Exposure query

snapplejacks

When taking a shot on my film camera of say a landscape....I can never seem to get exposure right. I'll either get it right for the land but UNDERexpose for the sky or the other way about ! ie I have difficulty getting the exposure correct for the whole shot.

It's annoying, can anyone advise on how I go about trying to correct this ?


Thanks in advance.

quilmore

yes, use a ND (neutral density) graduated filter

snapplejacks

is using the ND filter the only way around this ?

trishw78

how do you meter?

snapplejacks

i don't meter....what is this for ? (excuse me)

trishw78

That could be the problem then... There should be a built in meter on your camera, asuming your camera isn't more than 10years old. When your looking through the view finder and you half press the shutter button you should see a few things light up inside the camera. you'll have to fiddle around with your camera or read your manual to figer it out. on my Canon it's -2 to +2 and it should always be in the middle. for the correct exposure.

I know that sounds way more complicated than it is.

snapplejacks

actually this is what i use....(didn't realise it was the metering!) but I would normally have it bang in the middle for all shots.

Is my problem maybe because i meter for the close landscape but do not meter for the sky ? if i tilt camera up then all my metering would adjust for the sky !?

nilhg

Shoot RAW, that will give you the most latitude in PP, use a grad filter if you can.

Theres plenty of tips on the net, do a search for "expose to the right"

trishw78

nilhg wrote: »

Shoot RAW, that will give you the most latitude in PP, use a grad filter if you can.

Theres plenty of tips on the net, do a search for "expose to the right"

The OP is shooting with Film so RAW is not an option.

It shouldn't matter cause the light isn't going to change between close-up and in the distance. Try Bracketing is another option

CraggyIslander

snapplejacks wrote: »

actually this is what i use....(didn't realise it was the metering!) but I would normally have it bang in the middle for all shots.

Is my problem maybe because i meter for the close landscape but do not meter for the sky ? if i tilt camera up then all my metering would adjust for the sky !?

You'll need to over/under expose a bit depending what you're metering on.

Try this next time: meter for the sky and then adjust that dial down 1 or 2 stops (i.e. so it reads -1) That will slightly underexpose the sky and the landscape will come out much better in comparison. Depending on your composition you may want to meter on the landscape and adjust the dial up instead.

amcinroy

With film, the easiest option by far is to use a ND grad filter.

I would also suggest shooting on slide film which will teach you much more about exposure control than using print film. It's tricker at first but it's a better learning medium and you can easily get prints made from slides too.

I hear about people spot metering for foreground, spot metering for sky, calculating grad strength and then locking exposure off foreground before shooting.

Personally, I found that matrix metering with the grad in place with a three shot bracket (-0.5, 0, +0.5) never saw me wrong and was much quicker. And if in doubt about the grad strength, a two stop nearly always came up trumps. When the light was very tricky I might have chosen a (-1,0,+1) bracket. With print film you would not need to bracket at all.

You are dealing with a limitation of the camera system here and there is no way round it other than using grads or multiple exposure blends.

Hope that helps.

Andy
www.andymcinroy.com

mikeanywhere

amcinroy wrote: »

You are dealing with a limitation of the camera system here and there is no way round it other than grads or multiple exposure blends.

As the man says :cool: