Incident vs reflected light readings are not always the same. Which is correct? Understand the following scenario:
You have a group of twenty dark-skinned men from Africa sitting for a group portrait in the open shade, lit by open, cloudless sky, at midday. They are clothed in rather dark attire and the background is neutral. The film being used is T Max 100. The incident meter reading is EV 11, the reflectance meter reading is EV 9.
You have a group of twenty light-skinned women from Scandinavia sitting for a group portrait in the open shade, lit by open, cloudless sky, at midday. They are clothed in rather light attire and the background is neutral. The film being used is T Max 100. The incident meter reading is EV 11, the reflectance meter reading is EV 13.
Which meter reading is correct? My own answer to this question is that both are wrong and a compromise must be reached for best exposure. Thus, I would opt for a reading of EV 10 for the African men and a reading of EV 12 for the Scandinavian women, a decision which both respects and refutes the two rather disparate metering systems.
One is tempted to say that since both scenes are lit identically, the exposure for both would be likewise identical. But this just might not be true since one must, in such similar, but also dissimilar, situations, bias the exposure slightly, not completely, towards the predominance of tones in the particular scene. I cannot formulate a specific theory backing this up but, intuitively, it does seem to be the correct thing to do.
What would Hollywood do? - David Lyga
