Correct exposure E6

Hi Forum:

 

 

I shoot with Fuji Provia 100 or Astia 100 when I use Bronica SQ-A. I have both

WLF and metered prism finder. I also have a Minolta autometer IIIF. My

question is what type of metering is more useful while shooting outdoors? I

use incident readings with Minolta meter when shooting flowers, portraits and

reflective with prism finder when doing landscapes. I noticed that there were

substantial differences in readings between these two metering modes. My

understanding is that incident is good when I can place the meter close to the

subject and point it towards the camera. So this technique is okay for macro

or general close up shots. Generally there is a vastness in landscape

compositions and its not always possible to go close enough to the subject

(e.g. moutain peak in the distance), so I use reflective instead. I am not

happy with some of my close up and portrait shots where I used incident

metering. Highlights are completely blown out. Let me give one example. I am

shooting two people wearing two different colors - one dark and one light. Is

is better to use reflective metering in this situation and take reading from

light colored dress? I do not want to change film (for instance use

negatives). Also, I do not want to buy a spot meter. Instead I want to learn,

understand, practice and master the techniques with my existing set up. I

request experienced members to give me some suggestions on this. Thanks,

 

Subho

If you are doing landscape work and youcan get into the same light that is generally illuminating what you are photographing, incident meters work just fine unless there isa really huge contrast range in which case a spot meter is useful for determining whether you want to retain detail in the shadows or detail in the non specular highlights.

 

There is the catch: Modern TTL, and hand held meters are very goodmeters are very good at reading illumination levels but they are lousy at reading your mind: they can't determine your intent. So my advice is bracket and bracket widely. What is technically the correct exposure is not always the best exposure for what you want a particular photograph to be. As you have found out, so bracket.

Incident metering is very good when the subject light is uniform or the same as where the camera is. Spot metering (or some kind of contrast measurement) is essential when the light on the subject has a large brightness range, or is different from the light where the photographer is standing (i.e. you can't reach it with an incident meter). So, your observations are correct; incident is often good for macro and portrait since the light falling on the subject is easily reached by the photographer. With a center-weighted reflected reading you need to be more aware of the brightness and color of what you are metering, as these will have a substantial effect on exposure.

 

It could be that your incident meter is out of calibration. What does is read on a sunny day set to ISO 100? How does that compare to a reflected reading off a gray card in the same light? It could also be that the brightness range was greater than you thought it was. Did any of your macro or portrait shots of backlight? Incident meters will overexpose in backlit situations.

 

If the light is fairly uniform on the two people wearing different colors, I would use the incident meter as it eliminates any exposure shift due to subject color/brightness. Theoretically, though, if one is wearing black and the other is wearing white, they should balance the exposure with a reflected reading. If, however, you take a reflected reading from only the light/white dress, your meter will underexpose the rest of the scene by at least 2 stops. Remember, your reflected meter will try to make anything you point it at middle gray.

Maybe you could use a spot attachment for your incident meter. I believe this one listed on the *bay might fit. Item# 110127521633

You should purchase an 18% grey card from any good photo shop (or on line) and use your through the lens meter to take a reading from that. This technique works even better with a spot meter.

All films and camera meters are calebrated to a value of 18% grey so this will give you a theoretically 'perfect' exposure.

The general rule of thumb for generations, has been incident reading for negative film, and reflected for colour slide. Even as a newby amatuer in the 70's I found that just accepting the light meter in the camera invariably produced thin negatives, but really rich colour slides.

 

For colour slides, I stuck to this with a high % of success, and learning to use a light meter for B/W. But in the early 90s, when buying some Velvia to take up into the mountains, the photographer/shop manager in Oslo handed it to me, saying "With this film, expose excactly according to the incident reading. Not the usual underexposure." His experience with photography on ice and snow, and down inside glaciers was well worth taking note of. It certainly paid off for me. I wish I had the facility to scan some of these 6x6 transparencies.

 

Well of course, wherever you start your metering from, bracketing with transparency film is always well advised.

 

Cheers, Kevin.

You don't need to get a greycard to meter off, because that method will not be able to improve on incident light metering.<br>In fact, though not difficult, it's more error prone than incident light metering, since when metering off a card, slight variations in the angle of the thing relative to the light source and meter can make a big difference.<br><br>Incident light metering is the most exact, and error free method by far. It only falls short if the brightness range is beyond what film can record (and then metering isn't your only problem) or the light illuminating your subject is hugely different from any light you can hold the meter in.<br>That doesn't mean reflected light metering is useless. But it requires a very deliberate and educated approach: you must now what it is you are metering, how it deviates from the 'norm' the meter is calibrated to, and how you want the metered part to appear in the brightness scale of the final image.<br>The same approach, by the way, can be taken when using incident metering: then too you can decide what bit in the subject you want to appear in what particular way, and, using the same judgement, bias the reading accordingly.<br><br>To reduce the demands reflected light metering poses, integral metering is invented. The 'integrating' reading integral metering produces emulates incident light metering, though it can't shed its dependence on subject brightness (now it's the average brightness that may falsify the result).<br>So you can ask why not use incident light metering to begin with. And why not indeed!

why not use

P.S. (again...)<br><br>Please ignore the trailing bit, following the exclamation mark.<br>Sorry!

A professional would bracket.

But what exposure would he or she (the professional) be bracketing? And how would he or she arrive at that?<br><br>Bracketing, by the way, is a way of covering up that you do not really know what you are doing. It's better to do know that, and act accordingly. Saves on film too. ;-)

I wish to express my gratitude to all who responded to my questions. Got few interesting opinions on the metering methods and I am going to try those to see what fits my needs best. QG's take on bracketing is intriguing too.........

Finally its time to admit that my overexposed shots, I was venting about earlier, are due to a faulty metering. The battery in the meter did not have enough juice to do it's job.........a costly goof up on my part.