Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/05

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Leica R8 vs Nikon F5 light metering
From: Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 1998 00:59:09 -0500

At 10:32 PM 4/5/98 +0000, you wrote:

> If you take the time to learn how to us an incident meter and how to 
>meter for various lighting circumstances you will learn how to get not 
>only well exposed images, but grow an understanding of light, how it 
>works on film and how to control it and use it to your full advantage 
>to create images that express what you are wanting to express.

The exact same thing could be said about selective metering in a Leica. I
have shot professionally for over 10 yeras, many of them with chrome, and
with chrome primarily before that, to my very first camera and the very
first month I started making pictures. I never use incident meters in the
field, because they tell me nothing about the reflectivity of the subject.
Fred Ward is a great photographer, but so are a lot of other photographers
who use built-in meters. Or spot meters. I can learn just as much about how
light works with my Leica's meters as I can with an incident meter. It's
imagination in the end, being applied to the situations we encounter.

It's a matter of how one works. Ansel Adams, the master of exposure,
eschewed incident meters. Edward Weston eschewed meters altogether. I use
incident meters for flash in the studio. In the field, I already have too
much junk hanging on me, a meter is just one more thing to drop, break, get
in the way. That's how I work, and it works just fine. For those who work
differently, more power to you. But don't say your way is superior. For you
it is, but not for everyone.


==========

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO
http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

You'll get what's coming to you ... Unless mailed