Exposure variance by overall conditions

[Ulophot]

Philip your post above reminds me of a Zone System course I taught years ago...which began with my handing out a (cheap) grey card to each student. When out in the field with these cards - I realized that results were all over the place...due to the amount of specularity exhibited by these cards - grrr! I then found a fancier one...forget who makes this, but its called "the Last Grey Card," (Bogen I think?) - which has an almost non-specular surface.

Thanks, John, I'll keep it in mind.

This morning, I spoke with another local LF photographer, Jim Stewart (beautiful work, https://jrileystewart.com/), who also mentioned -- unprompted-- meter linearity. He said that he had had flare problems with a Sekonic spot meter and had drilled a hole in the lens cap for it, large enough to allow full vision of the spot field, and that this significantly reduced the problem, though he said it dropped the reading about 2 stops.

Adams writes about making a cardboard tube, matte black inside, also to reduce flare. I may give this a try, though in the circumstances I have been measuring, the sun was at my back. Perhaps it will cutting internal flare from more-than-frame-filling high-value subjects.

[chassis]

This article by Sekonic on metering technique helped me. Maybe it helps others.

https://www.sekonic.com/united-state...reflected.aspx

[Bill Burk]

I don’t think flare in a spotmeter is a particularly bad thing. Flare that reaches the spotmeter sensor is similar to flare that would reach the film so maybe the reading will be a fair predictor of what you will achieve on film anyway.

[Bruce Barlow]

I think you should learn to judge exposure without a meter. Under conditions that are predictable, walk around, look at things, guess the shutter speed and aperture. Then use your meter to see if you're accurate, and learn why not, if you're off. No pictures, just looking. You can do this anytime, anywhere. Carry your spotmeter around with you.

Ask yourself questions: What's the difference between bright sun and shadows? How does an overcast day differ from a sunny day? What's the difference between early morning and noon? Late afternoon? Once you find the answers for yourself, you'll know them for life, if not longer.

Afterwards, every time you make an exposure, guess the settings before you meter the scene. Then meter it to see if you're correct.

You'll be decent at it after an hour of wandering around. You'll rarely miss after a month of photographing.

And remember, blue sky on a clear sunny day is pretty much always Zone V. Close enough for photography.

[Ulophot]

Mystery solved!

Special thanks again to Doremus for suggesting meter linearity-departure, and for Maris for his testing technique. I used the latter tonight and got results precisely matching the over-exposure I have been getting in bright exterior scenes. The meter is quite linear in the typical LF range from longer exposures to 1/15 @ 22 or equivalent at ISO 400. Beyond that, linearity-departure begins, leading to more than a stop over-exposure in less than two stops of illumination increase.

That noted, I do agree with Bruce regarding learning the light, something I was not bad at back in my Leica M4 journalism days. Before there were meters, there was photography, and a few minor hobbyists, such as Edward Weston, Paul Strand, and W. Eugene Smith managed to produce some pretty good work without them as well. All artists benefit from knowing their materials.

Again, thanks to all who responded.