How to expose in unusual circumstances

[Leszek Vogt]

You may have people gawk at you more intensely, that is if you bring a sizable ladder with you and set up the camera at the top rung :>). No doubt it would be easier to measure the exposure from that angle (+ different view). Well, just an idea......perhaps where some other trees are and less gawkers.

Les

[Doremus Scudder]

Just a note to say I got it wrong ... the exposure of the underside of the branches is about right but everything else is overexposed.

Doremus, it is a highly unusual circumstance for me to be using a specific tripod to shoot straight up !! In fact, my only two LF shots ever that were vertical.

It would have been best to use the incident reading pointed at the ground as a stop - a limit reading. In other words, do not wind the shutter down this low ... Another reading of a spot on the underside of the branches to confirm the incident reading and then the brightest flower would perhaps serve as a highest shutter reading. Somewhere in between the two would be the best.

In this scenario of such a wide SBR (beyond the film's abilities) bracketing would be advised and combining images in a digital program to give a final solution but that there was not an insignificant breeze.

Tis tough to remember all this when you are a bit of a curiosity in the middle of a park central to a city. I hate people gawking at me while I photograph.

I need to get out more !

swmcl,

In your particular situation here, there's nothing stopping you from, say, pointing a spot meter straight up and taking readings of the important tonal elements of the scene. Or, using an averaging reflected-light meter to get an idea, but not really of the SBR. Incident metering with the dome pointing down would give you a reading of the shadow illumination, but nothing for the sky. Situations like these are why I chose a spotmeter for my work. Still, if you recognize that the scene is of extreme SBR and have a shadow reading, you should be able to take two negatives and deal with the contrast with development, etc. (guesstimate a development for the first neg and adjust for the second if needed).

Setting up the camera pointing straight up is the (much) harder part I remember a time lying on my back looking up into the ground glass when I had my camera set up from a low vantage point and pointing straight up. People though I was injured and offered to call 911...

Best,

Doremus