[Leica] metering

[Summicron1 <Summicron1@aol.com>]

you said:From: Five Senses Productions <fls@5senses.com>

Date: Wed, 08 Apr 1998 16:54:59 -0700

Subject: Re: [Leica] 18% metering often wrong



Your quote explains the problem we all face, but does nothing to explain how

to resolve the problem.  By saying that "the correct exposure is the one that

makes the photo look the way you want" says nothing about how to achieve

that goal.  If you sent an amateur out with that advice, he would have no clue

where to begin......

my response: Photography is art mixed with science, but mostly art. Cameras,
film, light, etc are but tools. An "amateur" (d0 you really mean beginner? I
know some pretty good amateurs, and the word is from the French meaning
someone who lives something) is, certainly, going to mess up. There is no way
to tell them how to take pictures so they do not. 

Messing up is critical. A person who does not mess up is not learning. I tell
everyone I teach photography to to begin by just taking pictures using the
exposure guide in the film box, mess up, studying the result and trying not to
mess up the same way next time. 

Eventually they learn control.

It is a life-long process -- your idea of perfectly exposed is not my idea. 18
percent gray cards and meters calibrated thereto are designed only to give you
a starting place, a known standard from which to go. 

And if you still don't like it, scan it into a computer and fix it. Add
clouds, goose the contrast, move trees around, whatever. If you can afford a
Leica you can afford Photoshop.

But quit thinking that there's some magical way to meter to get a "perfect"
negative. Reality is the real world but perfect starts out in your mind, not
in a camera. The camera is just a tool to let you produce an image that, you
hope, will reflect some of what that reality meant to you.

And remember: Even Ansel Adams blew it occasionally, despite all his controls.
He had the true secret to photography--don't show anyone the bad shots.

charlie Trentelman
Ogden, Utah
(state motto: Getting The 2002 Olympics proves we're not all that strange,
right?)