Confidence

Barney

Barney

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Wayne
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I mostly Incident meter when shooting film, how is it that sometimes I am perfectly satisfied that I have the exposure nailed and can take a single shot of a particular scene confident that the results will be acceptable and yet other times I am "umming and ahhing" and end up taking three shots of the same scene resulting in a roll that only has has two or three "takeaway" images.

Why is this?

Recently I had the opportunity to resort to sunny sixteen rules and invariably the exposures worked of a fashion, but I ended up with a roll of similar images.

At what point, considering the limitations of my exposure measuring method, will I be confident enough to just take the flipping picture once.
 
Negative or transparency?

It may be experience making you take muliple exposures if the light is tricky. Taking a single exposure in difficult lighting is a game of chicken for amateurs. The more professional approach would be to make more than one exposure if there's time to ensure you have the shot in the bag.
 
Negative,

I shoot mostly unplanned walk around shots of scenes that I find appealing, so only three shots from a roll is a bummer
 
Negative film has a wide latitude for hand printing, but perhaps not so much with scanning? To a certain extent an aspect of film is that you get what you get, and work with that. Using medium format isn't a cheap option.
 
Well I'm not sure what your problem is? Is it a white building and things in the shadows that you want to see?
Anyway if a shot is worth taking why not take a few by adding one or two stops?
For scenery with lots of green is VG as they are equivalent of a Kodak grey card, same for blue sky (not pale) to take a reading, also a grey building gives a correct exposure.
If stuck for a scene you can take a reading from say anything grey.... like rocks, grey paving, roads, green shrubs as they are also the same as a grey card.
You can always buy a Canon t90 and take up to 8 spot readings and the camera would average them out, but I've never used it yet o_O
 
I have learned that some scenes can't be reliably photographed (by me). An example is fairly dark woodland with patches of harsh sunlight breaking through the tree canopy. I've tried and it never works. I can choose between catching highlights and have blocked up shadows or letting them blow and getting some detail in the shadows. Now I wait for a better day.
But, I have thought that I might play with the zone system. For grab shots, I might take two or three exposures.
 
Barney said:
At what point, considering the limitations of my exposure measuring method, will I be confident enough to just take the flipping picture once.
Click to expand...

I would say from your results. If you're happy that your technique is providing acceptable exposures, then you can be confident that that technique will work for you most of the time. There will be situations where incident reading can be more tricky (where you're not in the same light as your subject, for instance), and these are the ones where you take more care (or meter differently).

I very rarely take more than one shot of the same composition (usually it's because someone has walked into frame the moment I pressed the shutter! :headbang:), although I might take several different shots of the same subject. My aim is always to get a full roll of shots that are each different and that I'm happy with. Obviously people's standards on what they consider a success will differ, but I'm generally disappointed if I'm getting less that 30 shots I like on a 36exp roll.
Given the cost of film, and the value of my time, I actively try to avoid bracketing unless it's a shot I really need to make sure I get right. I'd love to be able to shoot roll upon roll of film like a press photographer, and then pick the perfect shot from dozens, but it ain't gonna happen, sadly (plus I'd get very bored developing them all).
 
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Barney said:
I mostly Incident meter when shooting film, how is it that sometimes I am perfectly satisfied that I have the exposure nailed and can take a single shot of a particular scene confident that the results will be acceptable and yet other times I am "umming and ahhing" and end up taking three shots of the same scene resulting in a roll that only has has two or three "takeaway" images.

Why is this?

Recently I had the opportunity to resort to sunny sixteen rules and invariably the exposures worked of a fashion, but I ended up with a roll of similar images.

At what point, considering the limitations of my exposure measuring method, will I be confident enough to just take the flipping picture once.
Click to expand...
To incident meter you need to take the reading from the subject position (or its equivalent in terms of the light) - this isn't always possible or convenient.

With neg film and using reflective metering, you could either take a general reading or meter from the shadows. Try to be consistent about how you rate your film & how you meter. With neg film, its pretty hard to go badly wrong.

(If you ever took slide film, it would soon train you to be pretty disciplined & attentive as to exposure - it's a very good teacher. Though its exposure parameters are somewhat inverted compared to neg.)

For general shots on neg film out & about, I'd never even think about bracketing. Just go for it! You can refine your exposure technique over time based on experience, if indeed it ever seems necessary.
 
I don't bracket. If I make more than one exposure, it's to guard against processing faults, or something is moving.

I've used incident light metering, "normal" reflected light metering, and spot metering, and stopped using them in all cases. Except with a digital camera; I see what the screen says, and adjust if needed.

My standard method - which has always worked for me - is "hand in same light as subject, take reflected reading from the palm, open up one stop". Used with Kodachrome, FP3. HP3, PanF, Panf Plus, FP4 etc.

On woodland scenes - they are tricky. The standard advice is to add a stop of exposure and cut development time by 15-20% (or add more exposure to that and cut development even more. I've never done that; just given up as the light just isn't right for that type of scene, and aimed for a more overcast day. Sometimes high contrast can work.
 
Never bothered bracketing with print film and rarely did it with slide. When I did bother, I'd only go 1 way and go in 1/2 stop steps so "correct", +/- 1/2, +/- 1.
 
I find that HP5 has such wide latitude that it is rare to take a shot that can't be scanned to a reasonable result. Admittedly I usually shoot it in 120 or large format rather than 35mm.

The last roll of 35mm I developed was FP4 type 517 in a Nikon EM which my dad had bought for £20. This camera has aperture priority auto exposure with no manual override, but all the shots came out well exposed, and they were mostly in woodland.
 
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