Gary Clennan wrote:
hulk2006 wrote
I have a question regarding exposing for slide film. I keep reading about exposing for highlights for slide film and for the shadows with negative film. In my last post I showed two photos taken with negative film where I metered the darkest, lightest and mid tone of the scene with a light meter and averaged them out and used that for my shot.
So with slide film, instead of just metering the brightest area of the scene, should I average all three parts of the scene just like I've down with negative film or should I really just meter the brightest scene and go with that? I'm going to be shooting with Velvia 100 120 film. Edward is right on here. Myself, I use 4 stops latitude as a general rule. Stretching that on either end can result in wonky colors that can be super diffiult to correct. I meter highlights, meter the shadows, and figure out how many stops difference in that range. If it is more than 4 stops, you need to pick which is more important to you - shadow detail or maintaining highlights. I feel that highlights are almost always more important for me to control. BTW - your last exposures look really good to me!
You are right about the 4 stops Gary. Most consumer scanners cannot see into the last stop in the shadows, so if you shoot for a particular scanner you have to take its abilities in consideration. Luckily my Nikon Coolscan V can see in the deepest of shadows, so scanning slide film is easy and straightforward.