Re: [Leica] Whether to buy a seperate meter?

[Eric Welch <ewelch@ponyexpress.net>]

At 12:43 PM 9/4/99 -0400, you wrote:
>If I meter for a deep shadow, say the tread of a tire under the shadow of
>the fender, I'd take a reading on the tire, and stop down two stops. If I
>meter on a highlight, not a specular highlight, light reflections off glass
>or water, but say the front of a white shirt, with details like folds or
>wrinkles, then I open up three stops

Actually, Dan, I'd say this is good advice, except when shooting slide film 
where the extreme of exposures are both in the picture. No matter how well 
you meter shadows, that is death to slide films. Fine to meter it, but you 
also need to meter the highlights to see where they fall. As in the zone 
system, you meter for the highlight, or the shadow - depending on what you 
want to do and "place" the exposure, as you describe. Then you need to 
meter the other extreme and see where it "falls" on the exposure scale. 
Only then, do you have a chance of knowing what is going to happen on film.

But I think three stops is too extreme an exposure increase in most cases. 
I don't like metering on specular highlights in any case. There's no 
telling how they will look. I try to keep the meter in the Zone VI to VII 
areas. With negative film metering Zone VIII is good, but you should be 
starting with the shadows and seeing where the highlights fall. In this 
case, color slide film is difficult to calibrate, so the Zones are not 
precise and require experience with film and meter to know what you're getting.

But having said that, whatever works for you so that you get the results 
you expect, go with it.

Eric Welch
St. Joseph, MO

http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch

    My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability 
to understand it. -Sam Abell; "Stay This Moment"