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Re: [OM] Re: meters

Subject: Re: [OM] Re: meters
From: Matt BenDaniel <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 17:02:42 -0400
Skip,

Let's say I'm taking a picture of a very dark subject (e.g. the side of a black 
camera lens) to sell on eBay. If an exposure of it yields very dark tones, then 
the buyer cannot see detail on the lens body. So instead I want the object to 
appear in tones of gray. Based on an incident flash reading at the subject, I 
would probably need to open up a stop or two from that.

I admit I am not experienced in this domain. I have only recently acquired a 
Minolta IV F, with incident and 5 degree reflectance attachments.

Matt

At 16:25 15-05-03 -0500, Skip Williams wrote:
>Matt,
>
>If you take the incident reading at the point the light falls on the subject 
>or a similar point, you shouldn't have to do any adjustment.  The reflected 
>light from that subject will determine its tonality, regardless of its 
>lightness or darkness.
>
>I'm with Jan on this one.  I use incident metering 20:1 outside of my camera 
>vs. reflected metering.  Spot metering is pretty much overkill for most 
>subjects unless you can't get close to the subject or you need to 
>contract/expand tones on a particularly flat or high-dynamic-range subject 
>scene. 
>
>Can you describe a scene where you feel you'd need to interpret an incident 
>reading?
>
>Skip
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Please reply to [skipwilliams at pobox.com]
>Direct responses to the email address on the header may get lost
>----------------------------------------------------------------->
>>Subject: Re: [OM] Re: meters
>>   From: Matt BenDaniel <matt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>   Date: Thu, 15 May 2003 13:56:22 -0400
>>     To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>Don't you interpret incident readings based on reflectivity of the 
>>subject/scene?
>>
>>Matt
>>
>>At 10:56 15-05-03 -0700, Jan Steinman wrote:
>>>>From: Tris Schuler <tristanjohn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>
>>>>Actually, _all_ meter readings need to be interpreted, no matter where you
>>>>stand and what light you measure. Neither approach (incident or spot) is
>>>>full-proof or necessarily "better" then the other...
>>>
>>>I have to mildly disagree here. I would say that the most accurate exposure 
>>>is always with incident metering.
>>>
>>>It may well be that incident metering is inconvenient, or that you are 
>>>trying to do something that values creativity over accuracy, but scene 
>>>metering can only approach (not surpass) the accuracy of incident metering.
>>>
>>>Again, this is not to say that you cannot do good work with scene or spot 
>>>metering, particularly if dead-on accuracy is not an absolute requirement. 
>>>(Who cares if it's 1/3rd stop off if everything else is wonderful? :-) But I 
>>>would not consider anything except incident metering for technical or 
>>>reproduction photography, for example.
>>>
>>>So that's my bias, since I do reproductions, and have been seriously screwed 
>>>by using scene/spot metering.
>>
>>--
>>Matt BenDaniel
>>matt@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>>http://starmatt.com


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