Clarification on the polar bear/curtain example

[rc444]

There seems to be some confusion over the last post I made. I probably wasn't explicit enough in my description, so sorry about that guys.

I was actually referring to what you would do in the situation if you had a *film* camera and were dealing with T-shops, not a video camera.

Hope this clarifies things.

So if someone can give me a solution as to what you'd do with film in that situation, that would be great.

rc444

 

[j]

My answer stands.

But for clarification...

You have to know what the film stock is capable of in under exposure and over exposure, and set your f-stop to that.

If you use a spot meter and it's reading say "11" then you know (based on testing or the kodak website) that for stock 52XX you need to expose 4 stops over in order to expose for white, so you expose four stops down - 2.8

My numbers are made up, but seriously I'd check the kodak website for real info.

Something like this:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products/negative/data5219.jhtml?id=0.1.4.6.8.6&lc=en

 

[Andrew Brinkhaus]

Again like j said, can't help you until you specify a particular format, be it 35mm, 16mm, etc. and even more so depends on the stock being used.

 

[Finnian]

I just found this post while searching for spot meter recommendations and since it isn't that old, I thought I'd chime in here. The best way I know of to get everything falling within it's true values is to establish exposure for 18% grey in that environment and let everything else fall where it may.

To do this, spot meter a grey card in the same light as your subject. This will tell you where the middle is so you can decide where things will land around it. If you don't have a grey card, use your palm. Most skin tones on the palm fall into the median value of around 18% grey. Your milage may vary.

Once you know where the midtones are, you then have to know what the exposure range of your photographic medium is (also known as latitude). Spot meter the critical parts of your frame to see if your bear or curtain are outside of this range. If you don't have a spot meter, you can also use a dslr set to spot meter or center weight to approximate the dynamic range of the scene. After you know all the values, adjust exposure according to the latitude of the camera or film.

Some research into Ansel Adams' zone system would do anyone a world of good around any of these types of problems. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_system

Hope this helps.