If you have a fixed apature with no adjustment. And a fixed film speed say 200. How could you figure what shutter speed would be good? No light meter, but i know i have 3 75 watt incandecent lights. One overhead, 2 pointing at subject.
if you have both a film and digital camera, use your digital camera for a metering and use the film camera with the settings the digital tells you to use.
If you want to get a decent exposure, you'll either need to invest in a handheld lightmeter, use a lightmeter on another camera, or shoot a lot of bracketing shots and hope that one is the correct setting...
What if you dont have a histogram? and no digital camera? how did they do it in the old days? they didnt have meters and histograms. You mean they just shot tons of film and hope they had the right settings?
I can only speak for myself, but I don't think my experience is that uncommon. I spent 25 years as a professional architectural photographer, and did landscape photography as an "artist". All of it with large-format cmaeras and sheet film. I started out with several light meters and spent all sorts of time "calculating" exposures. After a while, it became second nature. I found that I could "guestimate" an exposure, then go through the metering ritual with spot meters and incident meters and so forth and find that the end result very closely approximated my guesstimate.
So I stopped using light meters and went with my eye and experience. Saved a lot of time, gave the same results. BUT, remember that we'd bracket exposures as a matter of course. Most of the time the "neutral" exposure was the best one, and invariably the over or under was adequate to save a shot where the guesstimate was off. It's not that difficult, but it's a skill that can only be acquired through experience.
I had a teacher who had spent 30+ years as a photographer for Life Magazine. He usually used a meter, but sometimes he'd just say something like "1/60 at f8" but you meter it if you want. Inevitably someone in the class would get out their meter and say "I'll be dammned, 1/60 at f8"
One night, several of us got together and invited him over as well. After we had gone through a few bottles of wine, we challenged him to take on the meter. He walked around, inside and out and told us what the exposure would be and every time, when we checked it with the meter, he was within 1/2 stop and usually dead on.
I just use the cameras but I was thinking about getting one.
I don't use one, and I'd be surprised if most people did. With digital cameras, you can just take a shot and look at the histogram (or just look at the thumbnail on your camera's LCD display). If it looks a bit off, then simply adjust exposure and re-shoot. No need for a separate dedicated meter.
I had a teacher who had spent 30+ years as a photographer for Life Magazine. He usually used a meter, but sometimes he'd just say something like "1/60 at f8" but you meter it if you want. Inevitably someone in the class would get out their meter and say "I'll be dammned, 1/60 at f8"
One night, several of us got together and invited him over as well. After we had gone through a few bottles of wine, we challenged him to take on the meter. He walked around, inside and out and told us what the exposure would be and every time, when we checked it with the meter, he was within 1/2 stop and usually dead on.
Thats cool, i guess its like music. Some people can hear a note and tell you what it is or if its sharp or flat.
Did he know at any ISO? or did he just know a certin ISO speed?
I think if you pay good enough attention to those things while you're out, you'll get it down...
like on a sunny day, f/16 1/250th at ISO 200 will yield good results, then you go from there f/8 1/500 f/4 1/1000 I think I could be way off, just saying that you probably have to remember what is what and kind of go off that.
I could be wrong again, but I think also that in developing the 'film' or whatever, that you have some play to work with also.
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Personally, I'm spoiled by the histogram -- just look at it, and make any adjustments you may need to.
If you read that link I posted it's got the rules . The teacher knew the rule for daylight which was I think for ISO 100 (if it was in fact 1/60 at f8). So from that, you can get to whatever else you need by doubling or halving depending on aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.
Pulled from the "Ultimate Exposure Computer"
On a bright, sunny day, the correct exposure for any subject is f/16 at the shutter speed nearest to the reciprocal of the film speed.
When it comes to metering or the eye, the art is not how it reads, it's "what" you read.. All too often the meter albeit the camera's or a handheld, only reads what it's pointed at per se'. Sometimes it seems the more photos one takes, the more troubled one gets at deciding where the correct brightness and contrast is in the view.
This thing does the exact same thing as the chart in the link I posted (plus it's free). It lets you input EV factor, ISO speed, and tells you the aperture or shutter speed depending on which of the two you decide to set.
You can figure out shutter speed and f stops but you really need a background in film to be able to do this. As Bear as pointed out its all down to experience, its something I used to do but have not in a while now.
