f._madali Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 I came across the following website while browsing the web http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm Has anyone ever calculated exposure this way? This site claims that Edward Weston metered exposure this way. I can imagine that there were no exposure meters back in the days when he did his photography but there must have been a way to calculate exposure. Opinions please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben conover Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Hi, whilst I do find the history of photography interesting I find that with something like exposure I need the best I can get. This means using a meter of some sort, but not sunny 16. Our eyes have in-built compensation so we are really poor judges of light, if we weren't we would be perfect exposure meters. Surely we do better with tools than with guesswork. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_sullivan Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 "...Has anyone ever calculated exposure this way?...".........yes "I can imagine that there were no exposure meters back in the days when he did his photography but there must have been a way to calculate exposure...".........yep, practice, practice, practice. Also, "back in the day" the camera manuracturers and film manufacturers would give simplified versions of the chart you refer to. Find an old camera User's Manual, they all had a chart like this in them. All film boxes has actual instruction sheets back then with the same chart plus developing data for B&W. Some film packaging....the inside of the box the film comes in....still has charts like this the last I looked. Try it sometime, it's pretty accurate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill c. Posted March 23, 2005 Share Posted March 23, 2005 Back before I started shooting for the Society myself, I assisted for Martin Rogers, one of their contract shooters. He shot Kodachrome almost exclusively, never used a light meter, and never bracketed. How well did he do it? Well enough to win "Magazine Photographer of the Year" and work for National Geographic for nearly 20 years. I'll estimate my exposure by eye alone from time to time, but personally, I don't have the guts to do it on a big money shoot. Besides, these days I'll just look at the readout on the back of the (digital) camera In short, yes, it is possible for some people to successfully eyeball exposure with a very high degree of accuracy. YMMV. Happy shooting. -BC- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now