----- Original Message ----- From: "J. C. O'Connell" Subject: RE: Face reflectivity of different ethnics
> I think its much easier to just use an incidence meter > right in front of the subject's face and use THAT reading. > then the face will fall on the correct zone automatically. > JCO This gets into one of those situational challenges where the technically correct exposure may well not be the esthetically correct exposure. A very dark skin tone may well fall as low as Zone II. At this level of exposure, the film is not giving a usable amount of detail. While always a judgement call, I would hesitate to place a skin tone as low as Zone II or III, whether it is the technically correct place for it or not. Print films all have sufficient latitude to allow for some over exposure. If you set the very dark skin tone to Zone IV or even as high as Zone V, you will be securing sufficient detail to get a richly detailed dark skin tone by printing the negative down to the correct flesh tone. This is much more appealing than having undetailed soot with a smile where a face should be. William Robb - 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 .
