Metering with a M6

[fredus]

Hi there,

 

As my interest in B&W increase a little bit more everyday, I'm

wondering how you guys deal with metering and the M6. I'm definitely

trying to expose for the shadow but sometime I can't really reach

the shadow with my viewfinder to meter them (ie. I can't fill the

frame with the shadow) ... So how do you deal with that ?? Thumb in

the air ? Experience ?? Spot meter in the pocket ??

 

I would appreciate advice ...

 

Thanks !

[al_kaplan1]

You could get closer to the subject. You could also carry a seperate meter with you, either a spot meter for reading from camera position or if you get right up to your subject you could use an incident reading. Since most of us shot with normal or wide angle lenses on our M leicas the majority of the time you could use a 135mm lens for those tight "spot" readings. Look around for a cheap cosmetically challenged beat up old 135 of about any brand that'll fit Leica. It could even have oil on the diaphragm blades and a few scratches across the front element. All you'll be using it for is meter readings.

[andrew_rose]

Well, it's first helpful to know how the metering works on an M6. I believe it is called a

modified spot, wherein roughly 2/3 of the view through the framelines are used for

metering. I usually get right up close to the object I"m metering, and for people I just use

my hand (if the light is the same) or get as close as possible. It seems to work pretty well.

[matt_m__toronto_]

zen. i find it's about knowing your film and recognizing light patterns. i use an incident meter btw, no internal meter on an m2.

 

if you can only meter a brighter area in the scene, judge yourself where you need to place that value and open up/close down a stop or two or 3 or...etc

[patricks]

Fred, the only way to get the type of precision you are looking for (if I understand your needs correctly) is to carry a spot meter and then compensate exposure accordingly.

 

I assume you mean situations where you simply cannot get closer to the shadow area of your scene for whatever reason.

[patricks]

or the classic BLH (bracket like hell)

[fredus]

>I assume you mean situations where you simply cannot get closer to >the shadow area of your scene for whatever reason.

 

Yup !

 

The BLH is an idea but I like to nail my exposure in one shot. I've never been found of bracketing to be honest ...

[Rob F.]

When I carry an M6 I'm usually not interested in carrying much extra gear, so I wouldn't personally carry a spotmeter. My habit is to favor the area toward the shadow when metering, and then open up an extra stop for black & white; or an extra half stop for chrome.

[fredus]

Rob, you meant close down right ?

 

Fred

[johnmarkpainter]

Fred,

 

You should just take a few days and carry an incident meter around...no camera.

 

Take readings for a while and you will QUICKLY get to where you can take a reading of a

meadian subject to get your bearings and then be able to guess what the shadows and

highlight areas would be.

 

I don't have any metered M's (M3 and M4). I carry an incident meter with me and I meter

the light that I am in...then extrapolate for the subject.

 

jmp

[mostly sports]

The issue is the light, and the way it strikes your subject, and the background to your subject. Unlike an incident meter, your camera averages the background with the subject. With people at the beach, the average gives you a too dark person, against grey sand. With someone in a spotlight on stage, the subject is overexposed, against a grey (should be black) background. As a general rule, open up two stops from indicated for a backlighted subject. As the tolerance for overexposure is much greater, many people shooting negative material put in half the recommended exposure index, to effect a one stop increase in exposure. Once you learn to compensate for the averaging effect, you are on the way to good exposures. A reading from your hand, and then opening a stop, is the poor man's grey card.

[Uhooru]

How about if you just learn tones, you'll do it eventually anyways. Just meter on your med. grey and figure out where you think your shadow is on the scale and adjust accordingly. Also, shooting for the shadows is really best when using a view camera when you will individually develope each neg. In that process, when you shoot for the shadows, you will have noted your hi-lites and develope accordingly. Hard to do with roll film unless your shooting all in the same light. Better practice in my mind is to shoot for what you want to be properly exposed in the photograph. Let shadows go black if they must.

[el_fang]

Several well known photographers (National Geographic, etc.) shoot notoriously finicky slide film using the M6 and its built-in meter. Secret? Practice.

[john_amiet2]

Lot of interesting advice given here, but the previous respondent seems to be the only one to answer the question. ie. metering with 'inbuilt' meter on M6! Well, I agree, experience plus lots of practice is the best solution. The M6 meter IS very good, but like ALL meters, you must learn to understand how it works, and doesn't work. Comes back to practice and experience. I shoot habitually only using inbuilt meter in M6's in frequently very difficult siuations. Because I understand how the meter is interpreting the subject I can instantly compensate if necessary. I'm sure a lot of you guys/gals do exactly the same thing. So Fred, burn some film thru the camera, carefully noting/remembering for each shot how you attacked it. Compare that info to your results and you will very quickly come up to speed.

[Rob F.]

Fred, No, I meant open up. In the example you gave, you can't get close enough to the shadow to get a reading based solely on the shadow. Thus the meter is being influenced partly by non-shadow areas. If I think the reading is above the true midpoint of the scene, I am going to open up a bit. If it's at or below the midpoint, but I think the shadow is very important, and needs to be open, I would possibly still open up a bit, maybe a half-stop (a judgement call that depends on the scene), and let the highlights fall where they may.

 

If the reading is based entirely on shadow, and the shadows are no more important than the rest of the scene, then I would close down. But if I'm close enough to get a separate shadow reading, I would have also taken a highlight reading, then check whether the range from highlight to shadow is within the latitude of the film. If so, I would set the exposure close to halfway in between. If not, I would bias the exposure in favor of the end that is most important, with black and white film; with color, I would take great care not to blow out the highlights. I will recompose to get rid of the highlights if necessary.

 

But I thought your question was based on not being able to get a pure shadow reading, but rather one than is contaminated with lighter areas. In that case, I would allow, in my mind, some extra exposure to register the shadow detail, if necessary.

 

Apart from that, yes, you would close down from a pure shadow reading, so as not to overexpose the lighter areas of the shot, or make the shadow more open than you wanted it.

 

See where I'm coming from?

[grant_.]

lemme get this straight, you have a 3k$ camera WITH a meter, and dont know how to meter? i think id start carrying it around a little more often.....

[beau 1664876222]

Granty, baby, you've demonstrated some questionable metering a few times yourself; it ain't all that easy...

[grant_.]

yea right...

[andy m.]

Meter off some grass, the floor, your hand, your Billingham bag etc. anything that is under the same illumination as your subject.

 

Then shoot away. Worried about the shadows, open up a stop.

 

It's close enough for jazz, and it certainly works for me ;-)

 

Otherwise, IMO, if you want to be really exact, buy a spot meter, but make sure you have very nicely standardised film processing procedures.

[andy m.]

BTW, do you really need to be so exact with B+W film. The dynamic range is considerable, no?

 

OTOH, you'd better be spot on with digital. The exposure lattitude on the D60 I have been using is less forgiving than slide film. Great images when you get it right (or rather, when the camera gets it right), but pretty blocked or or washed out prints otherwise.

[fredus]

Wow. Thanks all (Well maybe not to Grant who didn't really provide a lot of information :-) ). This is useful !

[melvin_bressler]

Fred:

 

Here are two methods that work for me: (1) Get a grey card, cut it half and half again, you will have four cards, each 4x5. Put one in your bag or pocket. Aim the camera at the subject, and stick the card in front of the lens ( a few inches in front)to get a general reading by slightly depressing the release button, and extrapolate from that with the "zone method"

 

(2) Meter the darkest and lightest parts of the scene using the camera as a meter, as above (i.e., get close). If the ratio is 8:1 or less (three stops)don't worry about it, bracket a stop or half stop in each direction starting with whatever the camera reads when you are ready to shoot and you'll almost never fail.

 

But, if the light-dark ratio is over 8:1, you've got a problem. Try starting with the camera reading as a base, and bracket UP one and two stops (more light -- over expose the "normal" reading) The rest is trial and error and experience.

 

Happy snaps.

[edward yee]

Fred,

I must admit I don't have this systematic way of metering in b&w in particular. I use the inbuilt meter. what works for me is to look at the light distribution of the whole composition, and compare my object with respect to it. Adjusting over/under by half or 1 stop really boils down to my personal feeling.

 

If I am shooting with my medium format, I usually have my spot meter with me. Then the whole process turn around - I meter the brightest, the darkest, the object, and the 'grey card' tone (based on personal judgement as you seldom find a grey in your frame - usually soil or non-bright trees), then weighted all these rough in mind what stop to use.

 

what I found is there is really no formula - as photography is an art so there is really no 'correct' exposure. For me, I like low-key photos so my brain somehow has been 'calibrated' towards that. And then I adjust accordingly if I want a particular shot to be 'higher-key'. Experience really contributes a lot in the judgement.

 

hope this helps.

Edwardyee