Those with meterless rangefinders: how do you set your exposure?

Those with meterless rangefinders: how do you set your exposure?

  • I spot meter everything. Usually twice.

    Votes: 34 3.7%

  • I use a handheld incident meter with every shot.

    Votes: 135 14.7%

  • I only meter when I think the light has changed.

    Votes: 390 42.4%

  • I use the sunny 16 rule almost exclusively.

    Votes: 211 22.9%

  • I use an EV chart.

    Votes: 43 4.7%

  • I have been shooting long enough that it is intuitive for me.

    Votes: 107 11.6%
  • Total voters
    920
srtiwari said:
Would it be reasonable to assume that the majority of people "guesstimating" - in other words, not using a meter- are referring to B+W film, and not color ?
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It would in my case. I've been shooting Plus-X and Delta 100 and use "sunny 16" outdoors, which I suppose is better than "guessing", but I use a meter indoors to get a general read.
 
Usually what I do is pull out my DSLR, and take a meter in the highlights, and what I think will be the darkest I'll be shooting. Then I put it away and shoot with the meterless camera, guestimating between the two readings for stuff that isn't all the way one or the other. It's generally pretty effective (I don't shoot slide film in my meterless cameras), although I use this method more because I'm too cheap to buy a dedicated meter than out of a preference for the process.
 
cidereye said:
Sunny 16 translates to "Dull f/4.0" for most of the year here in England. :(
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I actually enjoyed British weather, because I never got ill :) no sudden temperature changes... Here in Brazil weather is just mad, during winter we can have 14C by morning, 30C at noon, 12C by the evening and 5C at night... and the "sunny+blue/cloudy+gray" machine is set on "random" mode :\

Back to the topic, I'm really spoiled with metered cameras, so when I take my TLR for a walk I usually carry an EV chart with a tab for setting iso/speed/aperture along, or sometimes I just take a compact digital camera.

Today I went to the park for a walk with the M3 and used sunny 16, it was quite sunny with a spotless blue sky. I tried compensating exposure for shadows and backlit subjects but I don't feel confident about it... I'll get to know how bad I missed the exposures still this week :)
 
Learning 35mm on my dad's Vitessa T, I got used to using the built-in selenium meter which gave EV values which you then transferred to the lens. Since 1980 with the M3, it's been the MR-4 meter which gives you the f-stop for the set shutter speed. Use it when there's a change in the light. But just for the fun of it, I'd like to play with going meterless, and will see how that very interesting Black Cat exposure guide works out.
 
I use a light meter. I use both incident and reflected readings (though not for every shot). In a case where the two types of readings differ by much, I determine why that is before I shoot color transparency film. The incident reading often calls for a more generous exposure than the reflected one. That is usually because of some high reflectance objects that would blow out my exposure if not allowed for. Then I will stop down a bit.

I also make constant use of the sunny 16 rule. If my meter reading is not plausibly consistent with sunny 16, I figure out what the matter is before I shoot.
 
I meter with an iPhone app or meter (depending on accuracy vs situational discreteness) to get baseline readings for direct sun, shadow, etc. From there, I interpolate and estimate with occasional sanity checks.

I'd love to be more capable at guessing/estimating but rarely shoot in light consistent enough for that. its usually shooting in the shade on a day that is some degree of overcast, shooting indoors, shooting at night, etc. I'm slowly getting better but am no where near as accurate as I want my negatives to be.
 
I meter twice usually for the two most prevalent lightings with a VC clip on meter and run with those two readings. One or the other will usually be appropriate for most situations encountered during a session.
John
 
On another forum I read that some meter using the DSLR they also carry.
It's no wonder those guys need backpacks...

Chris
 
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ChrisPlatt said:
On another forum I read that some meter using the DSLR they also carry.
It's no wonder those guys need backpacks...

Chris
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I guess those who do that consider it much more reasonable than I! A real meter comes at modest cost, can be more versatile, and is certainly easier to carry than a whole 'nother camera.:confused:
 
Sunny-11 works well as far north as in Helsinki.

I'm not sure if it has any affect on Sunny-X rule but definitely the ambient light here up north is of different colour than for example in Spain or Italy. It's much lighter, almost translucent here. In my view the colour in south is much more yellow.
 
I use Sunny16, except I still have trouble identifying EV 10 through 7 so I'll snap with a digital and copy the exposure.

I've gotten good results with Sunny16 so far, even when i'm a stop or two out compared to what my Nikon D40 says. Maybe my eye is not sophisticated enough yet.

I hope my technique will improve with experience, I'm certainly enjoying the ride!

Alex
 
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I use Sunny 16, but always carry a meter just in case. I don't always check with the meter though. I also carry an old Kodak filter guide that I've renumbered as it was set up for 25 speed film and I mainly use 100. I added a few filters beyond the KC, K2, G, and A on the scale also.
 
I take an incident reading with the Digisix when I start shooting a particular subject from a particular vantage point. I only meter again when the subject or I move significantly, or when the light changes, as when the sun goes behind a cloud.

--Doug
 
curmudgeon said:
I take an incident reading with the Digisix when I start shooting a particular subject from a particular vantage point. I only meter again when the subject or I move significantly, or when the light changes, as when the sun goes behind a cloud.

--Doug
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This is quite much how I'm also metering. It also depends on the film I'm using. Of course for slide film I'm using the meter more often.
 
Sunny 16 and go from there.

I do carry a small Gossen Sixtomat 2 w/ me, but it mostly confirms what exposure I have already decided on. 20% of the time I need it and have edjumacated the exposure badly.

I also have Weston Master II that has really hard to read numbers and a Gossen LunaSix 3 that is almost as big as my camera. If I could find my tiny Wirgin Extinction meter, I would learn to use that!
 
New strategy I'm going to try - take an incident reading in shadow where I want some detail. Could be as simple as shading the meter with my hand if thats the kind of shadow I'm interested in. Adjust by one stop. Expose there. Under develop slightly.

Assuming there aren't more than 6 stops of light in the scene, that should give me some shadow detail and a slightly lower contrast negative. I can always bump up contrast later.

...now all I need is a small incident meter, as the Luna Pro isn't exactly something I want to take out while wondering the streets. :)
 
I never use meter outdoors. I tend to overexpose B&W film anyway so I feel pretty comfortable just guessing. But I always carry metraphot 3 meter with my rangefinder because it's cool
 
I usually carry a Sekonic L-208 with me when I'm shooting, or the Zeiss Ikophot if I am using my IIIf. I rarely use them though, they're just there to give me guidance in tricky situations and prevent underexposure.
 
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