Metering color Negarives with Spot meter

[ki6mf]

I have not found much on using my spot meter for color and I think the methodology is to meter highlights stop down 2 stops for a zone five exposure. Check shadows. If more than 2-3 stops below the zone V settings the shadows will drop out and you may want to look at Graduated neutral density filters. Does this sound like good theory? Any changes? Alternatives?

[memorris]

Color transparencies have less range so you meter the highlights keeping them around zone 6 1/2 or 7 and letting the shadows go.

Color negative film is metered the same as B&W film. Meter the shadows. If you have a color chart you can set up for color zone system.

[Eric Leppanen]

Here is one approach:

http://www.normankoren.com/zonesystem.html

Charles Campbell used to sell a spot metering system (including color cards) which he called Chroma-Zone. He no longer sells it, but he briefly summarized it in the thread below:

http://photo.net/nature-photography-forum/002055

Frankly, the Portras and Pro 160S (I haven't tried Ektar yet) have so much latitude that I just meter for the shadows and let the highlights fall where they may. I very very rarely get blown out highlights with this approach.

[ki6mf]

Thanks for the posts! I will check out the articles. Any more suggestions are welcome too! Color is interesting in its own way! getting big prints and fine detail is as great in color as it is in B&W. I could get used to less time processing unlike what you have with B&W!

[Bruce Watson]

Does this sound like good theory?

For color negatives? No.

What I do for color negatives is find the shadows that I want to show detail in my print and place them on Zone III. In your terms, I meter these shadow areas, then add two stops for a Zone V exposure. And that's it.

Why? Because C-41 is pretty uncontrollable. You can't reliably pull development at all. And a one stop push is about all that's available. So... expose for the shadows and let the highlights fall where they may.

Works every time for me. Of course, YMMV.

[Drew Wiley]

Depends on the specific film. I meter the new Kodak Ektar film just like transparency
film. Same for Portra VC, even though it has more latitude.

[Lynn Jones]

Hi Wally,

Here is how I teach my landscape students. First take an incident reading and record it just so that you'll know how wrong normal often is for landscapes.

1. Take a reading on the darkest are in which you wish to have detail.

2. Take a reading of the lightest area in which you wish to have detail.

3. If the two exposures are less than 4 1/2 stops, normal will be half way in between.

4. Look carefully at the scene and decide if it is normal, light, or dark then alter the exposure for lightness or darkness.

If this is for chrome, or digital, be sure that the differing exposures are 4 stops or less. The highlights must be protected.

For negative film, color or b/w, the average gradient by world standard is .50 (although Kodak thinks it is .55 and Ilford thinks it is .60, some of us believe that they only do that so that the slight over development yields a slight, but improper film speed).

The average gradient for chrome is 1.35 while for digital, it is 1.00.

Lynn