Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I stayed out of the metering for highlights thread...... But in my opinion, bracketing exposures because you don't know how to correctly use a light meter is a very bad habit to get into. Why.......... well there are subjects that aren't going to allow you time to bracket whether you have a motor drive or not. Non-posed subjects change positioning and expressions and many times you are lucky to get one good expression after an hour of waiting around. Needless to say you need to get the exposure right... Obviously if you are photographing a boat, or a building, it's not going anywhere. But if a shaft of light hits the boat or a passing boat adds colorful reflections..... you aren't going to have much time to shoot. My thoughts on bracketing..... Well it is better to bracket and get one image than spend so much time analyzing the scene that you miss the shot completely.... it's better to bracket and get one good exposure than take three overexposed ones..... I generally only bracket exposure on subjects that have a wide range of contrast. Generally I'm worried about how the lighter areas of the scene are going to appear such as in cathedrals where art and objects are lit by small floodlights...... Quite frankly the M-6 meter is about as precise in those scenes as a sledgehammer. But bracketing is better used as insurance rather than a primary technique. In general, my technique is to meter the midtones..... it's a whole lot easier since that is what the camera is set up to do..... If I'm photographing people... I meter the face or look for medium tones.... But I try to pick out what is the most important part of the scene and I base the exposure around that. If it's a white building....... meter on the white and adjust exposure..... or if it's dark, adjust exposure accordingly.... Spend 15 minutes learning the basic principals of the zone system as it relates to basic metering technique and you'll be better off. "IT'S REALLY NOT THAT HARD FOLKS". Frankly the easiest way to get underexposed slides is to meter for the highlights..... You get pretty highlights with that method but unless that is the most important part of the scene..... who cares??? If you meter for the highlights on a backlit subject you'll get a nice silhouette. If you are worried about blown-out highlights, change your shooting position.... or try to eliminate large bright blank parts from the image area by getting closer to your subject etc.... While bracketing is a useful technique for certain situations..... It's also a bad habit that will make your overall technique sloppier for other situations if you rely on it too much. If a once-in-a-lifetime shot happens only on the overexposed bracket of the slide you'll never forgive yourself..... (unquote) : ) Duane Birkey HCJB World Radio Quito Ecuador http://members.tripod.com/~Duane_Birkey/index.html