 Frank P. Luongo |
How to meter high contrast backlit scenes I saw an illustration in a photography book of a tractor strongly backlit against setting sun; sky in photo appears yellow,tractor and driver are virtually silhouetted.300mm lens was used at f/8 1/500 sec. A Great shot. Question is where do take your meter reading from?Can you use a gray card? Appreciate any tips and suggestions. Thanks! Frank
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doug Nelson |
If you know what you want from the scene, maybe a silhouette effect, read off the bright sky. It will throw the detail of the tractor and farmer into shadow. If the detail in the shadow is important, read off them. Even if you do know what you want, it is important to bracket. I use Canon partial metering, which reads about 12 % of the scene. I'd split the metered portion of the finder, part tractor and part sky, first, and shoot that. I'd shoot one a half stop over, and a whole over, and a half under, and a whole stop under. BTW, it makes no difference what metering system you have-spot, partial, cener-weighted, matrix, as long as YOU know what is being read by the light meter. All these metering systems are used by top photographers with all kinds of equipment. All of them work, with some brain effort thrown in. Sometimes, however, we have to make a fast judgment, because things line up only for an instant. We have to decide right away what we want and take our best shot. Isn't photography a hoot?
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