Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/03
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>Lots of people don't know a meter reading "places" that tone you've metered to >middle grey. >If you go with the meter reading then you've placed whatever tone you've >metered >to middle grey. >So if you meter a light tone you've generally got to give your camera more >exposure than the reading to lighten it up to be correct. >A popular misconception in my opinion. >Mark Rabiner Dot on, Mark! One of those cases where you say to yourself: 'the more basic the truth, the less known it seems.' But it happened to me too! Then I thought a spot meter would solve the problem. Of course it did not. It only did one thing: it showed me exactly what area would be middle grey (given normal development and printing) on the final print. So now I always ask myself: 'do you want the area (spot-)measured to be average grey on the print or not. If the answer is no, then I adjust accordingly. I hope this does not give the impression that it is the solution to all exposure problems; it is not. But asking that question helps get better exposure, and it feels good to believe/know you are more clever than the meter. Metering a grey card and comparing to measurements of other items gives you an idea of what the adjustment could be. But grey card measurements are not that easy, depending as they are on how you hold the card in relation to the sun and the camera. As rough guide I adjust the exposure by one half step for each Adam's zone system step, but I would be interested to hear what adjustments other make. - -- christer almqvist eichenstrasse 57, d-20255 hamburg, fon +49-40-407111 fax +49-40-4908440 14 rue de la hauteur, f-50590 regnéville-sur-mer, fon+fax +33-233 45 35 58