Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] TOP - DxO Gives OM-D High Marks

Subject: Re: [OM] TOP - DxO Gives OM-D High Marks
From: Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:58:59 -0500
> It has been my understanding that Dr. ISO is indeed a member of the
> Moose collective along with Dr. Noflash.

Doctor, Doctor, Give me the news...

> I think AG is spot on with slide film though as there is a
> clear mid-tone standard.
> John Shaw even recommended calibrating his ext meter using the slides
> themselves.

My own photographic history indicates that I'm mostly a mid-tone kinda guy.
When growing up, I mostly shot B&W, but that was mostly school yearbook
kinda stuff. And my cameras were Yashica Electro-35 GSN's that had the
forward-facing meter sensor tied to the dedicated aperture-priority
exposure system. Once I got the OM-2S, I converted over mostly to slide
films. It wasn't until buying John Shaw's books did I really learn the
proper way of exposing slides.

The key to using transparency (reversal) film is that the exposure is
final. The captured shot is the final shot. There is no raw conversion or
post-processing to fine-tune and adjust the exposure. Exceptions exist, of
course, when you are making prints and can do some fancy masking and such
to take care of some stuff, but since I mostly shot for stock, the images
had to be publication-ready right in the camera. It's a discipline which
has paid off handsomely for me in the digital age as I've been able to
successfully shoot many, many major things with just in-camera JPEG without
fear. Being able to shoot and burn/upload without opening up anything in
"Photoshop" is liberating. All I have to do is whip through the images and
separate the chaff.

My methodology when shooting B&W film is a little bit bipolar. On the one
hand, I meter more for the mid-tones than not. But when the lighting is
tricky, or when the subject is very bright or dark, I'll go to multi-spot
metering and dive deep into the bowels of the Zone System.


> I also now wonder how usefaul a new fancy Sekonic meter actually is for
> digital. Reading the last "rawdigger" site and others it seems it might
> have to be callibrated as to what is best for the
> particular cam and indeed may not apply to all lighting conditions with
> different color temp.

The latest/greatest Sekonics are actually remarkably useful for digital.
The L-768 is an incredible meter that allows you do fully calibrate it to
your cameras or films. If you are an ETTR kinda guy, this meter is cat's
meow. Extremely handy. I spent quite some time reverse-engineering what it
is doing and am applying some of those techniques to the L-508. The
Sekonics cannot differentiate between color channels, but at least you can
determine the exact clip point of the exposure. Once calibration is
completed, just spot meter the highlight in the scene and a press of a
button will indicate the exposure needed by the camera or film to protect
that highlight. It stores multiple calibrations, so if you switch cameras
or films, it will give you the exposure needed for the other camera or film.

I'm convinced that most photographers shy away from handheld meters mostly
because it's another thing to learn and perfect. It has nothing to do with
superior working methods or whatever (I can chimp, chimp is my friend). If
a person REALLY cares about exact exposure determination, especially in a
flash or mixed lighting environment they would almost certainly be using a
spot/ambient/flash meter. But the attitude of knowing that you can fix
things in raw conversion or in post-processing promotes most photographers
to the category of "hack" when in the field.

:)

Did I get everybody's attention?

Seriously, there is a time/place for everything. I can "hack" with the best
of them and usually do. Joel will attest to the fact that the Sekonic saw
little use last week, but it was used for several shots where I couldn't
get a proper metering using the in-camera meter. I also used it for some
sanity checks when the lighting was odd.

AG (hacks are us) Schnozz


-- 
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
-- 
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz