Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> Sent: Saturday, September 18, 1999 02:56 Subject: Re: [Leica] Consistent underexposure - what am I (a newbie) doing wrong? > This bothers me a great deal. Learn exposure YOURSELF. > Do NOT rely on a meter. This is like saying, "Open and close the shutter yourself--do NOT rely on a mechanism to time it." Meters are a fact of life. I cannot look at something, with normal human vision, and accurately know how much light is being reflected by the scene for metering purposes. I need to be able to measure the light levels. I can calculate the exposure if I know the light level, but I have to start somewhere. > Learn the "sunny sixteen" rule. The sunny-sixteen rule works when it is sunny out. In shadows, under an overcast, indoors, etc., it is not very useful. Furthermore, every specific scene is different, and I like to _know_ what the correct exposure is, and not guess. > I do virtually no flash work -- to the point where "fill-flash" > is a huge mathematical exercize I'd rather avoid. I don't like flash, either. The real world isn't illuminated by flash, so I prefer to avoid it. But this obviously makes proper exposure all the more important (and guessing all the more risky). > But manual exposures? They should be in the head. They may be, but the metered light from the scene is not. > If not, bracket, son, bracket! I bracket for critical images, but at $1 per image, I can't afford to do it very often. -- Anthony