Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Kevin Hoffberg wrote: <<<<But without a clear sense of what you're doing and why, it's really little better than guess work. I know all about gray cards and mid tones, and green grass, and zones, and all the rest. >>>>> Hi Kevin, And in there lies the problem! Forget all that crapof mid tones, green grass, grey cards! Just hold up an incident meter and shoot at what it tells you. Chances are it'll be perfect! Or so damn close you'll still love it without having 22 more frames to compare. <<<<<<But not all scenes present themselves so neatly and finding something in the scene that looks to be a mid tone value and then reading it with a one degree spot meter doesn't ipso facto guarantee a good overall exposure.>>>>>> Kevin the only time I ever use a spot meter, and that is the one in the R8, I stick a long lens on if I really need to spot during some kind of stage show or spot lit kind of situation. Other than that an incident meter is going to give you a damn fine exposure 99.9% of the time. Yes, yes, I know there'll be 22 other people say I'm wrong, that's their prerogative, however do it my way and it'll work! :) You'll be a happy camper photographer with a higher ratio of successful images.:) >>>>>>> or like Ted and Tina say (perhaps in jest), light up the two little >>>>>>>red arrows and shoot. Wiggle your aperture or shutter speed either >>>>>>>way and you've got your brackets.>>>>>>> Aaaaah! We speak not in jest sir! :):) The most important thing is having complete confidence in the equipment you are using and yes experience comes to play with it, but generally the R8 or M6 meter will give you excellent exposures if you "trust them!" Tina and I, as well as many others do trust our gear or we'd all be carrying a couple of meters going crazy metering umpteen dozen elements while the sun slowly sinks in the west. Quite frankly I don't care who it is, but the more you screw around taking meter readings and all the many thingies that are supposed to give you the ultimate exposure, composition, the greater the chances are you'll have merely a technically correct mundane no feeling image of some kind, without any feeling or emotion attached to it. >FWIW, the first roll of 120 I shot after this wonderful little thread >yielded 12 excellent images (including the brackets). So it helped.>>>>> Good for you, nice to hear the good side of knowledge available through LUG has made a photgrapher's day a little better.:) ted Ted Grant This is Our Work. The Legacy of Sir William Osler. http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant