Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/08
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I wouldn't waste money on a contact sheet.... you can look at your negs and see whether they have good exposure or not.... Most labs will tend to make the contact sheet a little dark so you can see detail better as opposed to really light images... Some minilabs aren't terribly careful with their C-41 film processors , so you might be getting underdeveloped film too... Basically if any part of your neg is as clear as the border is..... you are underexposing the film... looking at the three negs you'll be able to see if some areas are losing detail as they get thinner.... Not having seen the picture of the cat, but knowing how the M-6 meters.... my first question would be how light was the background and how much of it was included in the original metering... My second question would be whether you are rating the neg film at the packaged speed or not.... And your results are exactly what one would expect from negative film.... the negative with the most exposure wins... I prefer denser negatives and normally give between a half a stop or one whole stop of extra exposure to my negs.... Remember negs and slides are opposites.... overexposed slides (and digital images) and underexposed negs are unsalvageable..... If you are going to make an error on exposure.... give a slide a tad less exposure and a neg more! Duane Birkey HCJB World Radio, Quito Ecuador Duane's Photographs of Ecuador: http://ecuadorphotos.tripod.com