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kriso9tails
Sep 17, 2002, 12:48 AM
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How does this work exactly? My assumption is that I just use the spot attachment (hand held meter) and use it like the meter on my slr for the same style shot (same thing really); but wouldn't that screw up for say a snowy landscape? Somehow this approach seems wrong.
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saltspringer
Sep 17, 2002, 5:07 AM
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You have to first of all understand what your meter is calibrated to read and adjust for: 18% grey is the standard for most meters so what you need to do is take a reading off an object that approximates what your meter is looking for...you can buy a grey card at most camera stores and they are exactly 18% grey but they're not foolproof. The best thing to do is to remember a few simple rules: grass is approx. 18% reflectance (same as the grey); snow is about two stops over what your camera will read and dense areas (black) are generally two stops under what your camera will read. So, if you understand the fact that your camera is. in effect, trying to balance every scene that it sees to 18% grey than you can compensate depending on whether or not the scene includes large areas of high or low reflectance.
hope that helps a bit
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kriso9tails
Sep 17, 2002, 4:04 PM
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I knew it was reading for 18% grey, I just wasn't sure what to do about it in certain circumstances, but that actually helps a lot. Many thanks.
[ This Message was edited by: kriso9tails on 2002-09-17 09:08 ]
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cyberclimber
Sep 17, 2002, 4:54 PM
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I'm not really sure what you are asking. Hand held spot meters and the meter in your camera are both reflectance meters and measure the light that is bouncing off of the subject, as opposed to an incident meter which measures the amount of light hitting the meter (as when the white dome is used on a hand-held meter). If that is what you are asking, then yes, the spot meter and your cameras meter are basically the same. Saltspringer did a good job explaining how the reflectance meters work and how you can (with a spot meter) pick a black, a white or a mid-tone and use that to determine your exposure. If you are wanting to take pictures of climbers and avoid having the background be blasted white, you can set the camera to expose for the background and then use flash fill to light the climber. Be aware that you have to be pretty close, usually within 10 feet or so, of the subject you are trying to light (the climber), depending on how powerfull your flash is, in order for this to work well.
Like I said, I'm not really sure what you were wanting to know, hopefully this helped more than it confused.
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kriso9tails
Sep 18, 2002, 3:04 PM
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?? I was just wondering how to compensate for scenes that the spot meter would screw up... well not so much screw up as give the right reading for the wrong thing. Normally I could just use my grey card, but that doesn't seem to practical for a massive field of view. For my 35mm I can just estimate and bracket a little, but I don't really want to do that with the 4x5. I have it now though .
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krillen
Sep 18, 2002, 3:48 PM
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Outdoor Photographer has an article this month on using Neutral Density Filters to darken overexposed skies and backdrops, and yet keeping the foreground from being too dark. You may want to pick it up.
As an aside this mag has a lot of good stuff in it. I try to get is as often as possible.
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krillen
Sep 18, 2002, 3:49 PM
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Sorry, The DB rebooted as I posted this.
[ This Message was edited by: krillen on 2002-09-18 08:55 ]
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tim
Sep 18, 2002, 3:55 PM
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see under 'Zone System'
To be honest it is very good to learn how to use a spot meter correctly, esp. if you ever shoot under contrasty lighting conditions like at a concert, or even just to eyeball scenes. If I am taking a wide shot at the Needles or in Yosemite for example, the huge swaths of light colored granite tend to fool the matrix meter in my SLR, so I have to compensate 1/2 stop over, in order to get good color fidelity. That's just eyeballing the scene. With a spot meter (eg. for macro work) the results are generally spot-on.
For some types of pictures, eg. concert shots, you can't rely on the built-in evaluative meter at all, you have to find a patch of color you want to show up accurately on the film, spot it, and know how much to comp it by. See for example http://www.photo.net/concerts/mirarchi/concer_2.htm (granted concert photography is the absolute worst-case scenario, but boundary conditions are always the most interesting).
Alternatively, "-2 for black, +2 for snow-white, eyeball for everything in between". And if you're caucasian, the palm of your hand tends to meter at about +1, so in a pinch, you can spot it under the same lighting as your subject, and expose at one stop under the metered value.
With a good 35mm evaluative meter, anything white in bright sun (eg. > EV15) will be recognized as such and the overall scene metered accordingly (eg. the camera's circuitry realizes that the meter reading is at -1.5 to -2.0 stops below where it ought to expose the film). With a spot, you get to discover these things yourself .
nb. Obviously it is not practical to shoot concert photos with a view camera, but the principles are the same, and it's a good example of when even 35mm SLR users need to know some of the same things that large format photographers do. I know some people who prefer to just use their SLR's meter for choosing the exposure on their view camera! If you have not already read Ansel Adams' "The Negative", a visit to the library might be in order, as it is directly applicable to what you are doing.
One other thing -- if you shoot negative film, err on the side of over-exposure; if you shoot transparency film, err on the side of under-exposure. You cannot recover details that have been bleached out of the film!
[ This Message was edited by: jabbeaux on 2002-09-18 09:08 ]
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krillen
Sep 18, 2002, 3:57 PM
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Nice answer, Kudos!
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kriso9tails
Sep 18, 2002, 4:26 PM
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Quote:Obviously it is not practical to shoot concert photos with a view camera
I'd pay to see you try .
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