Re: exposure comp question

[Michael Perham]

I think you need to be aware of what your subject is and how the overall 
image brightness may deviate from and average 18% grey. If taking a 
picture of a snow scene or perhaps a macro that fills your frame with a 
pale coloured flower, you should increase exposure. Typically I use 
aperture preferred auto, so that I can control DOF, therefore the comp 
dial is the easiest way to achieve this and it will adjust the shutter 
speed.

Newer cameras that use multi zone exposures systems do a fair job of 
compensating for back light and areas of extreme brightness. However, 
Peter Burin, in a recent test on the MZ-S commented that this camera, as 
with most cameras useing multi zone metering systems, tend to slightly 
underexpose frames with large areas of light tones. The example he used 
was a scene with a large expanse of concrete sidewalk; the camera 
compensated to properly expose the sidewalk and underexposed the rest of 
the frame. He used +1/2 compensation to better expose the overall frame.

Of course, this is only relevant if you are using transparency film, 
where the in camera image is your final image. Negative film can, and is 
compensated for in the printing process. Bottom line is, to create the 
image you want, you still have to think about exposure amongst a myriad 
of other things, no matter how sophisticated your camera, This is why I 
get so pissed off when folks see my images and say boy, you must have a 
good camera.

Cheers, Mike.


[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

i read a nice piece on metering light in a recent outdoor photography 
magazine.  the thurst of the article was that to fully rely upon light 
meters, was to average the light to an acceptable 18% gray scale.  

the suggestion was to use exposure compensation to move away from this 
averaging effect of light meters  suggested that photographers make 
decisions about the use of light rather than let their light meters make 
those decisions.

using colors as an example, the author stated that white needed actually +2 
stops of light to get what we think of as white (rather than the averaged 
18% gray).  he also suggested pink, yellow, lime, sky blue, lavendar and tan 
needed +1 stop over the meter.
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Re: exposure comp question

[William Robb]

- Original Message -
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, December 01, 2001 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: exposure comp question


 i read a nice piece on metering light in a recent outdoor
photography
 magazine.  the thurst of the article was that to fully rely
upon light
 meters, was to average the light to an acceptable 18% gray
scale.

A good, predictable light meter looks at everything, no matter
what colour or intensity as 18% gray.
Very few meters actually do this. The Zone VI modified Pentax
Spot Meter (on topic content) is the only meter I am aware of
that is actually reliably accurate.

 the suggestion was to use exposure compensation to move away
from this
 averaging effect of light meters  suggested that
photographers make
 decisions about the use of light rather than let their light
meters make
 those decisions.

This is a good bit of advice. Blind faith in technology leads to
bad experiences.

 using colors as an example, the author stated that white
needed actually +2
 stops of light to get what we think of as white (rather than
the averaged
 18% gray).  he also suggested pink, yellow, lime, sky blue,
lavendar and tan
 needed +1 stop over the meter.

Harrum. Well, I suppose if all you shoot is slide film, +2
stops might work for white. It will certainly lead to a weak
colour negative, and a definitely underexposed black and white
negative; of this I am sure.
What shade of pink, yellow, lime, sky blue, lavendar and tan was
he referring to?

I feel a rant coming on..

Might have to open another bottle of wine for this one..
OK, Here we go:
If you don't know haw YOUR meter will react to various colours
and intensities, you really have no idea about what sort of
exposures you are getting.
You don't know if you are optimizing the films abilities to
record the subject.
It is quite amusing, actually. We all meter carefully, that
small spot that we have decided is the key element of our
photograph, and if we are clever, we assign to it a Zone.
I am guilty of this myself, to be sure. The brightest part of a
cloud that I can still barely see detail in is Zone VIII. That
is what I base my meter reading on.
Other people use Zone 2 or 3.
Neither is right, or wrong. I find I can decide what is
brightest easier than what is darkest is all.
However, that is only part of it. That is called exposure range.
Do you know if your meter is truly linear?
It may read EV 6 correctly, but how does it do with EV 16?
What about if the colour isn't actually a permutation of gray?
What if it is green?
Or blue?
What if it is blue, and you want to use a red filter?
And what does your film think of all this?
Is it colour and exposure linear?

Have you tested all this?

No?

Harrummm!!!

Neither have I.

Here is the thing:
If you are shooting negative film, when in doubt, open up
another stop.
And learn from it.
If you are shooting chrome, and you are unsure, stop down a
third stop.
And pray.

Or. go out and see what your equipment, with the film you shoot,
with the lab you use, and the way they like to print, does with
a picture. If ypu shoot slides, it is easier, but harder as
well. Easier to see what you have done wrong, harder to make it
better.

And if you shoot black and white, and process it yourself, well
there is no hope for you at all.

I don't know of any black and white guys who are satisfied that
they are getting as much out of their film as they can.

 my question is:

You had a question???VBG

 how do i achieve these goals using my exposure compensation?

Depends on the camera, some use a dial.

 my pentax zx-m has an exp comp ring.  if i want white and
desire +2 stops of
 light,

 -do i turn the ring to +2 to add 2 stops?

This seems logical. But do you truly want +2 stops? o you want
more? Or less? And how have you determined this? Is it a guess?
Or intuition (an educated guess)? Or is it based on a solid
knowledge of how your film/meter/eye integrate?

 or

 -do i turn the ring to -2 to compensate for the metering and
effectively add
 2 stops?

Wrong. + adds light. - subtracts light.
Light works just like numbers. This is why we speak of light in
terms of numbers.
Except like works like logarithms.
Don't you wish you had paid more attention in school now?


 thanks in advance to any who care to share their thoughts,
opinions or
 experience.

Are you sure about that?

 be well

I'm fine now. I will surely not be in the morning though,

William Robb
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