Rick from NY wrote:
I am reading the various comments about the pros and cons of incident and reflective metering. I would have agreed that incident metering in the days of film was almost a necessity unless you were Adam's like in your zone theory. But with today's instant review on the lcd screen, it makes much less difference. I would agree that an incident meter will most often yield the better exposure, but I seldom have the motivation to pull out my handheld meters when it is so easy to do a reading from the camera meter, adjust on the fly based on my experience and then just chimp the image and adjust as necessary. I actually don't think I have dragged out my Gossen in the past 15 years, even with studio flash portraits. It is just so damned easy to use today's amazing technology and wing it. If I meter a black dog and don't like how it appears in the screen (and the histo), it takes less time for me to adjust via aperture, SS or ISO than it would take to walk over to the cat, take the reading and set my camera manually.
It used to take skill to make well exposed photos. Now, many times, an amateur with an entry level DSLR set to program mode can often make a great image by pointing and shooting. Agreed that the case of a black critter requires some understanding of 18% gray, but all a newbie has to do is set the camera on program, shoot a 5 shot bracket set for 1/2 stop intervals and pick the best shot.
I am reading the various comments about the pros a... (
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We used to chimp with medium and large format back in the day - it was done with a Polaroid film back. Once the shot was set up it was a simple matter to get a test shot using polaroid instant film, then adjust whatever needed adjusting based on the test shot. It just took a lot longer, but it did save a lot of time and $$$ wasted on bad takes.