Tips for proper exposure

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rffguy

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As with any skill, photography requires practice and experience. So, I'm wondering about the collective experience on this forum when it comes to making good exposures. What bits of wisdom have you picked up to get a good shot in any given situation? Do you use a meter? If so how? If you don't use a meter, what do you do? What rules of thumb have you found work best? How do you get consistently good exposures?
 
Use AE on my R-D1. 🙂 Dial in +2/3 of a stop. Perfect exposures most of the time. And if I want lighter or darker, I'll just make it happen by turning to manual exposure. Internal light meters are great. 🙂
 
I've just switched from using the remarkably unflappable TTL meter of the M6TTL to two meterless M2's. I've bought a VC meter II and a Leicameter MR but find adding then to the height of the camera makes for a bulky package. Now I carry the VC meter in a pocket but find I am referring to it less and less as I "get my eye in". It's there for tricky light but in most situations a pocket exposure table is all you need. These used to be printed inside every film box.

My rule of thumb (for b&w prints) is to err on the side of overexposure and when in doubt, get out the meter and check. Giving that half or whole stop over doesn't usually hurt your prints (it may even help with high contrast scenes). Digital and slide film are different.
 
I try and meter at least once before shooting and take photo's at around that exposure. If it looks like the weather has changed a little, then I'll meter again. I'll meter whenever I enter a different building if I'm shooting indoors.

Definitely try and err on the side of overexposure. A few blow highlights are fine... a whole section of low-lights underdeveloped is bad bad bad!

If I know I've metered a roll of film wrong, I'll alter developing times. Usually that means I'm shooting somewhere with 1/100 when I should have been using 1/60 or slower - just to make sure I get a clean photo without motion blur. I'll then develop and push process.


Course, with photoshop and neg scanning things are easily rectified.
 
I learnt to develop a good sense of zone system by my eye judgement. Large Format experience (albeit not as extensive so far as I would like) forces one to employ one's brain as the best judgement tool to translate the basic exposure to the proper one.
I usually spot-meter either bright ot shadowed part of the scene (sometimes both to evaluate the entire range) and then apply my zone system judgement to translate the metered values into a proper (the one that I consider to be proper) exposure, chose the desired zone window to put the scene into. Still make mistakes at a times, but I find good judgement probability raises up with the experiences.
Few years bac I bought a well known book on spot metering and zone system (can't remember the name) - that was the turnning point for me in understanding spot metering and exposure evaluation based on zone system judgement.
 
I have a few tips.
1. If you really want to understand how to get proper exposure, using a single type of camera or meter will help you.
2. Do NOT use any sort of matrix metering, as it is impossible to know how it meters any given scene. Full-field, center-weighted or spot metering will allow you to understand how the meter of a given camera works.
3. Shoot slide film. You will have a very clear indication of how your exposures have been. If you are off by even a third or half a stop, it will be apparent. Try bracketing 1/2 or 1/3 of a stop...it will allow you to see the difference.
4. If you have time, look at a given scene and try to guess the exposure. Then when you see the meter's advice, you will know whether you were close. If you keep doing this, you will learn to guess exposure fairly well.
5. When using a center-weighted or spot meter, learn what types of common features give correct exposures. For example, if you point it at grass in daylight and see whether that gives you proper exposure or under/overexposure. Pavement or concrete are other good examples...brick walls, your hand, people's faces, the ocean etc. You can eventually learn to judge object's luminence so that you can point the meter at something about 18% gray and get an accurate reading.
5. Another trick with a center weighted meter is if you have a very bright and very dark area, you can often put a portion of both in the metering area and get a good reading. An example of this would be a shot of the ocean...the sky will be too bright and the ocean too dark, but if you put the center weight meter at the horizon, the upper half will be sky and the lower ocean, so the exposure will balance out. You can use this principle in many different cases.

Anyway, these are just a few tricks. I learned photography on slide film, and I think it has really really helped me in getting good exposures. Negative film is great, particularly black and white, but it can make you very sloppy.
 
My most consistent exposure success was when I was using a meterless camera with a handheld incident meter. When I switched to a camera that had an internal meter, I had a higher rate of incorrectly exposed shots. The reason is simple: with the internal meter, I pay less attention to lighting details. If you're diligent, there's no reason that an internal meter won't be as accurate as a handheld but it's not easy when you're concentrating on other aspects of the shot.
 
RML said:
Use AE on my R-D1. 🙂 Dial in +2/3 of a stop. Perfect exposures most of the time. And if I want lighter or darker, I'll just make it happen by turning to manual exposure. Internal light meters are great. 🙂
Click to expand...


...lol..."I use AE"......*sigh*

classic.




@STUARTR : Great post. Well said, everything I agree with wholeheartedly and all outstanding advice. Many things I never thought of..

Thanks for taking time.
 
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The trick with exposure and with focus is to treat it (either/both) as a separate step from composing. Meter what you want (IT) and adjust exposure as needed based on ITs tonality and how light/dark do you wish IT do be on film. Then, focus on what you wish to be sharp, then compose, then shoot at the perfect(decisive) moment.

Most people with exposure and focus problems get the exposure and/or focus after they compose. Some (even worse) compose and let the camera auto-guess exposure and focus. You can use a handheld or your in camera center-weight/spot meter with perfect results if you do the exposure step on its own measuring the part(s) of the scene you care for. Same thing with precision focus.
 
Whatever technical tool you use (which meter, AE vs. manual, incident vs. reflective, etc),
you need to know the contrast of the scene, how tolerant your film/post-processing
is and what you want correctly exposed. Read up on the zone system,
if you use it, it becomes natural after a while. Meters with spot
characteristics and/or contrast readings (like most digital Gossen meters have),
and incident metering help. The tool mostly has an impact on speed of shooting,
not on correct exposure (assuming the tool functions correctly).

A normal scene can easily have more than 5 stops contrast, and anything
in that window might be correct, depending on your composition.

Roland.
 
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Keep a shooting log. Jot down your exposure info. When you have processed your negs and look them over ,a light table is very helpful, refer to your log. You will be able to see how your exposures translate to a negative. It's a bit of a pain but it will provide valuable information.

Bob
 
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