Grey card and exposure

[grant_lupton1]

I use colour silde film, predominantly in sunny conditions (for

landscapes, architecture). Via a hand-held meter, I usually take a

reading from the back of my hand (as a proxy for the grey card)or

incident reading.

 

My understanding is that both methods should produce colours correctly

exposed. However, most of my failures seem to result from

under-exposure, especially where the predominant colour is dark, eg

dark red/brown brick, or in generally low-light (shaded areas).

 

Is it the case that only grey would be correctly exposed and anything

darker would need greater exposure?

 

Where does my problem lie? Any advice much appreciated.

 

Grant.

[rdkirk]

>>Via a hand-held meter, I usually take a reading from the back of my hand (as a proxy for the grey card)or incident reading.

My understanding is that both methods should produce colours correctly exposed. However, most of my failures seem to result from under-exposure, especially where the predominant colour is dark, eg dark red/brown brick, or in generally low-light (shaded areas).

 

Is it the case that only grey would be correctly exposed and anything darker would need greater exposure? <<

 

Your hand may or may not actually be 18 percent "gray" in tone. If your hand is lighter than 18 percent, the meter will give you a reading that leads to underexposure.

 

The thumbrule, by the way, was to meter the PALM of the hand, which in Caucasians tends to be somewhat darker (more blood-flushed) than the back...also the palms of most people tend to be about the same tone regardless of race (with, of course, there being a small proportion of outliers on both ends of the bell curve).

 

I also suspect when that thumbrule was created, people probably did more manual labor and had tanned or somewhat more callused hands than today.

[anupam]

Also, make sure you are metering the gray card in the same light - just like using a handheld ambient light meter.

[grant_lupton1]

Kirk and Anupam, thank you for the advice. Will put into effect henceforth.

 

Grant.