Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/03

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Metering (was User report 25 Skopar)
From: Christer Almqvist <chris@almqvist.net>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 10:40:20 +0000

>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
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14 rue de la hauteur, f-50590 regnéville-sur-mer, fon+fax +33-233 45 35 58