How to expose for sunset and sunrise?

In my gallery "Winter Sunset" was metered by holding the meter above my head.

mark said:

In my gallery "Winter Sunset" was metered by holding the meter above my head.

Click to expand...

But which way was it looking? I assume vertically.

EDIT: I have just looked at the picture. I would say that you got the perfect exposure.


Steve.

Yep. Dome straight up. This was in fact a fluke. I could not decide which way to meter or what to meter for so I just held it up in the air. Kind of a Hail Mary Pass. Been using it ever since for sunset shots. Don't get up for sunrise shots these days.

mark said:

In my gallery "Winter Sunset" was metered by holding the meter above my head.

Click to expand...

Thats perfect exposure. I will definitely be giving this method a try. Thanks

mark said:

Yep. Dome straight up.

Click to expand...

O.K. That's two people who used this method (you and my father). I think I will give it a go.


Steve.

mingaun said:

I actually miss a little of the good digital days where i can have instant feedback from the LCD screen. Ooops...i said the forbidden word.

Click to expand...

Nah, you just spelled "Polaroid" wrong.

I am going in a short beach trip tomorrow and i am only bringing my film camera. This is the first time going on a holiday with no digital camera. I want to use this as a stepping stone to see if i can survive with film in my more important Canada trip this August. I cant tell you how stress i am. My family members expect me to still take those nice family shots of the kids etc. At this point in time i cant even manual focus on the kids. They are almost impossible to take!! And now suddenly i worry about exposure which never cross my mind before.

Click to expand...

Of course, "film" doesn't have to mean "manual focus". But in general, I think it's usually a mistake to be too principled about "film only"; you want to use the right tool for a particular job, right?---and sometimes that means using something that's not your preferred tool.

As a parent, I think that idea goes double for pictures of the kids. A d*g*t*l photo that gets taken successfully makes a better memory than an analog photo that doesn't! It seems like maybe you should do a "soft" transfer, carrying both film and digital cameras on occasions like family trips until you come to a point where you feel confident that you can get everything you need with film alone.

But this is part of the reason I eventually bought an autofocus film SLR body; it shoots essentially the same as a DSLR but with a different capture medium. It's not as much fun to shoot as some of my old iron, though, for certain.

-NT

Thanks Nathan. I am now finding room to use both. You are right about the best tool for the job.

Mark

Is there a right or wrong way to meter in these situations?
I think it is a matter of personal preference. If someone wants detail in the shadows then meter for the shadows. If someone wants the shadows to be black he should meter for the sky. Obviously C41 has a better highlight retention while for E6 one should be careful not to clip the highlights.