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Re: [OM] Rexall Drug Sign - Winterset, Iowa

Subject: Re: [OM] Rexall Drug Sign - Winterset, Iowa
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 10:20:02 -0500
> That only partially answers the question.  I have no idea how to use
> multi-spot metering in this situation... I would guess by metering the
> light source itself with highlight adjustment?

My memory is a little vague, but I am going to assume that I used the
same method that I would approach it today:

1. Determine which subjects to place at what zone. (Classic Zone
System). In this case, I wanted to wall to be illuminated by the neon
and wished it to be from mid-tone down. Along with that, I wanted to
make sure the sign itself wasn't going to burn out.

2. Spot meter the portion of the wall that you want to be mid-tone.
Spot meter the portion of the wall that you want to go to black. Spot
meter the sign. (I'm using manual exposure).

3. In the OM-3/4 viewfinder there are now three diamonds on the
exposure scale. Since Velvia has an aggresive fall-off in the shadows,
I know that if I place the right hand diamond at the first dot to the
right of center, that's two stops down. That's the threshold for
Velvia. Anything to the right of that dot will go to black. The middle
diamond represents the lit wall. I can adjust exposure to move that to
the left or right. As long as the right hand diamond is at or to the
right of the -2 dot, I'm going to have a fade to black. (I'm pretty
sure that I would have spot metered a window to make sure that went
black). The third reading, for the sign itself, is more for a sanity
check than anything else. My priority is the wall. The neon will blow
out no matter what, but I just want to make sure that it doesn't clip
too hard. Everything is a compromise in a shot like this, so you just
have to make your decision on which is most important. As long as the
highlights don't blow out too badly, I can always lift them in post
(expose for the shadows, process for the highlights). I also used the
Sekonic L-508 to get a reading of the sign, but otherwise it couldn't
be used because it isn't sensitive enough for night photography.

So, the question about the digital shot lurks...

First of all, understand that I did do bracketed shots with both film
and digital. For tough lighting like this, I use a -2, -2, 0, +1, +2
bracketing. The primary exposure was also duped a few times to make
sure I got one that didn't have vibration problems. So, yes, this shot
did cost me about $5 in film and processing.

With the digital shots, the biggest problem is the blooming that
occurs when photographing neon signs. The neon tubes themselves will
false-color and turn white, with nasty yellow than red rimming. All
sorts of artifacts occured in the sign. This shot would have needed no
less than a 4-stop dual-image merge to get the same smoothness in the
neon tubes and the lit wall.

For the print of this image, I will do a little painting in of the
sign from the +1 slide. The reason is that a nearby street light was
was shining on the side of the sign giving it a little bit more form.
This one has a lot more texture in the face of the sign (the unreduced
image you can see the age and wear in the metal of the sign whereas in
this web image, it's just a red blob). The +1 shows more detail inside
the windows, but I really didn't care for the way it looked using my
calibrated monitor settings. The web image is just a little too dark.
But the +1 slide has other colorcast problems as the greenish light
from the street light was screwing up the wall.

I'm not sure if I still have the digital images or not. They were
pretty aweful. When dealing with an intense primary color like this,
Olympus/Panasonic cameras tend not to handle them well.

AG (the Stone is not covered) Schnozz

-- 
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
-- 
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