That duck picture on your home page, how did you meter it?

I love the sunset (sunrise?) photograph of the duck

among your Web collection #1. How did you meter it?

If I want to record color in the water's reflection of

the sky, what's the most I can expose over the camera

meter's recommendation and still get some color?

 

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How do I make sure that the duck is a silhouette?

How much under the camera's recommendation will get

me a nice solid black.

 

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I'm talking about slide film here.

If we assume that an in camera meter gives you a reading

that will reproduce on film as a mid tone (and that's a

good assumption), then about 2 1/2 stops *less* exposure

will reproduce as a solid black. So if you can spot meter

a subject, then use a -2.5 stop exposure compensation, it

should appear as black.

 

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At the other end of the scale, if you open up much more

than 2 stops from a spot meter reading, the subject will

wash out and you will lose most of the color, ending up

with white.

 

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Be carful of any matrix or evaluative metering systems

though. You don't quite know what they are basing their

exposure on, so you don't know how to compensate to get

the exposure *you* want.

-2.5 stops will produce solid black? According to my minimal knowledge of the Zone system, shouldn't that be about 4 stops?

Slide films typically have a range of 4 to 5 stops. 2 to 2.5 stops under what the meter tells you will supress that part of the image into lower part of the range (black). 2 to 2.5 stops over what the meter tells you will raise that part of the image to the top of the range (white). You may be thinking of print film, which has a much wider range (often as much as 8 stops, although some of the more recent emulsions seem to be able to span an even greater range than this).

You are right Glen, and I am actually considering the case for black and white film. A totally different story. Sorry for the errant post.