sometimes its just better to just
look and react as quickly as possible...

> To paint a clearer picture, it's early morning on a street corner in the
> middle of a downtown filled with high rises; not all of which were 18
> percent grey. Some reflected the morning sun. Some were in shadow. Some
> areas of pavement were watered down, some of it not. (By the way, the
> pavement that appeared darker to the eye actually metered at a higher EV
> because it was and therefore more reflective.) The light is changing every
> second. Not only is it dawn, but the weather is unstable. Very dark clouds
> one moment, white clouds the next, open sky the next. The buildings in the
> background. The reflections. The shadows, the white trucks, the black
> trucks, the white building, the dark buildings.

	OK, changing lighting is always a pain in the neck with a fully manual
system, but I do have some advice. Instead of concentrating on the
reflections of the various items in the frame, pay attention to the
amount of light falling on them. As you pointed out in your example,
many times there are just too many different reflectance values to read
and adjust quickly. Think like an incident meter instead of a reflected
one. Bring along an incident meter and measure when the sun is out, and
again when the sun is obscured, and then switch between them as the
conditions change. And of course you will have to guess in between with
those inevitable sun/cloud pictures. Its a pain I know, but really the
only way to get a good exposure with a fully manual camera in these
conditions...I do this all the time, but I don't usually bring a meter
(unless I'm getting paid, but that hasn't happened in years...:-( 
> 
> My Heliar is taking all this in. Not just a predominant foreground, but lots
> of background stuff too. I assume you have a Heliar, or some type of
> superwide, and you know what I mean. 
	Once you have  base exposures for the different types of lighting in
your scene, it doesn't matter what lens you are using. If there is
significant areas in both bright light and shadows, well, you have to
choose what areas are more important, just like any other picture. This
to me is one of the hardest parts of using an ultra wide lens outside...
You are much more likely to have extreme shadows and bright highlights
just because of the amount of area you are covering...



How is it, as you suggest, I'm supposed
> to overrule my meter? What kind of guide shall it be? One stop, two stops,
> three stops? In one instance I bracketed two stops overexposure, and I was
> still underexposed.

	This is typical of the kind of mistake that can be made by relying on
reflective metering only. I guess my whole point is that by learning to
shoot without a meter, one is better able to gauge what is a reasonable
exposure and won't be fooled by wacky meter readings. If my camera has a
meter and I'm shooting slide film, I usually use it to measure light,
but I already have an idea of what it should be. That way, if something
odd shows up in my readout, I'm not screwed. I usually only use a meter
to tweak the final exposure on slides. 
	I know nobody asked, but here's the list of things that I do use a
meter for:

1)tweaking exposure for slide film
2)Shots where the light is the subject (like stained glass windows or
backlit leaves)
3)In the studio for determining initial exposure with strobes (then I go
to the polaroid meter!)
4)Macro work with bellows extention...its just so much quicker...:-)

> 
> Off line I've received several very interesting replies regarding the
> Heliar. Including some very technical and interesting points about
> vignetting, light fall off and other issues at various apertures. These
> might cause metering issues. 

	That's some serious light falloff if its affecting a center weighted
metering system!:-)

They also me to understand the lens. Superwides
> are attractive little creatures, because they're unusual. But they do have
> their foibles.

True enough...
> 
> Dave