Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I have read the recent light meter discussion. I use an M2 and MF and LF cameras and have used many meters. I currently use a small gossen scout, a pentax digital spot meter and a sekonic incident/flash meter (#358). For MF/LF, I used to always use the spot meter. Then, I read the book Beyond the Zone System, which has very interesting chapter on metering with both incident, spot, and broad reflective. This really changed and liberated the way I think about light and metering it and I highly recommend the book. This especially taught me how to use an incident meter. I now use it often and have good results. I found that with the spot, it was hard to determine what fell where due to colors being more or less bright on film than I perceived them subjectively. This is not a problem with incident. The basic idea is that natural things have a 5 stop reflectance range. Open shadow outdoors is often 2 stops darker than open sun. Thus, something with sun and shadow has a 7 stop range. Obviously specular highlights and deep shadow are beyond this. However, an interesting point is that most meters are calibrated to the midpoint of a 7 stop range to accommodate the sunny/shady parts of a scene. If you meter in open sun, you will be 1 stop under. Metering in shadows will be 1 stop over. I have found this to be fairly consistent with my incident meter. This can help me understand what the brightness range of a scene is and thus I can decide where I want to lose detail, either in highlight or shadow (if made necessary by scene brightness range). In the MF/LF I adjust, in the Leica, I choose what to lose. My synopsis does not do the book justice. However, I highly recommend this book even if you don't do zone system just for the metering ideas. Michael Waldron Michael@cadogan.net