Foggy Days and Spot Metering

[brian steinberger]

I recently got done printing a photograph I took last year that was shot on a wonderful foggy day. I am still struggling to determine the best way to expose foggy scenes. This photograph was metered by placing the brightest part of the foggy sky on zone VII and letting the foreground field fall on zone IV. The print needed grade 5 for the foreground to obtain adequate contrast and that was just barely enough. Foggy scenes are so flat! So that got me thinking I'm going to have to try N+1 for foggy scenes. Meter the sky and place brightest area on zone VI and let the expansion take it to zone VII? That way the foreground will be placed on zone III but expansion will help to increase local contrast.

Am I analyzing this correctly? How are you guys with spot meters metering/developing for foggy situations?