An example of when you would override the meter is a situation like:
A pastel water lily is floating in a pool of water that to the eye looks basically black. A significant amount of water will surround the water lily in the composition. The meter 'sees' the large dark area and will attempt to create an 'average exposure' for the scene. It will indicate that a longer exposure time or larger aperture is required because of the large area of darkness. This will cause the dark water area to become lighter, but will overexpose the pastel colored flower making it too light. In this case a shorter exposure time or smaller aperture than what the meter recommends may be required to properly expose the flower.
So another guding principle is to meter based on the main subject of the composition, the part of the scene that MUST be properly exposed, which may not necessarily be the entire scene.
Tom C.
From: Francis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: RE: slide exposure? Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2005 11:39:33 -0800
At 10:21 AM 2/15/2005 -0700, you wrote:
For a short non-technical answer...
I typically let the meter determine exposure unless I'm shooting in unusual lighting/circumstances where I know better than the meter, for instance shooting a subject in a snow covered scene or with significant backlighting.
Remember, the meter itself will not determine the exposure made on the film, the aperture and shutter speed will.
Typically with slide film you'll want to expose for the highlights so they don't 'burn out', but in practice in fairly even lighting it's not a major concern.
Ah ha -- that is just what I wanted to hear!
So in friendly lighting situations (no bright highlights) it should tell me the optimum exposure (as it does when using print film)? This kinda makes sense but I've heard that under exposing just a touch gives better colors.
Tom C.
Francis
