Getting ready for my first picture, some questions on exposure and such

[Pere Casals]

• Is it really as simple as spot metering the most important areas of the composition and deriving a suitably weighted average?

To learn how a film works I'd suggest to use first a film SLR. With 135 you can bracket exposures to see the difference. With LF grain will be smaller and quality higher, but tonality should match.

With negative film, if a doubt, better to overexpose a bit. With slides (Provia) do the counter.


If you explore your field of view with a spot meter (with a DSLR or SLR) you'll find the good expositions for shadows and illuminated areas.

For portrait (caucasian skin) you can expose in a way that face area illuminated by key light are at +1 or +1.5.

In general important shadow areas can be at -2, but -3 it is not very good, depending on used film. Also important illuminated areas can be at +2, but at +3 it is worse.


Also it depends on the developer you use, a full speed developer like Xtol (or D-76) wants the standard exposure, other developers need in general 1/3 stop to 1 stop more.


With sheets you can make a special development for the particular conditions of each shot, this is very powerful:


You can place shadows at -2 and lights at +5, then you expose for the shadows at -2, but lights will be burnt. Then you develop for the lights to compensate that overexposure "making a N-3 development", with a shorter development time like if a 400 ISO film was shot at ISO 50. In this way you control a scene with 7 stops of dynamic range.


This is the basic method of the Zone System, beyond this there are additional techniques: special developers, stand development, and a long list of etc, and BTZS.


To measure with a DSLR with spot mode just use a prime lens like Nikon 50mm f/1.8D, if you use a zoom the reading won't match by perhaps 1/2 stop, because zooms have a lot glass groups and deliver less light to the DSLR sensor with same indicated aperture. A prime 50mm lens will match more the exposure of a LF lens.


Remember that when you focus near with a view camera you have to compensate exposure. As you extend bellows the projected light cone has a wider base, projected circle is bigger, and so photons are spread in a larger surface, so you need to correct for it, increasing exposure.


A final advice, at beginning just load a cheap Nikon F80 with same film you are using for sheets and make a bracketing -1 ,+1 then you can learn what you like the more.


Regards.

[D. Bryant]

Pere,

What large format camera(s) do you use?

[Pere Casals]

Pere,

What large format camera(s) do you use?

Camera is not the most important but, answering you, I've a Sinar Norma 4x5 that I love a lot.

And then I use CAMBO, the 4x5, the 5x7 and the 8x10.

This is the 8x10 and the 4x5 attached to learn macro https://www.flickr.com/photos/125592...posted-public/