[Largeformat] Re: Photo 101 - Class 25 - Incident meters

[Clive Warren <cocam@cableinet.co.uk>]

At 3:56 am +0000 5/9/00, tigershark_001@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>--- In Largeformat@egroups.com, Clive Warren <cocam@c...> wrote:
>>
>  > If you're looking for a spot meter then go for the Pentax Spot MkV
snip

>I am still puzzled about the real effectiveness on measuring
>reflective light several thousand feet away.  We all know the Zone
>system calls for accurate metering of both shadow and highlight
>areas,
>but far away objects are still way to far for 1 degree meters to be
>isolated.
>
>Substitute metering -- mesasuring similar but closer-by objects --
>would be possible sometimes. Experience tells me that that an
>incident
>metering, combined with known reflectivity of objects, could yield a
>great exposure.  I have trained my eyes a great deal to see as the
>film sees and the squinting technique is used frequently.
>
>I am not hammering on the use of 1 degree spot meters, they have
>their
>good and valid use, but heck, I wonder if by taking an incident
>reading and correct for the reflectivity factor of the to be zoned
>object, the exposure and processs normalization would be all that
>much
>different.
>
>Tigershark

Yep, whatever works for you is the answer :-)

Had some situations in the US South West recently where a mountain 
was covered by moving and variable cloud cover and everywhere around 
me half way up another mountain was bright sunshine. I wanted detail 
in the shadowed areas of the mountain side - guess I could have 
simply opened up a stop or two but it made me feel better to be able 
to meter around the mountain and make a compromise on that basis 
rather than simply making an informed guess.

It also gave me something to do as it took 2 hours for the clouds to 
move to where I wanted them :-)





-- 
All the best,

             Clive Warren   http://www.f32.net
                            Large Format travel and stock photography