Exposure bracketing for Slide

[sanjay_chaudary]

<p>Hi,<br>

I have shot 2 slide rolls - fuji sensia 100, velvia 100f and bracketed by 1/3 stop. The results were good. <br>

Do I need 1/3 stop bracketing for proper exposure or would I be able to get by with 1/2 stop exposure bracketing?<br>

I have a Eos 30 and Eos 3. The EOS 30 has only 1/2 stop bracketing.<br>

Regards,<br>

Sanjay</p>

[Michael R Freeman]

<p>1/3 stop bracketing is better of course, but you should be fine with 1/2 stop bracketing. The difference between 1/3 stop and 1/2 stop is only 1/6 stop, so the difference will be very subtle.</p>

<p>If you are bracketing in autoexposure modes (Av, Tv, P) you can achieve 1/3 stop bracketing by manually adjusting the ISO setting in 1/3 stops above/below your film box speed instead of using the exposure compensation control or bracketing control(?) which by your post I assume is graduated in 1/2 stops on the EOS 30 (I'm not familiar with that model).</p>

[craigd]

<p>Even with slide film, I don't usually bracket in the sense of taking three exposures centered around what the camera thinks will be right. That would be fine with digital where each shot has an effective cost of almost zero, but it's wasteful for film.</p>

<p>What I usually do is decide, based on the meter and my own sense of how I want the image to come out, what exposure will be best, and I take that one. Then, just in case that shot doesn't quite come out right, I decide whether I think it's more likely to be underexposed or overexposed, and I take one more shot to hedge my bet. So if I think the first shot is more likely to be underexposed, my second shot is exposed 1/2 or even 1 stop brighter. Most of the time the first shot comes out best, but every once in a while I'm glad I took that second shot.</p>

[randrew1]

<p>I think Craig's approach is a worthy goal, but one has to do a lot of bracketing to develop the skill that Craig is talking about. </p>

[leicaglow]

<p>I use half stop bracketing--if I think I need to bracket. Modern transparency film is a bit more forgiving than some of the older stuff.</p>

[starvy]

<p>I am with Craig on this one. You are using quite a capable camera. I am shooting with a Bessa R which has only an average centre weighed meter. Think about how light is dealt with by the EOS meter. Have a little confidence in your ability to interpret light and don't bother bracketing, just remember what you did. If need be, write things down. The just take one shot, not three.</p>

[sanjay_chaudary]

<p>Hi,<br>

Thanks everyone for the inputs. I am writing exposure values down. The EoS 30 is also called Elan 7E. I have shot only two rolls of slide film so far, and am also seeing how changing the exposure affects the picture. It should help me map what I would like to with what exposure would give me that. I am learning to interpret light : would appreciate any tips on this.</p>

[RaymondC]

<p>It didn't take me long to get used to metering for each film. Print - no point. Slides - yes. </p>

<p>What I did was shoot your dSLR and fSLR side by side. Employ CW or Spot metering techniques and shot it down on a notepad with a pen. Like you meter there on what ... and what correction did you do etc...</p>

<p>Do it to your type of photog. You could fine that 1 roll experimenting for each type of film is enough. You will also note the differences between film and digital. </p>

[david_henderson]

<p>Surely the right way to approach this is to try out different metering and bracketing regimes until the point where you initial ( central) exposure is oretty much bang on nearly every time. At that point you have an option to stop bracketing. I would not expect that someone would reach that point after two rolls of slide film, unless you plan to photograph things that are extremely evenly lit with low contrast. Until you've reached that point then bracketing is the best way to get some usable pictures on a difficult-to- expose medium. irrespective of whether you're still going to be doing that in a few years time.</p>

<p>Personally I bracket a lot less than I used to, but then I have well over a decade of using the same exposure processes and films to fall back on. I do still bracket occasionally if I come across something that might turn out very good indeed should i get it perfectly right, but these are rare occasions.</p>

<p>1/2 stop or 1/3 stop makes virtually no difference and one is not inherently better than the other . It might be the case sometimes that a half stop interval will get you a bit more shadow detail and a bit more chance of blowing out highlights, but we're talking extremeely marginal here and most times you will not be able to see the 1/6 of a stop difference.</p>

[greg_campbell1]

<p>Your EOS 3 has a wonderful multi-spot metering system. I'd use it, with a 'place and fall' method. With slide film, blown highlights are usually the thing to avoid. Use the spot meter and take a reading off the brightest subject area. Now dial in +1 1/2 to +2 stops (depending on your film and camera meter accuracy) of exposure compensation. This will result in nice, bright, highlights that are not quite blown out. Mid tones and shadows are uncontrolled and will 'fall' where they will. You can take multiple spot readings to gauge the distance (in stops) between the areas in your photo, and to determine where the darker tones will wind up.</p>

<p>Slide film will record detail from around -2.5 to +1.75 stops, or thereabouts. Above +2, response saturates and you get 'blown' highlights. There is detail below -2.5, but it's often hard to dig out of the soup.</p>