I need to pack my tripod, flashlight, lunasix and spot attachment and set it for a zone1 ISO reading... I point the spot at a zone 1 using the flashlight as needed push the reading rocker and read off the exposure using the flash light.
I need to remember to remove the uv filter and write POTA on the cassette and on an avery label on the camera.
All you would need too do is set a similar ISO on your spot to my lunasix.
I meter for a highlight and sod the shadows. Actually they usually turn out OK.
Fixating on a shadow is not a good thing to do at night.
In many subjects at night (not all ) you will have very deep dark shadows. It is night after all. But you will also have highlights to mid tones and often those mid tones and highlights DON'T fall into reciprocity. So if you meter a shadow and correct for reciprocity you push the mid tones and highlights way up the curve with a large amount of over exposure which then means you are into a rescue job to get them back.
Now ask yourself, in a night time shot which is more important, the mid tones to highlights or the deep dark shadows. I have found that becasue I have already calibrated for 10 stop range that I can meter what I want on zonne 7 or 8 and very often that won't be into reciprocity. Had I metered a shadow it would be in reciprocity and with the correction for that I would need to use your pota or some secondary calbration such as N- development to try and get the highlights back. It's a time wasting exercise because its often unnecessary.
And judging a shadow at night and trying to place on a set value is very difficult because at night for deep shadows you're perceptions of luminance change because of the lack of colour in large dark areas. That's just how your eyes work with the rods and cones. It can look darker than it actually is as far as the film is concerned because film doesn't have prceptual vion using rods and cones. Your meter reading may also vary a bit due to lack of colour but not inline with how your eyes work. The result is you can get strange looking results which don't look like night. Shadows way too light and highlights way above where they ought to be.
In other words expose for the highlights and just let the shadows go and that way you'll get a night time image which actually looks like night.
And infact the shadows will often turn out fine (providing you calibrated the way I do for 10 stops) but they won't turn out fine if you have used ISO film speed calibration, they'll be too dark (unless you apply reciprocity corrections which casue highlight problems).
If my "highlights" require reciprocity correction then I'll give them that using Ilfords reciprocity chart ( I use Ilford films) and that will lift the shadows too.
See: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
A night time shot but it doesn't look natural.
Its no wonder why so many find night time photography so difficult when they are using various peoples reciprocity corrections which seem to be based around exposing for a shadow when exposing for highlight would very often produce a much more natural looking result.
It is night time after all and shadows should be deep and dark otherwise it doesn't look like night.
