Correct way to meter a landscape

[Alvaro Bertoni]

Greetings,
I purchased my first 4x5 camera today. A Linhof Kardan Super Color to be specific. I have been shooting 35mm for the last bunch of years and am very used to my FE's meter. I own a sekonic L-358 and am unsure as to how I should go about metering for a landscape. Do I simply pop out the sensor, hold the meter in front of the lens, and get a reading? or do I attach the little spot attachment and aim it at where I want my exposure?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Alvaro.

[steve simmons]

I use a spot meter and take readings of the brightest and darkest areas where I want tohold detail and texture.

Are you using black and white or color film? Either way I want to know the range of contrast in the scene.

seve simmons
www.iewcamera.com

[ronald moravec]

An incident meter is easies to use for a beginner. A spot meter used per Steve Simmons comment is for those who understand texture and contrast so you get good results. The results will be worth it, but there is a long learning curve. Buy one and use it for 35 mm until you learn. Don`t start LF and a new metering system at the same time or you will give it up.

One would not learn a manual transmission on a Formula 1 race car, although they may be using manually shifted automatics now. Enzio Ferarrie wouln`t even allow synronizers in his manuals and the pro drivers regularly broke transmissions.

Maybe Steve could do a piece on metering in debth in View Camera. Lots of good material in that magazine.

[Ralph Barker]

The number of different metering techniques probably approaches infinity. In fact, when this question is asked of four photographers, it's not uncommon to get six different answers. ;-)

With the L-358, you have essentially three options for ambient readings: incident (using the lumisphere), 58° reflected (using the Lumigrid), or spot reflected (using the spot adapter).

With incident readings, taken either at the subject position, or in the same light as falling on the subject, you're measuring the light falling on the subject. The exposure reading given by the meter will (in theory) render the subject's true tonality. That, of course, ignores the potential for some luminence values in the scene exceeding or falling below the film's sensitivity curve. But, an incident reading is a great starting point for determining the optimal exposure.

In contrast, a reflected reading will give you the exposure necessary to render the metered area as a middle gray - usually considered to be a Zone V in Zone System terms. If the meter's angle of acceptance is fairly wide, as with the Lumigrid, the reading will be an average of the values in the area being metered. Useful, but potentially misleading. Spot readings of specific areas in the scene that are of the same luminence (e.g. highlights, shadows, mid values) will be more informative, but require some "interpretation". The "interpretation" of the metered values is both science and art, and forms the basis for both the Zone System and most of the disagreements over technique.

The general idea (assuming no variation from "normal" in development), is to expose at a value that will retain detail in both highlights and shadows. An exposure two to three stops below (wider f-stop or slower shutter speed) the highlight reading, for example, will retain highlight detail. If the shadow reading is more than three stops or so below that, however, shadow detail will start to be lost. So, the actual exposure is a compromise between the two spot readings, and may involve a decision of which to sacrifice if the scene brightness range exceeds the capability of the film.

With large format, it is convenient to develop individual sheets of film differently. Thus, at least with B&W films, some adjustments can be made to get around the scene brightness range problem. Those adjustments form the basis of the Zone System, about which numerous books have been written and argued about for decades.

When shooting color transparency film, however, it's usually best to expose at something close to the incident reading, giving a little more weight to maintaining highlight detail. With B&W or color negative film, shadows are often given greater importance. But, tastes and techniques vary. Bracketing exposures is seldom a bad practice, and various procedures can be followed to take advantage of differently-exposed films.

[Juergen Sattler]

Hello Alvaro. I started with LF about 18 months ago and had the same issue. I had worked with 35mm and medium format before and never really used a hand held meter before. What helped me was to take extensive notes while I was shooting LF and I took my trusted Nikon with me and used TTL measures and compared them with the readings I got from the Spotmeter. It makes a big difference if you are shooting slide or negative fim. Negative film is much more tolerant towards over-exposure (up to three stops indeed) and therefore more foregiving. Even today I still use the Nikon to "verify" my readings and they don't always agree (and the Nikon is not always right!) but it helps me to get comfortable with my readings. LF is a great new way to "see" for me and there is so much more to learn and make mistakes - but I never did get frustrated - it is just too much fun.

Juergen

[Brian Ellis]

Spot meters aren't that difficult to use and if you progress to a point where you understand and use the zone system you'll need to use a spot meter so why not get started off that way? There are several good books that will tell you how to use a spot meter. Chapter 3 of Ansel Adams' book "The Negative" is one, Chapter 11 of Leslie Stroebel's book "View Camera Technique" is another. See if your local library has either or spring for the money to buy one of them, both are very valuable resources that you won't regret having on your book shelf.

[Bruce Watson]

I'm with Brian. I went from 35mm to 4x5, and changed everything, all at once. I bought my spot meter before I bought the camera.

It's not difficult to use, but it does take some practice. The "art" in using a spot meter is learning what to use it on - where are the darkest shadows? What shadows need to show some detail, and what shadows can I let slide? Those kids of things.

If read up on it using the resources Brian cited, then practice and study your results, it won't take you very long to get pretty good at it.

[paulr]

There are a few very basic concepts that you need to grasp. They seem anything but basic when you're first trying to wrap your head around them, but once you get them, you get them.

If the short explanations on this list aren't enough to get you started, I'd recommend a good book. Ansel Adams' The Negative is the classic on the topic. He coined the phrase "The Zone System" to explain how to do it. Don't be intimidated ... all he really did was come up with a systematic and easy to teach approach to the basics of exposure and development. But those basics really are basic, and they're what good photographers have been using to expose their film and plates since the begining of photography. This is your goal: to get a grasp of the basic ideas. Then you'll probably end up coming up with your own personal method based on the basic ideas.

What I do is like a shorthand version of the zone system; I could probably sumarize it in a few paragraphs. But it will be more helpful for you to understand the underlying ideas than to get a specific recipe that might not suit the kinds of photography you do or the ways you like to work.

If you're eager to be outside with your camera and not chained be to a book, you can start out by using a hand camera's meter to meter the scene, and just expose the way you'd expose with smaller film. I wouldn't use this crutch for too long though; there's a limit to what it will teach you.

[JZ]

I would highly recommend obtaining a grey card as well... If you used the FEs spot meter previously and are comfortable with it then I would just continue to carry it along with the light meter you plan on replacing it with. In the beginning with the grey card and the experience with the FE you should be able to obtain correct exposures and will be able to start transferring that knowledge over to a new metering device. I don't currently have a light meter and am fairly comfortable with the spot meter on my Mamiya 645 Super AE prism so I just carry that along with my LF setup... It not only gives me the ability to use something familiar, but also allows me to switch to the MF when I don't feel like spending $4.01 on my more experimental shots... Of course it adds some weight, but it is a small fraction of what the LF system weighs...

[Gary Rowlands]

Alvaro,

Locating Zone III with any meter, although I too recommend a spot meter, will give you 85% success with your exposures. Measure a shadow area where you want detail and open the reading up by two stops. Let the highlights take care of themselves.

As you gain experience measure the highlight within the scene (ground level) and let the sky take care of itself. Then you can expand/contract development to suit.When you PhotoShop or print you will normally be able to pull the sky back in. I suggest this as I spent a long time measuring the shadows correctly, but using bright cloud as the highlight. This inevitably encourages low contrast in the important areas.

[Alvaro Bertoni]

WOW,

Thank you all very much for taking the time to help me.
I was quite taken by the amount of responses piled in my inbox.
I read every single reply twice and I'm definitely better suited now than I was a couple of days ago; seriously. I'm even more inspired to get out and shoot now. I am absolutely thrilled by the amount of activity and knowledge present here.
You have all made me feel welcome.
This is the first time I have posted and it definitely wont be the last.
I was so naive to think that Large Format Photography was scarce.
THANKS A MILLION.

[calbee]

To meter a landscape or any shot done in available light it all depends on the contrast of your scene. if your sceen is a 5 stop range between your hightlight (with printable detail) and your shadow area (with printable detail) your golden, that's a normal exposure. So to meter this scene get the f-stop of of your zone III and the F-stop of your zone VII and set your lens at zone V. Although none of this really means shit unless you have a densitomiter and do a parametrics test for your correct development time at least down to +/-10 seconds or so.

RULE #1 of photography...
expose for you shadow
develope for your highlight

[Ralph Barker]

The old rule of exposing for the shadows and developing for the highlights is really a gross over-simplification, and only works for B&W. Even for B&W, it should probably read, "expose for your processing-adjusted shadows and develop to gain control over your highlights." And, while the advice has some relevance for color, color processing doesn't respond in the same manner, contrast control-wise, to adjustment. Thus, the application of the old saw can vary, I think, based on how it is interpreted.

Even without the use of a densitometer, however, I think the basic metering concepts of the Zone System can be used to advantage for both B&W and color. Understanding that the reflective reading is the exposure that will render the metered area as a medium gray (or, its color equivalent), and that the area so metered can be "placed" up or down the scale by varying the exposure (or, the lighting ratio in the studio) is a huge step forward - even assuming "normal" development.

Other adjustments to the old saying can also be applied for color work. For color transparencies, for example, it might be better said as, "expose for your highlights, and augment the lighting for your shadows" - particularly if you are shooting for magazine reproduction, where the values need to be held to a 3½-4 stop range.