Spot metering reversal/E6 films (Velvia, Provia, etc) films for twilight cityscapes

[phdgent]

Not bad. How did you meter it?

At the time I had a Gossen Variosix and measured this scene reflectively, with the diffuser dome taken off. A Spot metering would have been to complex due to the too many and too different (and extreme) 'zones'.
First slightly pointed upwards to somewhat avoiding the dominant reflexions on the water, then pointed a bit downwards to evaluate the intensity of the reflexions, and then guessing something like an average between the two as a basis for the bracketing: +2/3 — 0 — -2/3 stop, what I usually did with Provia as, to my personal opinion, a full stop was a bit too much of a good thing.

The best one was the '+2/3' as then the building came out a bit 'brighter', what was important to better show the aero condenser in the back, and the highlights (e.i. reflexions) were still 'acceptable' and could be handled by the fotogravure.
I let the photogravure (=chromiste) choose between the tree diapositives.

What you see here is a hardly edited home scan on an EPSON 750 of the '0' stop exposure as the good one (+2/3) was kept by the client.
This photo was taken at the end 1990's (and home processed in my Colenta AT60 machine).

[spotless_camera]

At the time I had a Gossen Variosix and measured this scene reflectively, with the diffuser dome taken off. A Spot metering would have been to complex due to the too many and too different (and extreme) 'zones'.
First slightly pointed upwards to somewhat avoiding the dominant reflexions on the water, then pointed a bit downwards to evaluate the intensity of the reflexions, and then guessing something like an average between the two as a basis for the bracketing: +2/3 — 0 — -2/3 stop, what I usually did with Provia as, to my personal opinion, a full stop was a bit too much of a good thing.

The best one was the '+2/3' as then the building came out a bit 'brighter', what was important to better show the aero condenser in the back, and the highlights (e.i. reflexions) were still 'acceptable' and could be handled by the fotogravure.
I let the photogravure (=chromiste) choose between the tree diapositives.

What you see here is a hardly edited home scan on an EPSON 750 of the '0' stop exposure as the good one (+2/3) was kept by the client.
This photo was taken at the end 1990's (and home processed in my Colenta AT60 machine).

Interesting, thanks. Having a Colenta at home is impressive!

A Spot metering would have been to complex due to the too many and too different (and extreme) 'zones'.

Indeed, the complexity is one reason that this thread exists.

[spotless_camera]

Useful idea:

I meter a shadow area where I want to preserve detail, and then store that reading. I meter a highlight (high value) area where I wish to preserve detail, and then store that reading. Then, I press the "Avg" button. I know that this meter will give me good high values up to about +2.5 stops over the average, and good shadows down to about -2.5 stops under the average. This is about a 5 stop range which is pretty much the limit of the Velvia 50 or Provia 100 that I shoot. Before I expose any film, I will hold in the metering button and scan the scene watching the EV difference from the average. If I don't find any other highlight and/or shadow area that falls beyond that -2.5 to +2.5 range, then I twirl the wheel to obtain the aperture I wish to shoot at, set the exposure accordingly, and expose. If I find an area outside the aforementioned range--lets say I scan across a shadow area that reads -3.0 EV that I care about (who knows why I didn't see that area in the first place!)--then I adjust my average reading accordingly and expose. This is all way more difficult to write about than it is to do...

https://www.largeformatphotography.i...=1#post1448534