It's definitely correct. But it is irrelevant for this conversation anyway.
For most people shooting Velvia, the main concern is not blowing out highlight detail. Assuming 5 stops of exposure latitude, people generally will spot meter the highlight, then expose 1.5 to 2 stops stops under that. This keeps the highlights just below the point where they will blow out. And the mid-tones and shadows fall where they may. So Andrea needs to understand how to meter the highlights (this is where the spot meter mode comes in handy) with his DSLR, and then translate that to a proper exposure with his LF film (calibration testing).
True. Just for clarity my comment about you being probably correct was only because I didn't have my camera to hand to verify myself, not because I doubted your information!
I found this article on calibrating a meter to a digital camera - http://www.frankdoorhof.com/site/201...e-quick-notes/
Is that pointing in the right direction?
I'm not sure this is a matter of dynamic range, Greg.
I've often shot the same type of scene, always in low light, with almost only midtones. In the past I was always using Velvia 100 and I did not have these problems.
In my limited knowledge, scenes like the one attached here below are not so challenging for Velvia, none the less the film shot came out almost black.
It seems more likely that it is an improper use of the dslr on my part, combined with a minimum loss of speed of the film.
I am going to do some more tests, most of all I will have my Pentax spotmeter calibrated.
thank you all for your advice
I'm just commenting based on the histograms that you posted. I may be wrong, but I believe the 5D II has about 8 or more stops of usable dynamic range. Velvia has 5 stops. The histograms show information from the far left (deep shadows) to the far right with some clipping (its possible that you increased contrast in the RAW conversion or post processing but I'm assuming these are straight out of the camera). That would mean that there is significantly more dynamic range in those specific scenes than the 5 stops of exposure latitude that Velvia can capture. So if you use Velvia (or pretty much any other transparency film) with these specific scenes, you have to make a compromising decision. Protect the highlights which will cause the mid-tones and shadows to be rendered darker than when seen with the human eye (and which it sounds like actually happened). Or expose the mid-tones so that they appear normal brightness, but allow the highlights to be blown out.
I'm a little surprised that no one has mentioned (I didn't check all the links in posts) that DSLRs are calibrated to give a 12% grey whilst a typical meter is calibrated to give 18% grey.
This is all useful information!
Thanks,
Kirk
at age 73:
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep"
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