The following instructions can apply to any spot meter from Sekonic or
operates like the Sekonic.
1. Determine the dynamic range of your sensor or film where YOU choose to
place the threshold for ETTR. For this example, we will use 3-stops above
mid-tone.
2. The Sekonic has two ISO settings. As I almost exclusively use ISO 100, my
ISO-1 is set to 100. ISO-2 is set to 12, which is 3-stops from mid-tone. If
I'm doing ETTL (shadow protection), if my threshold is 3-stops below
mid-tone, I'd set ISO-2 to 800.
3. The Sekonic L-508 normalizes operation to ISO-1. ISO-2 is a
press-and-hold. If your meter is a toggle-based selection, make sure the
meter is set to ISO-1 (your sensor/film's ISO).
4. Set the meter's mode to spot and the appropriate capture mode (ambient,
flash, EV, T or F). For this example, I'm using spot, ambient and F-stop
priority mode.
(This completes the setup steps. Now for the operational steps)
5. Take a spot reading of the highlight in the scene which you want to place
at the ETTR point. Inotherwords, the highest brightness value which you wish
to maintain tonal gradient in.
6. Adjust the dial to the desired F-stop. (If you are Time-Priority, you
will adjust to desired shutter-speed).
7. Press the ISO-2 button to get get the shutter-speed. (If you are
Time-Priority, pressing the ISO-2 butten will give you the aperture.
8. Set the camera to the indicated aperture and shutter-speed.
That's it. Your image is now properly exposed for the protection of the
highlight you have metered on.
OK, so real-world example of photographing an almost white flower with the
E-1. I know that with the E-1, I risk color shifts if I push past 3-stops
above mid-tone (shadow side has plenty of color integrity, but the
highlights are what are at risk), so I set my ISO-2 to 12 if my shooting ISO
is 100. I meter the petals of the flower, which is really easy to do with
the zooming spot-meter of the Sekonic. I don't meter the brightest spot in
the scene, just the spot which I want to maintain color/tonal integrity in.
This is classic zone-system photography here. For DoF reasons, let's say I
want to use F5.6. I tell the meter in F-mode that I want F5.6. The meter
suggests a shutter-speed. But that shutter-speed is for mid-tone, not
highlight. But since I programmed in the highlight offset into ISO-2, I just
press the ISO-2 button and it suggests another shutter-speed. If I use the
ISO-2's shutter-speed, the near white flower will be exposed properly.
Determining how many stops each side of mid-tone (and it is not symmetrical)
is something each of us must determine for our own cameras and raw
processing software.
In OM system terms, the above instructions are done automatically when you
use the spot-meter function in an OM-3/4(T/Ti). Just press the Hi-Light
button. If you want to do the equivalent to an ETTL (expose to the left),
just press the Shadow button.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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