[Leica] Light metering with the Leica M9

[mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner)]

In a dark place like a theater I'd be just peaking at the image at the back
for the camera and occasionally checking for a highlight clip.
But really if I'm liking what I'm seeing as I'm shooting just by glancing at
the back of the camera do I need to pull out a spot meter? I cant think of
why.
Never after liking what I'm seeing at the back of my camera am I not able to
get at least that in a final Photoshop file, jpeg or print. Normally I can
bring out quite a bit more. Even a slightly clipped highlight.

Mark William Rabiner
Photography
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/


> From: "Peter A. Klein" <pklein at threshinc.com>
> Reply-To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2012 13:44:31 -0700
> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Light metering with the Leica M9
> 
> The only time I use a spot meter anymore is in the theater or concert
> hall, and occasionally for testing. The histogram is a wonderful light
> meter. It leaves no guesswork as to whether the area you're measuring is
> truly representative--if a highlight it going to blow or a shadow goes
> below zero, you know it. All you waste is a free test shot.
> 
> The MM is unique because it has no highlight headroom. So the spot meter
> will let you recalibrate yourself re. how you use the internal meter.
> But I suspect the histogram will be just as good, and eventually you
> will just know that in this or that high-contrast situation, you'll take
> your initial shot at minus 2/3 what the meter says, or something like
> that. And then, one test shot and a glance at the histogram will reveal
> whether that's correct or not.
> 
> Here's an M8 concert shot where the spot meter was truly necessary. The
> brightness range exceeded the sensor, I really needed to know what would
> fall where, and whether I could get the faces OK without losing anything
> important in the extremes. This was a live performance, so I didn't want
> to be messing with the histogram and disturbing the people around me
> during the music,.
> 
> Now, if I'd had the MM, this shot would be better. The shadowed faces
> are right at the lower limit for detail without too much noise. I'd have
> a bit more "footroom" in the shadows with an MM.
> 
> Too bad the MM is priced out of my socio-economic status... :-) :-(
> 
> --Peter
> 
>> Me, too! I used the spot meter with the M9 until I learned I could trust
>> the meter. The MM is more picky and I might go back to the spot meter
>> until I can figure out how it is metering!
>> 
>> Tina
>> 
>> On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 8:12 PM, Paul Roark wrote:
>> 
>>> I've, frankly, been surprised at how well the M9 meter works given the
>>> rather simply approach. I took my spot meter out on one trip and that
>>> was the end of bothering with it.
>>> 
>>> Paul
>>> www.PaulRoark.com
>>> 
>>> 
>> -- Tina Manley, ASMP www.tinamanley.com
> 
> 
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