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welly
25-Jan-2011, 02:32
Hello guys,

Sorry about this back to basic question, but I'm trying to learn technique as opposed to just guessing!

So, based on Gem Singer's excellent post (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=56334), I've metered the shadows and have got an exposure reading (but I've not yet put it in Zone 3). My main query is do I calculate the ND grad based on the reading I get from my meter or from the actual exposure I'll be using? So say my reading is 1/15 at f16, I'll put the shadows into Zone 3 - 1/60 at f16. I then take a reading from the sky which is perhaps 1/500 at f16. Do I need to calculate the dynamic range from the initial reading of 1/15th or based on the Zone 3 exposure value?

If I've got this completely wrong, please correct me :) Any advice or just the steps I should be going through would be brilliant and well appreciated!

Many thanks!
dperez
26-Jan-2011, 10:31
Hello guys,

Sorry about this back to basic question, but I'm trying to learn technique as opposed to just guessing!

So, based on Gem Singer's excellent post (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=56334), I've metered the shadows and have got an exposure reading (but I've not yet put it in Zone 3). My main query is do I calculate the ND grad based on the reading I get from my meter or from the actual exposure I'll be using? So say my reading is 1/15 at f16, I'll put the shadows into Zone 3 - 1/60 at f16. I then take a reading from the sky which is perhaps 1/500 at f16. Do I need to calculate the dynamic range from the initial reading of 1/15th or based on the Zone 3 exposure value?

If I've got this completely wrong, please correct me :) Any advice or just the steps I should be going through would be brilliant and well appreciated!

Many thanks!

I usually use EV mode and just determine the amount of stops between the highlights and dark shadows and then select the ND grad based on my understanding of the dynamic range of the film.

If you know the gap between the highlights and shadows is too large for your film to record without a filter, using the EV values will make it easy to determine the proper ND grad needed to bring the highlights within the acceptable range.