[...] Subject Luminance Range ("SLR") [...]
As noted above I shoot with a camera's spot meter to meter shadows, but when I do have dark shadows areas in most cases I find that matrix metering works just as well. If using a older manual camera with TTL there is a number of different metering patters, center average, bottom weighted, or few models with spot meter. My old Miranda EE has very heavy bottom weight average mode, and a 10% spot meter, when shooting a vertical shot, need to change to the spot mode as the bottom weighted pattern will a really strange exposure.
In the past, I've read it as "Subject Brightness Range" (SBR). Has terminology changed?
When I started this thread I thought the phrase "expose for the shadows" probably meant taking some kind of meter reading from some kind of shadow area and using that reading to calculate how the camera should be set. Much as described by Vaughn in posts #2 and #4.
But before asking for details about how various members expose for the shadows in actual practice, I guess I should have started out with bigger question(s) like:
1. Is exposing for the shadows a valid/useful approach when metering all scenes - or only some scenes?
2. Is there any advantage in trying to "expose for the shadows" when using roll film with no intention of following through with N+/N- development?
3. Does "expose for the shadows" simply (and vaguely) mean "don't underexpose the shadows" using whatever method, and does not specifically suggest that any shadow areas should actually be metered?
Matrix metering should not be underestimated in its capabilities. in the past central area metering did not pick up much or any shadow detail, however matrix metering will especially if one meters without the sky in the field of view of the matrix.
So I have learned, courtesy of @Stephen Benskin and his posts here.
Although perhaps it is a case of the correct and accurate phrase "Subject Luminance Range" never being the "popular" phrase, because it is so confusing to use the acronym for the alternative - "SLR" - in any photographic context without meaning the type of camera.
It actually makes sense, as "Brightness" probably better refers to something that emits light, rather than reflects it - luminance better describing the light reflected.
I expect though that most people will continue to use SBR.
Stephen Benskin encourages us to be precise with terminology, and it helps to keep from having to go back and fix an old post if you can just as easily say the right thing. A quick visit to Wikipedia will tell you brightness is how the luminance is perceived.
Precise, or accurate????Stephen Benskin encourages us to be precise with terminology, and it helps to keep from having to go back and fix an old post if you can just as easily say the right thing.
I usually do -1EV from the incident shadow reading. It works well. In the photo below I wanted full detail on the shaded coconuts:
Am I missing something?
Stephen Benskin encourages us to be precise with terminology, and it helps to keep from having to go back and fix an old post if you can just as easily say the right thing. A quick visit to Wikipedia will tell you brightness is how the luminance is perceived.
Since I am more interested in how I and others perceive the scene, I'll stick with SBR.
Paul,Phil Davis writing seems to clear that the BTZS was intended for use with sheet film, and required extensive testing. As I recall when I took the Zone seminar from Minor White in the 60s he was also of the opinion that the Zone had limited value with roll film, what it provide was the E.I for a given camera, meter, film and developer combo, but as film was developed to obtain a chosen highlight zone roll film could not be easily previsualized as with sheet film. Reading AA, he is less clear, and he did shoot 120 roll film using the zone.
It’s Minor White’s mystic cycle of photographic communication.
Over here in the UK, speed cameras are represented like this:That mystic cycle portrays a folding rollfilm camera from the 1910s. Minor White could have at least drawn a rangefinder./2
Then what do you do with the shadow reading? Do you set the camera to match the meter reading, or do you stop down by some amount? And is your meter set to the film ISO or something else?Honestly I just use a spot meter.
When I don't have one, I try to get up close to the darkest part of the scene and fill as much of the frame with that area as I can for my shadow reading. *shrug* - not really anymore complicated than that.
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