>
>
> It seems to me the important thing is to determine the exposure on the
> part of a scene that's important. Then you have to figure out how you want
> it to look. Do you want it normally exposed? Then you take a spot reading
> there and then have to figure it's value + or - from a grey card value. If
> you want it darker, you adjust less exposure. And so on...
[snip]
I don't disagree with anything Jim says in his excellent post. :-)
Just some observations:
> All this is really only important though when you're shooting slides.
> For negative film, I usually go overexposed if I'm in doubt.
I have to say that I've not had many difficulties shooting slides with either
partial (FTb), center-weighted (A1), or evaluative metering (EOS); perhaps this
is because I "grew up" as a photographer shooting Kodachrome 64 (back in the 70s
and 80s 35mm color negative film was pretty much crap). Of course, back then we
underexposed slightly to get a rich look when the slides were projected--a
technique that doesn't work so well if you want to scan them!
> I've had really good luck with my EOS 10's metering.
I've now used three EOS bodies--3, 7/30, and A2/5. Even in the oldest (5), the
evaluative metering is remarkably good. When I first got my initial EOS body I
spent a lot of time using different metering modes, but now after a couple years
I just leave it in evaluative mode except in unusual lighting situations. I'm
having more difficulty gauging the amount of compensation to dial in for bright
snow scenes (the amount of non-snow subject matter in the scene is critical)
than I am with any deficiencies in the in-camera metering--and I just had
developed a roll of 120 E100SW that had several nearly-clear frames as a result
of using a hand-held meter with my Rolleiflex--I think I shouldn't have applied
any compensation when I metered for incident light! But, the readings from the
Lunasix were dramatically different from those I got with an Elan 7, so perhaps
I need to check the batteries in the Gossen. :-)
> Those rather newer to the sport of metering can learn a lot
> from a hand held meter. I really feel though, when one goes
> outside of the EOS metering, a spot meter is the only
> way to go.
Otherwise you're merely reproducing what the camera's meter is telling you. With
a spot meter you can work with the brightness range of a scene in a systematic
manner instead of just eyeballing it and choosing an area to meter (like I do).
The multi-spot function in the 3 and 1v is a terrific feature!
> impressed with it's ability. However, one situation that definitely needs
> manual compensating is where there's some really bright spots in the scene,
> but most of the scene is in shade. Camera metering will be fooled every
> time.
This is where learning to effectively apply exposure compensation comes into
play. And it works in the opposite situation as well--dark subjects in a bright
field (there's that snow again!)
> Back when I was using a hand meter, I'd meter the scene, and keep that
> exposure in mind. Then I'd compensate on the fly when for instance the sun
> went under a cloud, or my subject moved into the shade. I don't think that
> way anymore thanks to my EOS,
'Cause the camera's AE makes the compensation for us.
> but I still do compensate for backlits and
> dark subjects manually.
Essential, IMO.
Good post.
fcc
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