Exposure problems

Hey, I just had my srt 102 CLA and had the light meter fixed to work with 1.5v

batteries. I used a silver battery which comes out at 1.55v instead and doesn't

make much of a difference at all. I had my first roll of film developed today

and it seems like the meter isn't correctly exposing my shots. I took a lot of

forest shots and landscape shots on a very sunny day. The forest shots in

general came out overexposed a little bit, especially near leaves and sunlit

rocks. The landscape shots came out slightly blurry in the foreground but the

exposure seemed ok. I guess my question is: is this normal for the light meter

in the srt 102? Am I not using it properly? I took most of the shots at 1/125

exposure and then just adjusted the f stop until the meter lined up. Should I be

paying more attention to the f stop instead of the exposure time? Does it sound

like an inaccurate light meter? Sorry for all the questions it's just that I

thought since the light meter was fixed all my shots would at least be correctly

exposed. Thanks a lot for any help.

 

Andrew

Don't know about your exposure problems re. the meter on your camera but I think I might be able to give some pointers on your problems.

I assume from your previous posts you are relatively new to photography but please forgive me if you know any of this already!

 

With reference to your landscape shot, to get good sharpness and as large depth of field as possible you need to be using a high f-stop and adjusting your shutter speed to suit. A good starting point would be f16 to get maximum depth of field. You should also be focusing at hyperfocal length for your f-stop this should be marked on your lens.

Remember the higher the f-stop the greater the depth of field.

 

How dark was the forest? If it was darker than the nominal 18% grey the meter could have been 'fooled' into overexposing a relatively dark scene. In extreme cases of brightness or darkness any meter can get it wrong, the beach, snow scenes and black object against a dark background are the classic examples of when you may need to override your meter by a stop or so, plus for the bright scenes and minus for the dark.

 

Metering

http://www.kodak.com/cluster/global/en/consumer/products/techInfo/af9/index.shtml#54213

 

Hyperfocal length

http://www.vividlight.com/articles/2314.htm

 

Try searching for help on the following topics,

Light meter readings/

depth of field/

hyperfocal length

Thanks Chris, I'll try to remember those points and yes I'm new at this so the first thing I want to do is blame my equipment lol. When I took the landscape shots it was very sunny and I was set at 1/125 so wouldn't that end up bringing the f stop to f16 anyway? I think the next thing I'm gonna do is for my next roll I'm gonna use the 50mm lens that I used for this roll and the 45mm that I didn't use and take doubles with the 45 and see if it's any better and if so I probably just got a bad lens. I got it from ebay so... Can anyone recommend a good book for a newbie with a manual focus camera too?

There are a few further points from this reply. What are your lenses make model etc.? I would be surprised if they were really that poor but it is possible.

When taking a photo there are really 4 things you need to consider regarding exposure choices.

These really boil down to deciding what kind of shot you are trying to take.

 

Consider F-stop

 

1. For maximum sharpness and depth of field use a high f no and a tripod eg for a landscape

 

2. If you are trying to only have a certain part of your photo in sharp focus eg. sharp eyes and blurred nose and background for a portrait then use a wider f stop eg.f2.8

 

Consider Shutter Speed

 

3. when shooting hand held the slowest shutter speed you should use is 1 /focal length of the lens so for your 50mm 1/50 would be the slowest shutter speed.

 

 

4.If you're trying to freeze movement then a fast shutter speed is your priority. If you want to blur movement to give an effect of movement use a long shutter speed.

 

 

Finally I admire your willingness to go out and experiment and see your results, it's the best way to learn. A good tip though is to write down what you are trying to achieve with respect to your depth of field and 'feel' of your photo. Record what your f.stop/shutter speed, film speed and focusing point were for each shot on a note pad.

This way you'll soon see what effect your settings are having.

The lens I was using I bought off ebay and it's an MC rokkor f/1.4 50mm lens that I only paid 20-30 dollars for if I remember correctly b/c it had the serial number carved in it. The original lens I got with the camera is a 45mm MD Rokkor f/2 lens with a 1A skylight filter on it. Every shot I took with this lens even when the light meter was broken and I just left the f stop at like 2.8 or 4 and exposure time at 1/125 or 1/250 came out pretty nice. Ever since I used the 50mm lens they've always came out overexposed and just kind of bland with no real brightness to the colors.

 

I actually tried a few motion shots by setting the exposure time at 1/1000 and trying to capture bees in flight but with a normal 50mm lens it didn't really zoom in enough to make the bee look prominant in the photo.

 

Also to rule out something wrong with my light meter can I go out on a really sunny day and aim at something at 1/125 exposure and expect that if I line up the light meter it will be at f/16? And if it lines up with like f/8 then can I assume there's something wrong with it?

 

Oh and the film I used is fuji superia reala ISO 100 if that means anything to you. I'll start recording my settings for each shot too like you said.

<em>"... Also to rule out something wrong with my light meter can I go out on a

really sunny day and aim at something at 1/125 exposure and expect that if I line up the

light meter it will be at f/16? And if it lines up with like f/8 then can I assume there's

something wrong with it...?"</em></p>

 

<p>Yes... provided you aim at a mid-tone subject and you're using ISO 100 film, you should

get a reading close to f/16. </p>

 

<p>But if you point the camera into a shadowed doorway, it should indicate a wider

aperture (f/8? f/5.6?). Likewise, aim at the sun and it should indicate a smaller

aperture. The meter tries to give you an "average" reading for an

"average" subject brightness.<p>

Taking notes of each shot is a <em>very</em> good idea until you get the hang of it.

I actually just brought my camera out and it's heavily overcast today so it should have read at 5.6. I aimed at a more shaded area and it was like 2.8-4 then I aimed at my open driveway and it was at 5.6 so it seems the meter is okay. The next really sunny day I'll test it out again and make sure.

Can anyone recommend a good book on manual photography and exposure?