This discussion brings up another of my pet peeves ... that of people relying on the latitude of the film to mask exposure inaccuracies. While it seems there's a lot of room for fudging with color negative film, and it's generally agreed that slide film needs a precise exposure, many people feel that B&W film has ample exposure latitude to handle some over or under exposure. I contend that B&W is just as fussy as slide film, and here's why: While it's true that some under or over exposure may still yield a decent print, what will happen is that the grey tones shift, and that which was supposed to be middle grey in the final print is now Zone 4 or Zone VI, with the resultant shifts of other tones as well.
Further, when working down in the shadow areas, a small (even 1/2 stop) amount of under exposure may cause a loss of detail in some spots. I tried this with a very neutral shot of a guy covered with a grey blanket sitting on a milk box in front of a grey fence. The day was somewhat overcast, so there were no harsh shadows. Overall, a very easy shot to make at almost any exposure - somewhat akin to shooting a grey card - or it would seem at first. I made a normal exposure, and then in 1/2 stop increments over and under exposed up to one stop. Apart from the obvious tonal shift, subtle details began to disappear in the area of the milk box as the exposure was reduced. So, the question that one must ask one's self is how much of a tonal shift, and how much loss (or gain) in shadow detail, is one willing to accept. I really believe that to rely of a films exposure latitude to compensate for inaccurate exposure is just sloppy work. True, sometimes you've just gotta grab what you can get, but if you have the time (and by now we all should be able to properly expose Tri-X in our sleep) to think a bit, there's no reason to be careless. graywolf wrote: > (GRIN) Either you had very dirty hand or those negs were "underexposed" by about > a stop. (GRIN) > > [...] As you say, with experience you start to notice without > even thinking of it. A cloud covers the sun, you open up a stop or two > automatically. Sun comes out again and you close back down. >
