Exposure frustration..

[anerjee]

I tested my first roll of velvia yesterday. The entire roll turned out to be under-exposed -- I do not think I made any stupid errors like an incorrect ISO etc.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pangmomo/sets/72157626614320119/detail/

I used a Zeiss Ikon zm, with the Biogon 35mm lens. All the pics were hand-held -- so they are not very sharp.

I shot the entire roll in tricky lighting situations -- crowded streets and sunset.

My general strategy was to point the camera slightly towards the sky to get an exposure and then recompose and shoot. I wanted to get the color in the sky. But I did not realize how the rest of the picture blocks up in black -- very different from negative, which has been my staple so far.

What is the usual strategy to work with in situations like these. Here are a few I can think of -

1. For sunset, get a GND filter. Meter off the water, recompose and shoot.
2. For streets -- get the metering off the sky and then off the dark corners. Split the difference in some proportion. What is the best way to do that?
3. Buy a spotmeter -- but that seems like another learning curve in itself.
4. Stick to negative -- Ektar and Portra?

Expensive lesson, but I'll shoot another roll later this week and test a bit more.

Help, please!

 

[Brian Legge]

What do you shoot? You may want to consider an incident meter instead of a spot meter if you are shooting more fleeting moments. I've found this can work well for street shooting personally.

 

[anerjee]

I'll be shooting landscapes, culture and streets -- vacation shots (in Tibet).

 

[andredossantos]

This is more of a generality but one of the best things you can do going forward is looking at and remembering the settings that you used in what situations (or, write it down if you think itll be awhile until you develop the film). Then, you'll see what worked and have a basis for the next time your in a similar situation. Commit it all to memory and you'll be on your way to reading the light and having two meters is better than one 🙂

Meters are a blessing and a curse and being able to call on past results when you're looking at what the meter is telling you is invaluable.

 

[zauhar]

You think this one is underexposed?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pangmomo/5728618418/in/set-72157626614320119

This is a twilight shot, yes? It looks beautiful, so at least this one is very good.

I think you were shooting in tricky light (your words) and did pretty well!

Maybe you just need to bracket you exposure next time.

Randy

 

[dogbunny]

My general strategy was to point the camera slightly towards the sky to get an exposure and then recompose and shoot. I wanted to get the color in the sky. But I did not realize how the rest of the picture blocks up in black -- very different from negative, which has been my staple so far.

My amateur guess is that this could be part of the problem. If you set the exposure off the sky and the sky is brighter than everything below you are going to get lots of underexposure and shadows. I just started using velvia for similar situations to the pictures you posted. I'm here in sunny Hong Kong. I really had no trouble, except sometimes the shutter speed is so slow I might get a blur from camera shake.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

First, most hand-held meters take in a wide scene so the average reading can be pretty "average" if you get my meaning. The meter in the ZM is probably the same as in the Bessa R3/4 series and if so is pretty accurate in most circumstances, I find. Does it also have the exposure lock button that the Bessa has?
My technique is the opposite of yours. I tend to take a reading with the meter taking in about 2/3rds of the ground or foreground and only 1/3rd sky and unless there is an extreme range of brightness that works pretty well most times. If there isn't a big difference then I will point straight at the scene but I would never point the meter towards the sky unless I was taking a sunset and didn't care about the foreground.
Another method (but harder to do with in-camera metering) is to use the palm of your hand as the object to be metered and then interpolate the result according to the brightness or otherwise of the main subject. Your palm is a constant reflective surface. Requires a bit of practice and thought but it does teach you to look at the light and not follow the meter reading slavishly.

 

[will-i_am]

yeah if your metering off the sky the rest of the shot will be under exposed.

 

[Ariefb]

I shoot meterless on street. Having a mental awareness of sunny 16 in mind everytime. the result came out good 30 out of 36 exposures.

 

[Ariefb]

If you shoot lots of backlighting and still want to keep sky detail, use a gradient filter & meter around low foreground. Hope it helps.

 

[Roger Hicks]

Yes, sky readings will result in underexposure, unless you are reading a pure, deep blue sky. Angle the camera slightly downwards, not upwards, for the next roll.

Cheers,

R.

 

[anerjee]

Thanks for the suggestions and kind words. I'll shoot a roll of E100G tomorrow, and see how it goes. I did note down most of the exposure values from the last roll, so that should help.

Does anyone use GND filters on rangefinders? Are they useful or recommended?

 

[Chinasaur]

Shoot at box speed minus a stop. The film can handle it.