Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/04/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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