It is the Kodak grey card pack, the 5x7 is in the camera bag, the 8x10 near the enlarger ( it's my dark room mid grey reference now. ). I am noticing B&W is similar to slides in that it isn't near as forgiving as colour print exposure wise, you need to be accurate!!! at least with in 1 stop. That and halogen light is yellow/redish so when I used the yellow filter the cameras meter could not compensate for the colour balance since B&W isn't so red sensitive. that was 1 stop lost, then add the white back drop and fair skined model thats 1 more stop the camera throws out since it wants to make her grey. There goes 2 stops that if I had done a grey card test I would have known. All the whites came out grey, darks almost turned black and black was super black with no detail ( even tho there could have been ). After the grey card test ( after a 2 stop under exposed roll ) I saw metering the grey almost dead on, metering the white side, it made white turn grey, metering both in martix, same as metering the white side. matrix metering + 1.5 stops was almost the same as the grey card, spot metered the grey card almsot the same reading as refelcted off the grey card with hand meter. ETC ETC. now I know why you ned to learn in B&W first, get a good neg ( mental note, trust Ansel Adams and Aaron ) to get a good print.
--- Shel Belinkoff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Brendan ... > > You'll get no flak here, just kudos and a tip o' the > hat. > > Funny you should mention this, as I've been playing > around with > exposures a little. It's been a long time since > I've used the camera's > built-in meter, and a couple of days ago I tried > using the ME Super on > automatic, even adjusting a little for contrasty > scenes or scenes that > were not "average". The results were terrible. > Changing lenses changed > the exposure, moving the camera a bit changed the > exposure, and, in > general, shadow detail was compromised by highlights > that affected the > meter reading. > > Now, I understand how meters work, but I wanted to > see the results that > could be had with the camera essentially set on > automatic. They were > terrible. Long ago I started carrying a hand-held > meter and a grey > card, although I've rarely used the grey card, but I > use a spot meter so > it's easy enough to find a middle grey tone in just > about any scene. > Heck, a mid grey isn't even needed. You can measure > off something a > little brighter or darker and adjust the exposure > from there. Once I've > got the readings for a scene, or the area in which > I'm shooting, the > camera setting remains constant. The exposures are > far better > controlled, and the tones are placed where I want > them to be rather than > where they just happen to end up because some > circuit or algorithm > inside the camera thinks it knows better than me how > to expose a scene. > > The other nice thing about what you're doing is that > you'll soon have a > better understanding of light (if you pay attention > and remember the > situations in which you've been shooting), and in > time you'll discover > that a meter isn't always necessary, except, > perhaps, for tricky > lighting situations. > > BTW, a couple of tips that might be useful: newish > or very minimally > faded blue jeans is about equivalent to mid grey. > Metering the palm of > your hand and open up one stop will give a good > exposure. Grass also > gives a good mid-tone reading. > > Also, bear in mind that grey cards vary somewhat. > If you're not already > using one, get yourself a Kodak grey card package. > Very, very useful. > > HTH, > > Brendan wrote: > > > > I know I'll get some flak but after runing a roll > of > > B&W ( dark 2 stops under exposed ) and then > deciding > > to try a grey card test I realise the grey card > and > > minolta meter have to go where ever the camera > goes. > > Yes I have seen it with my own eyes that all light > > meters see grey, by metering reflected off th grey > > card the exposures were almost dead on. So never > again > > will I trust any meter, I'll trust the grey card. > > -- > Shel Belinkoff > mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://home.earthlink.net/~belinkoff/ > - > 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 . > ______________________________________________________________________ Find, Connect, Date! http://personals.yahoo.ca - 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 .
