Howard wrote:
Hi Terry
Manuol? :-D Oh sorry - manual!!
Gosh I wish I had the time to hand meter every shot...I find most of
my work is get in fast, take them fast and get out fast!
But I do shoot RAW if possible, unless I have around 500 images to
process!
Howard
terry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I always shoot raw and I always do custom white balances but then I
shoot every thing on manuol and hand meter each shot
Terry L. Mair
This does deal with some points raised, just not entirely the principal
point. Fifteen or so years ago when I was shooting many sports
activities for the university which employed me, I became aware of the
awesome abilities of the newer cameras. Our football teams home
uniforms featured black jerseys and black helmets. The visiting
opponents, of course, always had white jerseys. What that meant was
that during a game I might be moving from, perhaps a black face in black
helmet and black jersey with back lighting, to a scene with figures in
white jerseys with front lighting. Add the effect of clouds passing
between us and the sun and the need to shoot fast and you have a
metering problem. I was quick to adopt the Nikon Matrix Metering
cameras and relied upon them to deal with the situations and they did.
Most modern cameras will. I didn't have the luxury of shooting color
negative as all of my customers wanted E6 slides quickly. I would watch
the other photographers with the same equipment refusing to use and
understand what they had in their hands. They would stand in the shadow
of the press box and take an incident reading with their Spectra Combis
while their subject was in full sunlight, backlit or frontlit, and then
manually adjust and shoot. I could shoot many more pics and get many
more usable photos by using the capabilities of the equipment then they
could. I hardly ever threw a photo out because of exposure. I could
never understand their reluctance to embrace the technology and make it
work for them. That was before the digital revolution and now, more
than ever, I think one has to exploit the advantages of the machines.
One of those is the ability to make a photo, review it and then alter
your settings if you don't get what you want. That holds true for most
photos that are not action oriented. For action, the same situation
exists as when I was shooting. If you are using digital equipment I
don't see a substantial difference between manual settings and metering
and shooting, reviewing and adapting. Time wise and results wise it
would seem to be about the same. You are still making the crucial
decisions about the photo; it is not made by a machine. It is made by a
person using a machine that just happens to be more sophisticated. Oh,
and, in my sports shooting days, your white point was determined by your
film choice. You knew what Ektachrome would do versus Kodachrome or
Agfachrome. I have rambled so much I may have obscured my point, if I
ever had one, but I hope this continues to stimulate conversation.
Don
