Newbie Question: Neg vs. Transparency Exposure...

[Cleeo W. Wright]

I've been doing the LF thing for a little while now with an ancient 4x5 and I'm having a blast. I've gottoen to the point where I am pretty confident when shoo ting color print or B&W but for some reason I'm missing the exposure big time wh en it comes to chromes. Sometimes as much as 4 stops. I'm really confused as I think that I'm doing things pretty much the same way. With the negative film I am not requiring any special processing. It comes out pretty good on the first pass even though I take duplicates just in case. My chromes on the other hand are awfulllllll..... Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[John W.]

Expose for the highlights (by using an incident meter in the brightest area of the scene).

In which direction are you off by "as much as 4 stops," underexposure or overexposure? Most people, when moving from b&w or color neg to chromes, are in the habit of giving more exposure "when in doubt," which usually results in disastrous overexposure with chromes.

...............

[Cleeo W. Wright]

Sorry... I should have mentioned that they were all underexposed. I should also mention that I've been doing 35mm for quite a while and I understand exposure pretty well. At least I thought I did. That is why I am so confused. I'm really looking for any ideas on what I might be missing or forgetting when it comes to the all manual process. I'm using a Sekonic L508 for my meter. It is usually set on incident mode.

[Steve Baggett]

If your exposure times are greater than 1 second, this could be due to a greater amount of reciprocity failure with chromes vs negs.

[S Ratzlaff]

Have you perhaps not calculated for bellows extension when making your exposure determinations?

[Mark Windom]

Cleo,

You mention you're using an ancient 4X5. Are the lenses ancient as well? To be off by 4 stops with the experience you have (I've seen your work on the critique forum and it's quite good) I wonder if it isn't an equipment problem rather than you personally. Is the exposure problem occuring with all your lenses or just one in particular? If it's only lens one you might want to have the shutter speeds tested particularly if it's an old lens. A shutter speed problem would certainly be much more noticeable with transparency film vs. neg film due to the decreased exposure lattitude.

Another suggestion would be to try a different metering method. I occassionally use a spot meter but for most of my work I use the meter in my 35mm. It's one more item to add weight to the backpack but the results have always been very reliable.

[Michael Feldman]

Cleeo,

Just to be sure, please describe in excruciating detail what the transparencies look like that makes you think that there is an exposure problem.

[ed kang]

Cleeo,

Yes, please describe in detail what you were taking a picture of, how far away the subject was, time of day, type of slide film, etc. It will help us help you =)

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

If you are shooting Tri X (ASA 400) and then change to fuji Velvia (ASA 50)that is about 3 stop difference, I vote for Dan's comment, are you sure you are not forgetting to change the setting on your light meter?

[Pete Andrews]

"Expose for the highlights (by using an incident meter in the brightest area of the scene). " - What?An incident reading is a measurement of the light falling (incident) on the subject. The brightest area of the scene has nothing to do with it.The subject is assumed to be 'average' with the highlights falling 3 stops above, and the shadows 4 stops below the nominal exposure point.

I'm not disagreeing that an incident reading gives good results, especially with transparency film, but the accepted method of use is to stand at the subject position and take a reading with the meter cone or dome pointed back at the camera. If the main subject is completely in the shade, then so be it. You shouldn't go out of your way to find the brightest patch of light to stand in to take an incident reading.