Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/09/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark wrote: >If you, for instance are metering some very dark fabric your incident reading might have you underexpose a bit TOO much. While your reflective reading would have you OVERexpose it too much to middle grey/zone V/whatever. (if you just went with the reading; ((had your camera on A))) I just made that mistake this week shooting closeups of some dark brown telephone poles with Kodachrome 200. (with my 90 Elmirit) I over exposed some of them. They were dark brown not middle grey. But that was the meter in my M6, and my brain on vacation. Mark, that's what the goddess of photography created bracketing for. Really! Read a few things about Jay Maisel, for instance. Sure it is possible to get by in life without bracketing, but why? At least with color. If nothing else, shoot, snip and adjust. But the incident will do almost anything. If I want to pull a bit more shadow detail, I turn it slightly or more and take a reading, or turn in opposite the camera to get a full shadow reading and adjust. But an incident reading exposure should place black right where it belongs--black zone. The compression of flash fill however is another and useful story, especially with chrome in bright sun. Of course, I carry a Kodak grey card in one of my cases. Then you can lay down an incident meter, get a reading, then check each camera meter against it. Some variation normal, of course. A reflected meter is really useful, though, for checking exposure on computer screens. Check, then open up a half stop or a bit more to clear the blue in the whites. donal __________ Donal Philby San Diego www.donalphilby.com