How Do You Meter?

Hi Everyone - I'd like to read how you meter while on the street. If

your camera meters for you, do you keep it on a certain mode and let

it select the f stop and shutter speed, or do you select something

like shutter priority and let the camera select the f stop? If your

camera is mostly mechanical like mine, so you use a hand held meter?

If so, do use a spot meter or incident meter? Do any of you use

the "Sunny 16" rule (let's see isn't that 1/250 at f16) for afternoon

sun and just not bother with metering? Myself, my hand held meter

does both spot and incident readings. If I'm shooting something far

away, let's say across the street, I used to spot meter three areas;

darkest, brightest and whatever I thought would be a 18% gray, then

average these three readings. This takes too long. So then I would

just spot meter one area, like someones face and then set my camera

to the desired settings. However sometimes like yesterday in east LA,

there may be a lot of shadows in the scene and I'm unsure how to

expose correctly.

I think for kicks next week I'll set out and shoot a roll using Sunny

16 and see how they turn out. Anything to save a precious second is

worth trying.

Regards,

Marc

I use a fully manual camera (for everything -- I don't own an automatic of any kind). When shooting in a situation where I won't have time to meter each shot, such as on the street, I preset from a "typical" meter reading (with my Spotmatic, I usually meter off the pavement, which is pretty close to 18% gray; with my Minolta 16, I generally use Sunny 16, though it's easy to underexpose a stop by mistaking Hazy for Sunny), and adjust the exposure as lighting conditions change -- generally, by opening or closing one or two (or occasionally three) stops when going from sun to open shade to deep shade or vice versa, without bothering to meter again. I can make these changes by touch on my Spotmatic and my Minolta 16, so I don't even have to look at the camera to keep the exposure up to date.

 

Most negative films have more than enough latitude to produce good results with this method, though the microfilm I use in my Minolta 16 is less tolerant than the Tri-X loaded in my Spottie.

Depends on the situation (and what gear I'm toting).

 

If I'm in the same light as my subject and using an incident meter I'll use that for the exposure without modifications. Generally I use the incident meter only with cameras that don't have a meter: my Agfa folder; Rollei TLR.

 

With camera TTL metering I'll meter my hand to compare it against the subject. For people I'll open up a stop from there.

 

Both methods have worked reliably for me.

 

I have a Pentax Spotmeter but use it only for non-moving subjects - architecture, etc.

 

One of my longtime tricks is to rely on compensating developers to help tame the highlights on bright, sunny days. It helps to even out slight errors in exposure and contrast can be beefed up later during printing. This way I don't feel the need to continually check my meter.

 

For more critical exposures on non-moving subjects I'll expose much more deliberately and develop to suit.

I can't say that I consistently meter at all. Most of the time I spot-meter and shoot in fully manual mode, but that's not a rule. Sometimes, especially if there's a lot of changing light, I'll shoot in AV mode or even--gasp!--in full-auto.

Since this is street photography I would jsut meter the subject's face with a +1/2 or +1 EV compensation using the camera's spot meter.

I use Tri-X and have NO IDEA what f-stop and exposure my little Holga acturally uses ;-)

 

I only got bad exposure when there was no sun at all, i.e., indoor without window light. So I got a second Holga, with a flash.

 

Enjoy the light, don't worry about it.

<i>Enjoy the light, don't worry about it.</i><p>

Yeah, I always liked polar bear in snowstorm and inside the

tunnel at midnight pics. The minimalism is breathtaking.

>Johnson Cheung , may 17, 2004; 01:24 a.m.

 

>Since this is street photography I would jsut meter the subject's face with a +1/2 or +1 EV compensation using the camera's spot meter.

 

So I suppose you just walk up to them and say "Hold still now!" Makes for dynamic street photos...

I generally leave the camera set on "Program." I lose fewer pictures that way than I would gain by carefully monitoring the exposure and adjusting it for each shot. Ya' can't win 'em all.

I'll have to try that.

John:

 

If the person's face is going to be part of the picture, how long will metering his/her face take? One second perhaps? It does not even break my work flow. (Btw I usually just use Sunny 16). But it works for me.

 

http://www.geocities.com/jsbc1/a/b/index.htm

 

 

Of course, if one's practice is to take photos of peoples butts from the hip, then this is a problem.

In-Camera meter readings off the back of my hand work fine for me... I find my exposures sit around 1/125, f/11 at ISO400 if I want instant response, just bring the camera to my eye and shoot, but it doesn't work so well for grab shots (though I find my uncanny ability to cut people's heads off with hip shots to be more of a problem than any exposure or focus woes. I cannot see with a 50mm if it's not near my eyes...)

Micheal, if you like I'll set some bottles up on the fence out back for you to practice shooting from the hip. That 50mm of yours can be deadly in skilled hands!

 

I like my Gossen Digisix in reflective mode for street shooting. It's fast and easy if you don't have to change film speeds.

I use an incident meter to check levels in sunny areas and shady

areas (or whatever higher vs. lower conditions there are in the

vicinity), then use that information to properly expose whichever

element of a scene I think is most important. I don't re-meter

unless conditions change significantly.

I use a Gossen Bisix reflective light meter. When I'm out on the streets I point it, set the camera. If I feel the light has changed I do the same thing.

usually centre weighted, metered from the ground in similar lighting to the subject for quick shots, aperture preffered auto is my AE of choice, camera, FE2 Nikon or fixed lens rangefinder.

I have a new, my first, DSLR and I've been using the spot meter in the camera, metering on something I estimate to be near 18% gray, and then locking the metering. So far, I've been happier with the results than I was using the programmed metering.

My metering method fluctuates wildly depending on the conditions and the camera used. In the link below, the photography was done early in the morning last May. The light was already very, very bright and the dynamic range of the Nikon Coolpix 4500 is limited, but it does have excellent built in metering. In this case I remember spending time planning the image, but the presence of shadows certainly impacted the exposure.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/1919308&size=lg

The matrix meter in my Nikon works fine.