Idiot?

[jsrockit]

With the advent of IBIS in digital cameras, one would think you'd leave the tripod home forever. However, I just purchased my first nice tripod ever. Next will be a Fujifilm GFX without IBIS. I just want to slow down, think and really compose taking my time. Slow and quiet.

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I think Chris exposes at a point between an incident reading and his camera's meter - which makes great sense. Quite often Chris is shooting relatively static situations and can go about things properly. I adapted to news shooting - which is probably the exact opposite of Chris's world.

I use just the incident reading unless the subject is backlit. Exposure is always perfect.

No question about the optimism of some camera's ISO settings. Knowing a lot of people are shooting on automatic and without any exposure bias, I think manufacturers are just trying to protect people from overexposure which can be especially detrimental in digital work. In digital those evils of overexposure are uncorrectable and the evils of underexposure are relatively easily corrected. My problem with incident metering with my digital cameras is really a camera problem. I often work under very contrasty light and while the digital file can produce detail in the shadows, the EVF on some of my cameras has trouble showing me that detail while I'm shooting. I grew up on Spectra and Minolta incident meters, and they still get used in the studio.

What's funny is that on my Olympus cameras, the built-in meter gives good exposures, but the handheld meters underexpose. Olympus calibrated the built-in meters knowing the sensors are not as sensitive as they claim! I know the camera is the problem because all of my handheld meters match and are perfectly calibrated; they give perfect exposures on Canon and Nikon cameras, but underexpose on Olympus!

 

[Tom R]

How about the old school "Flash"...???
I use a flash with my digital cameras, I have often seen digital photographers NOT using a flash but instead upping the ISO...
To be honest using the flash with digital has taught me HOW to use a flash...I hated flash photography with film...
Just the other day I was looking through a bunch of older small flashes I have to use on my Sony a6000, most of them had a triggering voltage way too high to use but I did find a Sunpak Auto 221D that turned out to work quite nice...going to use it over the Nikon SB-15 I was using...
Flashes...do you still use them with your D cameras...???

I'm glad that you brought up flash. I use older flash units with both digital and analogue cameras because sometimes I want the photograph to look as though I used a flash. I use a hand-held Sekonic meter with the flash unit(s) and, as I recall, the readings the meter provides do NOT always give the desired exposure with the digital camera whereas it's more than adequate for the analogue images. A contributor to this thread reminded me that meters might be specialized by the camera manufacturer to take into account the specific characteristics of the sensor used by the camera.

While that last point makes sense, it complicates critical exposure unless the flash unit is compatible with the digital camera's hard/software. Of course, unless you're using something other than manual flash you'll have to deal with camera/flash coordination anyway.

T

 

[BillBingham2]

Kodak used to put out a color test chart (much bigger than pocket sized) in addition to the 18% grey pages of all sizes (my favorite was the pocket photo guides with them in the back). I'd trust the old Kodak to put out a color chart of the same size to allow us to take a shot and then balance everything to that. 18% while grey I think only talks to the amount of light it will reflect back. New Kodak, nope.

That would be an interesting kick starter project to print a credit card sized chart, send a new one every year (subscription) for half price. The other side could be 18% grey.

B2 (;->

 

[willie_901]

Whenever clients (usually interior decorators) appreciated accurate color rendering I used a WhiBal G7 grey card. These are low reflective ,scratch, fade, and water resistant plastic cards.

Once the lighting for a scene was established, I would take a set of photos with the WhiBal card in different lighting locations. This enabled selective white-balanced rendering of raw files as I could determine the optimum color temperature for different regions in the scene. For specific interior features or products I could often get away with placing the WhiBal card near the object of interest.

When you let direct off-camera lighting dominate, color balance in post production is straightforward. However, usually quite a bit of time is required to modify the light so the final image does not have a harsh, high-contrast look. So, I used I used existing and multiple off-camera flashes to light scenes. The off-camera flashes were used at the lowest possible power to even out the scenes' illumination. Often they were used to bounce light off of walls and, or ceilings to soften the light. The result was regions with multiple light color temperatures(daylight, tungsten, halogen and flash). Flashes can be gelled. Gelled flashes don't work well for bounced light because the surface changes the color temperature. Gels also reduce flash output and increase the time required to optimize flash location.