AndyH wrote:
What does "correct" exposure mean?
If you mean an exposure that allows you to print the full dynamic range of the scene in your selected medium (monitor, paper, metal print, transparency, etc.) then it means exposing for the highlights in digital media, exposing for the shadows in film.
If you intend to project a high key or low key image, one that runs either the highlights or shadows together, but leaves the other end well delineated, it's something different as well.
I remember taking sunset photos in my early years, with a film camera and hand held meter. I bracketed at one stop intervals on Kodachrome to get a variety of choices for my final images. You couldn't stretch the contrast in the darkroom, and underexposed slides developed a greenish or bluish cast that was very unappealing. I would meter on the foreground, on an average basis, and on an incident dome, to see what looked best.
The answer, as Kodachrome veterans may have already inferred, is "it depends". Sometimes the vision I saw in the viewfinder was best expressed as a darker exposure, sometimes one that would objectively be considered overexposed.
It was always an artistic or value judgment, even in this inherently SOOC type of photography. Although we have more tools to expand our choices on how to project our visions today, it remains an artistic judgment, at least in my opinion.
Andy
What does "correct" exposure mean? br b... (
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My thoughts run along the same lines. It is the final result that determines what is "perfect". And it is in the mind of the photographer. Each and every method has certain starting criteria that is required for the final result. And this is true for any creative representation. A broad point vs a sharp point chisel in working sculptures, for example. In digital photography, we have the benefit of scrapping our scratch tests without incurring large costs. In wet labs, often film and paper were/are at premium.
It is, though, a good rule of thumb to start with a good basis for anything. The same holds for any kind of photography. Hence the need for a good "start" shot.