Spot metering?

tomfrh

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I find spot metering very useful with slide film. You place known reference in the -2.5 to +2.5 range accordingly. E.g. my kid in the pool, I will meter the aqua blue water as +1.5.
 

Sirius Glass

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I find spot metering very useful with slide film. You place known reference in the -2.5 to +2.5 range accordingly. E.g. my kid in the pool, I will meter the aqua blue water as +1.5.

Slide film has a narrow exposure latitude so using a spot meter can be very useful.
 
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I find spot metering very useful with slide film. You place known reference in the -2.5 to +2.5 range accordingly. E.g. my kid in the pool, I will meter the aqua blue water as +1.5.

Yes, but never meter spectrals. And pool water has a lot of them. So do forests, waterfalls, rocks, cars, windows...
 

Soeren

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If you dont shoot slides there should be no need to bracket just err on the side of overexposure.
 

silveror0

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Sorry, what do you mean by that?
I'll attempt an explanation, in case Poisson's not tracking this thread. He's referring to "specular reflections", which are created by direct sunlight reflecting off mirror-like surfaces. Attempting to meter these (a) could damage the meter's receptors, similar to damaging your retinas by looking directly at the sun, (b) would provide useless exposure information. Such an intense illumination of the film would produce solarization, the reversal of the film's characteristic curve at the high density end (manifested as the curve taking a nose-dive toward lower density, very likely leading to the sun's image appearing as clear film). A good example is a photo made by Ansel Adams in which the sun, located in the field of view, appeared as a total eclipse in the print. There is also the term "scintillations" which is similar, but refers to "twinkling" sunlight reflections created, for example, by disturbed water surfaces.
 

tomfrh

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He's referring to "specular reflections"

ahh, specular highlights. No I wouldn't meter those when spot metering. I thought by "spectrals" he was referring to some particular type of colour that you shouldn't meter.
 
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____________________________________________

Good of you to answer it along the same lines I would have.

At this point I will be offline for a couple of weeks due to a family bereavement.
We'll catch up again later.

Thanks.
GRH
 

E. von Hoegh

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35mm film is cheap. Price a 10 sheet box of Tmax 8x10, then complain.
 

Sirius Glass

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35mm film is cheap. Price a 10 sheet box of Tmax 8x10, then complain.

When the top of the line Nikon or Canon DSLRs with multiple lenses cost on the order of $6,000US to $10,000US depending on choices. XTOL developer cost less then $10 for many rolls of black & white film, Unicolor 1 liter costs $23 for 12 to 16 rolls and Unicolor 2 liters cost $35 for 24 to 32 rolls of film. So exactly where did this gripping come from?
 

E. von Hoegh

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I have no idea what you are saying. 35mm film is cheap, in comparison to all others on a per-picture basis.
A new Linhof 4x5 Technika body is 10,000 dollars. It's not a 35mm camera.
 

Sirius Glass

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I have no idea what you are saying. 35mm film is cheap, in comparison to all others on a per-picture basis.
A new Linhof 4x5 Technika body is 10,000 dollars. It's not a 35mm camera.

What I was saying is that film development is very inexpensive. Sheet films can be very expensive, I know because I make mistakes with Portra 160 4"x5" film, however 35mm film is cheap and its processing can be cheap compared to DSLRs so why the complaint that 35mm film is expensive?
 

E. von Hoegh

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Aaarggh! I was saying it's CHEAP!
Sorry, I m@y have been obtuse.
 
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OP

chip j

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How MUCH money do you guys get per month??? I'm a shade over the poverty line w/my VA pension.
 

E. von Hoegh

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How MUCH money do you guys get per month??? I'm a shade over the poverty line w/my VA pension.
Sorry, Chip, to hear that.
I have to budget for film, cameras, entertainment, and so on.
Fortunately my tastes are cheap, my wants are few. In the past 6 years I have spent $1100 plus or minus $100 on film, chemicals, cameras, etcetera.
 

Sirius Glass

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How MUCH money do you guys get per month??? I'm a shade over the poverty line w/my VA pension.

Sorry, Chip, to hear that.
I have to budget for film, cameras, entertainment, and so on.
Fortunately my tastes are cheap, my wants are few. In the past 6 years I have spent $1100 plus or minus $100 on film, chemicals, cameras, etcetera.

Once I got my cameras, a used development steel tank is cheap but you need to spend money on good Hewes reels. My paper, film and chemical budget is less than $1,000 over the last five years.
 

E. von Hoegh

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Once I got my cameras, a used development steel tank is cheap but you need to spend money on good Hewes reels. My paper, film and chemical budget is less than $1,000 over the last five years.
Hewes reels? I'm not familiar with those. I have all Nikor S$ tanks and reels. Their main virtue for me is familiarity.
 

John Koehrer

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E. Hewes are England's best. Most people say they're easier to load than Nikor or Kindermann. I've used both & haven't found any real difference.
Maybe since I've had them so long it's just in my nature.
 

Sirius Glass

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Actually they are the best steel reels in the world. The cost more but they are consistently the easiest to load and unload. When I switched to them I stopped seeing kink marks in the film.
 
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