Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/02/09
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Not exactly, it's more a question of "seeing" the change in the light level ................ and adjusting accordingly. B. On 9-feb-2006, at 0:10, Alastair Firkin wrote: > Its a matter of "knowing" what a cloud will do to the scene isn't it? > > On 09/02/2006, at 9:03, bruce wrote: > >> Hi Alistair, >> >> Some twenty plus years ago, I purchased a Pentax spotmeter, to >> supplement the readings from my original Weston. >> >> Wherever I intend/ed to take photographs, I meter/ed the >> environment ........... measured the skin tones (sometimes on >> myself), plus the highs and the lows in the environs. I then fix >> the setting in function of which area of the image I wish to be >> best exposed in relation to the others. >> >> And thereafter, just watch (naked eye, mine) the changes in the >> light. I find it easiest in the tropics ............... and worst >> in this land, where the clouds are constantly changing the light-- >> fall ............. ugh! >> >> B. >> >> On 8-feb-2006, at 22:24, Alastair Firkin wrote: >> >>> G'day, >>> I have spent a long time trying to "learn" to estimate exposure, >>> so that I could set the M's without bringing them up to my eye. >>> Same goes for focus and those neat little tabs on the early Leica >>> lenes (I love that). Its not too hard and as you say is aided by >>> film latitude. Now I am going the opposite direction, and will >>> soon be doing mainly spot metering and quick "zone" estimations. >>> This is not good for a street grab, but great for other forms of >>> photography. Hasselblad got all excited about it with the release >>> of the 205TCC, and it has made sense to me. Now that I've been >>> using it, I love it. >>> >>> Trick is AFAICS, to grab a reading from the highlights set it to >>> a zone your film/sensor can tolerate by prior experience and in >>> "general" let the image follow suit. If you need to be really >>> fancy, check the lowlight as well and establish a range, >>> adjusting contrast to suit, but I suppose that is what the >>> histogram does for you in a graphical way. Checking histograms >>> and re-exposing is slow however and is not going to suit the >>> needs of the M user. >>> >>> On 08/02/2006, at 19:19, Scott McLoughlin wrote: >>> >>>> Probably like many others, I have my D70's little LCD screen more >>>> or less permanently set to the "display histogram" mode :-) >>>> >>>> I can't directly translate in my head a histogram into the >>>> visual appearance >>>> of a photo, but I imagine I'll get there soon enough. For now, I >>>> generally >>>> just shoot raw and try to "expose to the right" while avoiding >>>> blown >>>> highlights. From there, should I have the motivation and >>>> energy, alot can >>>> be tweaked during RAW conversion. >>>> >>>> Maybe if I were more careful, I'd use the D70's spot meter on >>>> the highlights >>>> and adjust exposure from there, but I haven't spent the time to >>>> master >>>> that technique yet. >>>> >>>> But you got to hand it to film where some crappy exposures can >>>> often >>>> be molded into nice photos in the darkroom. On this very list, I >>>> believe, I've >>>> read that HCB himself - patron saint of we Leica users - >>>> guestimated exposure >>>> often and relied on a tight relationship with a master printer. >>>> >>>> Now, that's not me. I use a nice metered M6TTL and have 2 Sekonic >>>> meters I'll sometimes use in incident mode "just in case" :-) >>>> >>>> Scott >>> >>> >>> Alastair >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Leica Users Group. >>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> >> > Alastair > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information