Which spot meters did they use back then ?

[martin_kapostas]

A few weeks ago i started to learn the zone system. What i find was that i need a spotmeter. If i am right the whole zone system is few decades old, yes? So, how they metered the shadow area?

:)

[harleyman7]

Martin, take a spot reading of the darkest area that you still want

to show detail and place that on zone 3. I would do a film test to

find the true iso and development time for whatever film you use.

[josh2]

I think what Martin is trying to say is How did photographers meter

before the advent of spot meters? good question I read somewhere

E.weston would point his meter at the sky then at the ground and say

something like it says half a second i`ll give it 1 second.Brett

Weston said he never used a light meter unless he was to hung over.

Ansel adams got the exposer of his Moonrise picture by just knowing

the luminancity value of the moon.-J

[thies.meincke]

I think the first spot meters are from the late 30s (Adam's SEI Spot

Meter?).

[bob_moulton1]

The SEI spotmeter was one of the first of its kind. Before and after

it actually, people use general range reflected meters, like the

Weston meters modeled II-V and figured out stuff or attached a zone

sticker, similar to that sold by Zone VI and now by Calumet, to the

meter. One still metered shadows and highlights to determine exposure

range and placement and development. Where one could not get close to

the subject you used subsitute readings a lot.

Bob

[charlie_strack]

Before the electronic meters there was a type called "extinction".

From what I recall, it was mechanical, and you closed an aperature

while you looked through a viewer and the image grey tone matched a

built-in tone.

 

<p>

 

Supposedly they worked well.

[steve_swinehart]

Edward Weston did not use a meter. However, you must remember that

the films he used had very low speed ratings. Therefore, if his

average exposure was 1-15 seconds (or longer - in the case of the

Pepper series some were in the 4 hour range), the margin for error

was much greater.

[sean_yates]

I'm sorry Steve, you are mistaken. Edward Weston did use a meter

starting in about the mid 30's when he was employed through one of

the Federal programs during the depression, to document art works.

 

<p>

 

Now whether he used it in the conventional sense, or in the usual

manner is open to debate, but he did own and use a Weston meter.