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celticelement
Dec 20, 2002, 2:26 AM
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Registered: Dec 14, 2002
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I am somewhat into photography. I have a completely manual Pentax and a 50mm lens. Besides needing more lenses,(or I guess more cash with which to buy more lenses) my biggest problem is trying to match the amount of light I allow in the camera with the amount of light that should be coming in to create a true-to-life photo. My camera has a light meter inside it telling me how much light it is getting inside, but right now I have to guess how much light I want to come in to create a good representation of what I see. Do you know of any gadgets/formulas/web pages that can help me know how much light I should collect in a particular instance?
Thanks
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kcrag
Dec 20, 2002, 4:01 AM
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Registered: May 27, 2002
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Woa. That's a mighty big question ya got goin' here. Way too much info for an rc.com thread response. I'll give it a quick try, but you might want to pick up a book on metering, test, or do some searching on photo.net.
It all depends on what you're shooting, what kind on film you're shooting with (neg or chrome) and what type of metering system your camera has.
Keep in mind that with neg film, you have anywhere from 7-9 stops of latitude, whereas slide film is less forgiving with 3 or so stops.
Assuming you have a general metering system in your camera (not spot) that will average the light of most of your frame (it might be center-balanced... whatever), you will have to realize that it is reading that light as 18% gray. That will work in most situations, but if you are shooting something high-key (i.e. snow scene), you're screwed. You will have to take your camera's reading and open the iris depending on what type of film you're using. With neg film, that'll be at least 2 stops or more. With chromes, it will be 1/2 to 1+ stops. This is bang out-typing hoo ha. Ya gotta do the testing.
Same goes for low-light situations. Close down accordingly.
Other tricks for metering include carrying around a gray card to get your exposure off of, or learning how to take a reading off of the skin on your hand. Also, green grass can maybe work, as green (and red) will usually give you an 18% gray.
Once you know what is established as an 18% gray exposure, you can mess around/manipulate things from there.
Another suggesstion would be to buy a light meter (I'd suggest one that has spot capabilities, as well), play around, and learn to 'read' light.
Have fun.
-kelly
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cyberclimber
Dec 20, 2002, 2:33 PM
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Registered: Jun 19, 2002
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Not sure that I understand your question, but I won't let that stop me . Like kcrag mentioned, you need to understand how your cameras meter work so that you can anticipate what situations will fool it. A spot meter is great once you learn to identify objects that reflect about the same as an 18% grey card and learn to work within the latitude of the film you are using. One trick / formula you can use if you don't trust your meter is the sunny 16 rule. For shooting a subject of average reflectance (ie, a person) standing in the sun on a bright day, you can set your shutter speed at the ISO speed of your film and your aperature at f16. This will give you a base exposure and you can switch to corresponding exposures if you want a more or less depth of field or action stopping or blurring speed. For example: With 200 speed film, you can set your Pentax at 250th of a sec shutter speed and your aperature at f16 for a base exposure, then you can switch to 500th @ f11, 1000th at f8, 2000th @ f5.6, etc.
However, if you are wanting to know how to balance the available light with the flash from your camera,,, that is a whole different story that I won't bother going into without knowing for sure that it is what you are wonting to know about.
Hope this helps.
JC
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joemor
Dec 21, 2002, 3:54 AM
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Registered: Dec 3, 2001
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what if your using spot metering?
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