Originally Posted by
Doremus Scudder
Jürgen, (or is it really Jurgen...)
I'm a spot-meter guy. I meter my tabletop work (still-lifes, product work, etc.) the same way I do my field work; by placing a shadow value (for negative materials - for transparency materials I place a highlight). This assumes, however, that I'm working with continuous light sources (natural or artificial). The technique is exactly the same as for any other scene.
Then, of course, there are the inevitable adjustments for bellows extension, reciprocity and filters.
If one works with flash, then a flash meter would be appropriate along with the different techniques involved there (e.g., measuring lighting ratio and exposing based on that instead of directly reading a shadow). The same would apply to incident metering under hot lights, although spot-metering techniques work fine there too. I you are controlling the lighting, then incident technique is fast, helps set up the lights, etc. This assumes you've tested your set-up and dialed in exposure though.
Best,
Doremus
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