Hi Norm,
if they did then they were wrong (or at least, nobody's told me about
the change). I can't imagine how film emulsions on their own would
affect this. You'd also have to recalibrate all meters. It may be that
you're getting confused with the fact that meters are calibrated on
18% grey because early measurements supported the idea that average
reflexivity in mid latitudes was 18% at midday in midsummer. However,
more recent measurements claim that the average is 13%. Nevertheless,
it doesn't seem to make any difference to any pictures, so there seems
no reason to change anything.
As far as advice to RK goes, well it depends. I've found sunny-16 to
be quite reliable in the situations where you'd expect it to be
reliable. ie, bright day with the sun behind me, and here in the UK
there is a 3-stop difference between the highest and lowest reading,
when the lowest reading is open shade. But if I wanted shadow detail
I'd expose for the shadows or possibly use fill flash or a reflector
if I had to include the sunlit highlights.
Your exposures may have been wrong because the centre-weighting
encompassed some very non-average elements, but I don't really see how
it could have ruined both the highlights _and_ the shadows unless the
brightness range of the scene far exceeded the latitude of your film.
You'd need to tell us a bit more about the type of film you were using,
what the predominant tones in the metering area were, and what the
brightness range of the scene was.
It's not usually a good time of day to be taking pictures. Any
photographer worth his salt rests in some cool dark cantina with a
glass of golden, foaming throat-charmer during the noonday hours. Why
do they have to be done at that time of day? Why not wait until your
shadow is longer than your height, or get up before sunrise?
If you really must take pictures at noon, I'd recommend using an incident
meter, measuring the light falling on the most important element
of the scene, and basing your exposure around that.
---
Bob
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sunday, May 06, 2001, 1:47:32 PM, you wrote:
> Didn't someone on this list mention a while back that the Sunny 16 rule
> doesn't necessarily apply today due to advances in film emulsion? Or
> something like that...
> Norm
> RK wrote:
>> I've messed up some very important landscape shots- I had to take them
>> about just after noon in blazing sunlight and the resulting images are
>> ghastly: burnt out highlights with deep shadows.
>> I showed them to a pro and he recommended I use the Sunny 16 rule
>> whenever I take photos in bright sunshine- i.e., I ignore the CW meter
>> reading.
>> Is this good advice? I shoot print film and my usual outfit for outdoor
>> shots would be a MZ5+17mm Tokina
-
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