Thanks for the all the detail. But with a 5-stop exposure range in the
brackets why not just get a gross meter reading (maybe limited to the
wall) and pick one after processing?
Chuck Norcutt
On 6/26/2012 11:20 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
>> That only partially answers the question. I have no idea how to use
>> multi-spot metering in this situation... I would guess by metering the
>> light source itself with highlight adjustment?
>
> My memory is a little vague, but I am going to assume that I used the
> same method that I would approach it today:
>
> 1. Determine which subjects to place at what zone. (Classic Zone
> System). In this case, I wanted to wall to be illuminated by the neon
> and wished it to be from mid-tone down. Along with that, I wanted to
> make sure the sign itself wasn't going to burn out.
>
> 2. Spot meter the portion of the wall that you want to be mid-tone.
> Spot meter the portion of the wall that you want to go to black. Spot
> meter the sign. (I'm using manual exposure).
>
> 3. In the OM-3/4 viewfinder there are now three diamonds on the
> exposure scale. Since Velvia has an aggresive fall-off in the shadows,
> I know that if I place the right hand diamond at the first dot to the
> right of center, that's two stops down. That's the threshold for
> Velvia. Anything to the right of that dot will go to black. The middle
> diamond represents the lit wall. I can adjust exposure to move that to
> the left or right. As long as the right hand diamond is at or to the
> right of the -2 dot, I'm going to have a fade to black. (I'm pretty
> sure that I would have spot metered a window to make sure that went
> black). The third reading, for the sign itself, is more for a sanity
> check than anything else. My priority is the wall. The neon will blow
> out no matter what, but I just want to make sure that it doesn't clip
> too hard. Everything is a compromise in a shot like this, so you just
> have to make your decision on which is most important. As long as the
> highlights don't blow out too badly, I can always lift them in post
> (expose for the shadows, process for the highlights). I also used the
> Sekonic L-508 to get a reading of the sign, but otherwise it couldn't
> be used because it isn't sensitive enough for night photography.
>
> So, the question about the digital shot lurks...
>
> First of all, understand that I did do bracketed shots with both film
> and digital. For tough lighting like this, I use a -2, -2, 0, +1, +2
> bracketing. The primary exposure was also duped a few times to make
> sure I got one that didn't have vibration problems. So, yes, this shot
> did cost me about $5 in film and processing.
>
> With the digital shots, the biggest problem is the blooming that
> occurs when photographing neon signs. The neon tubes themselves will
> false-color and turn white, with nasty yellow than red rimming. All
> sorts of artifacts occured in the sign. This shot would have needed no
> less than a 4-stop dual-image merge to get the same smoothness in the
> neon tubes and the lit wall.
>
> For the print of this image, I will do a little painting in of the
> sign from the +1 slide. The reason is that a nearby street light was
> was shining on the side of the sign giving it a little bit more form.
> This one has a lot more texture in the face of the sign (the unreduced
> image you can see the age and wear in the metal of the sign whereas in
> this web image, it's just a red blob). The +1 shows more detail inside
> the windows, but I really didn't care for the way it looked using my
> calibrated monitor settings. The web image is just a little too dark.
> But the +1 slide has other colorcast problems as the greenish light
> from the street light was screwing up the wall.
>
> I'm not sure if I still have the digital images or not. They were
> pretty aweful. When dealing with an intense primary color like this,
> Olympus/Panasonic cameras tend not to handle them well.
>
> AG (the Stone is not covered) Schnozz
>
--
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