"J. C. O'Connell" wrote: > > Putting a dark skinned face at zone 5 will cause everexposure, It probably > should be closer to zone 3 which would mean giving 2 stops LESS exposure > than > the spot meter reading.
A zone 3 exposure will render it almost solid black, rather than a shade of gray. I had some experience with this when I taught in a Chicago high school where the students were African Americans. I did a lot of yearbook photography and taught an after school photography class, so I shot numerous portraits and general people shots. Skin tones varied, of course, from white to very dark brown, but I found that in most cases, metering to even zone IV resulted in an unattractive, overly dark representation and general underexposure. On extremely tight shots of very dark skin with extremely tight framing, zone 4 exposures were nice. For most shots, even tightly framed shots of individuals with average skin color, the zone 5 meter reading was better. Paul - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
