I just use the in camera meter, but I’m still adjusting to the M6′s unique metering pattern. It’s hard to overcome the habits of 15 years of using center weighted meters.
Chris, it’s a semi-spot meter, so 100% of the metering is done within the central area as opposed to the 60/40 or 80/20 of most center weighted meters. Unlike a true spot meter, the metered area is fairly large.
I think with practice the M6 metering pattern is actually the more useful one, but I’ve got a lot of years of thinking like a center weighted meter to overcome.
This made me think about how I meter. As I sit here and think, it’s probably habit from when I was taught to ‘expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights’ 30 years ago. I find something in the frame that represents the shadow, meter for it, expose for that, then shoot. Okay, so the door . . . I’ll tell you what I would do. I’ll assume the door is, in the image, as it appeared to you when you saw it (it might not be, obviously, the Zone system being what it is). So, it looks about two stops above middle gray, so if the meter read 1/125th at f/5.6, I’d shoot at 1/125th at f/2.8.
And since this door is pretty flat, dynamic-range-wise, you’d just point the center at one of the four corner quadrants and then adjust in your head, right?
This discussion has made me realize I don’t know enough about the way my cameras meter. Hmm . . .
Chris, by the time I’d heard ‘expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights’ I’d already built up the habit of metering for the middle gray. That’s what your meter know how to do, so it seems the simplest. If you can’t find middle gray, take a reading off the highlights and open up one stop or off the shadows and close down one. When in doubt, under expose because nothing is harder to work with than an overly dense 35mm negative. Latitude in the film will take care of the rest.
Very nice composition. i am especially impressed with the metering. How did you do it, a handheld meter?
I just use the in camera meter, but I’m still adjusting to the M6′s unique metering pattern. It’s hard to overcome the habits of 15 years of using center weighted meters.
How does the M6 meter?
Chris, it’s a semi-spot meter, so 100% of the metering is done within the central area as opposed to the 60/40 or 80/20 of most center weighted meters. Unlike a true spot meter, the metered area is fairly large.
This thread explains it:
http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/discus_e/messages/2/5616.html?1041634584
I think with practice the M6 metering pattern is actually the more useful one, but I’ve got a lot of years of thinking like a center weighted meter to overcome.
This made me think about how I meter. As I sit here and think, it’s probably habit from when I was taught to ‘expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights’ 30 years ago. I find something in the frame that represents the shadow, meter for it, expose for that, then shoot. Okay, so the door . . . I’ll tell you what I would do. I’ll assume the door is, in the image, as it appeared to you when you saw it (it might not be, obviously, the Zone system being what it is). So, it looks about two stops above middle gray, so if the meter read 1/125th at f/5.6, I’d shoot at 1/125th at f/2.8.
And since this door is pretty flat, dynamic-range-wise, you’d just point the center at one of the four corner quadrants and then adjust in your head, right?
This discussion has made me realize I don’t know enough about the way my cameras meter. Hmm . . .
Chris, by the time I’d heard ‘expose for the shadows and develop for the highlights’ I’d already built up the habit of metering for the middle gray. That’s what your meter know how to do, so it seems the simplest. If you can’t find middle gray, take a reading off the highlights and open up one stop or off the shadows and close down one. When in doubt, under expose because nothing is harder to work with than an overly dense 35mm negative. Latitude in the film will take care of the rest.