I took a week long course in LF b&W film photography from a notable landscape photog. I was ready with my Pentax spot meter and knowledge of the Zone system, but he poo pooed all that and said just take a general reading with a Gossen hand held meter and have at it.
Meter type preference for large format.
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You know how to solve that argument don't you? Try it both ways with the same subjects and see what you think.
OP
OP
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Wow! Thanks for all the info everybody. After reading all the replies I feel like if I find a decent price on a spot meter I will get it. It sounds like having access to a variety of methods is a good way to go. Plus learning a different system would likely give me a better overall understanding of exposure. Any practice is good practice right?
I've been using a Sekonic 398 incident and a Minolta Spot meter for years doing MF & LF landscape photography. I saved up and got the Sekonic 758 the other day and I'm fine tuning it now. It has both incident and spot ability in one unit....should be a keeper from the initial tests in conjunction with the other two units.
I'll keep the other two as backups & overall proven solid units to date after numerous years of usage.
I'll keep the other two as backups & overall proven solid units to date after numerous years of usage.
In a pinch I have used a Nikon F-100 with a 28mm to 300mm zoom lens in the spot meter configuration as a spot meter for MF and LF photographs.
Unless I was a more notable instructor I would have asked only questions 2 and 4, listened attentively to the answer, and then concluded that whatever he recommended must work under some situations. Otherwise how would he be the notable instructor and I the student?
P.S. I find a general reflective or incident reading to often work as well as spot metering. Plus it's a lot quicker so I miss fewer shots.
A lot depends upon the situation. If the light is rapidly changing it's hard to get multiple readings. I remember taking a photograph of some trees surrounded by tulips in our local botanical gardens. The sun had lit everything up as it was going down. If I had taken the time to take multiple readings I would have missed the shot.
A lot of photographers use incident meters for large format and produce great images. The Zone system does work however. I just don't understand why an instructor would poo poo it.
I completely agree. A lot depends on the poo poo words used!
His answer would be poo poo!
That's about it, Alan. He is also an author of how-to books about "personal expression" photography, with entire chapters about how the Zone system is wrong, compared to his oh-so-personal approach. Yes I would have liked to have gotten my money back, for this and many other highly offensive reasons.
Buyers of photography courses, beware!
That is why I do my research on photography and anything else that matters by asking many people questions, reading multiple books and the internet. I rarely take courses, since doing research is more interesting and concentrates on things that matter rather than the trivia that I am not interested in.
In college I took an art class once with a teacher who all us students thought was completely self absorbed or just crazy. It was a required course so we all just got through it.
That's some severe case of poo poo. Outrageous statement. Saying that ZS isn't always necessary is one thing, put totally dismissing it in all situations is nuts.
I think we all like saying poo poo! 
If the format is single frame I use an external light meter.
If the format is 35mm I use the built in Nikon light meters.
If the format is 120 I use the Hasselblad PME 45 degree light meter.
If the format is 4"X5" I use an external light meter.
That's a good question. It's not the format but sheet film versus roll film. With sheet film each negative can be processed individually so you can adjust contrast with development.
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/articles/conrad-meter-cal.pdf
For me, I'm more careful with metering when using sheet film (as Alan stated above) because I can adjust development for each sheet, so it's worth taking the time and being more precise with exposure. Hence, I mostly use spot metering with sheet film.
It's also about speed and cost. Since the cost per frame goes down as format size decreases, I generally shoot more frames and shoot them quicker as formats get smaller. I'm more concerned with getting a possibly fleeting shot and less concerned with "perfect exposure" in those situations. Hence, I am more likely to use incident, reflective, or "sunny-16".
Take all this with a grain of salt as I am not a pro, don't pursue sales of my work, and only shoot for fun.
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The meter I femembered to take with me always seems to work fine. If I forget and leave them all at home, it's Sunny 16 or a SWAG
After awhile you can get pretty accurate at making SWAGs.
After awhile you can get pretty accurate at making SWAGs.
deleted double post
"femembered" is an early version of "remembered". It works well with "deleted double posts".
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