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Old April 12th 12, 04:37 AM posted to rec.photo.darkroom
Richard Knoppow
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Posts: 751
Default Metering for B/W Films


"Darkroom User"
wrote in message
news

hanks Richard, but I am still not
sure whether to rely on Incident or

reflective measurements. How do you use your lightmeter
for outdoor
photography?




--
Darkroom User


Personally, I use a combination meter usually an old
Gossen or a Sekonik Studio meter similar to the old Norwood.
These give a choice of incident or reflected readings. I
can write a long treatice on the difference but I've also
shot a lot of color slides using the TTL meter on a Nikon F
and very few were badly exposed. This is, of course, a
reflected light meter. I think you can get good results
with either provided you understand what its measuring.
In principle, the incident meter should give you a more
exact rendition of what the scene looks like but that may
not be what you want. It can not measure _subject_
brightness and contrast where the reflected light meter can.
OTOH, the reflected light meter will need some help from you
in deciding how bright the objects in the picture are to be
in the print.
I also have some questions about the actual utility of
the hemispherical light integrator found on many meters.
Supposing one is photographing a back-lighted scene; does
one want the exposure to be for the relatively shadowy areas
for the very bright highlights? If the meter is used as
directed, that is held in the scene and pointed toward the
camera, the sensor will not see the light coming from behind
and result in a much greater exposure that will wash out the
backlighted highlights. If its pointed at the source of
light it will expose the highlights correctly but blank out
the shadows. You have to decide what you want to show up on
the film.
What can be difficult is that in life the eye is making
constant rapid adjustments for light level which can fool us
about just how great they are.



--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL