zamogalina: переводы

→Why You Should Use an 18%-Gray Card?

→Realize also that this is a problem you must solve whether you are using a handheld separate meter or a built-in meter, whether you have to match the needle or adjust the LED’s, whether you have an automatic-exposure point-and-shoot cam¬era or you must manipulate the meter on your camera. Regardless of the type of meter you use the meter can’t think for you. It does not know what you are pointing at. All it knows is that its job is to suggest an exposure that will produce an 18% gray tone for whatever subject the meter is asked to read.

→Realize this: The meter cannot make intelligent decisions. As you have seen, the meter doesn’t know (or care) if it’s reading jet black coal or brilliant white snow. Whether you are shooting in color or B/W, your meter will give you a suggested exposure that will render either of them in the same tone of 18% reflec¬tance In B/W this suggested exposure will reproduce them as 18% gray—the middle tone in your NYI Gray Scale

→A light meter—any light meter!—bases its recommended exposure on the assumption that 18% reflectance is what you want to reproduce regardless of whether you are using color film or B/W film.

→Problem: Bright background. We return to our model on the beach. If you stand back and read the entire scene, the very bright sky will predominate in the reading. To reduce the bright sky to 18% gray — which is what it is “trained” to do
— the meter will give you a reading that will render the model’s head as a silhouette, as you’ve already seen.

→What a Light Meter Does

→A gray card is such a valuable tool that you should learn about it in detail, so read on.

→These cards have one side as shown in the picture, that is col-ored gray. The gray is a precise tone that reflects 18% of the light that strikes it. We call this tone, “18% gray.”

→Solution B: Take an 18%-gray-card reading. An 18%-gray- card, which is available at photo stores, is a valuable tool for setting exposure.

→If you are photographing foliage in the distance, you can take a reading on similar foliage nearby, basing your exposure on this substitute reading. Again, be sure the lighting on the “substitute foliage” is similar to the lighting on the foliage you are photographing.

→Solution А: Тaке a substitute reading. If you are photograph¬ing a person, you probably want to expose for skin tone. You can substitute by measuring the skin tone of your own skin, as shown here. Be sure that the light falling on your hand is about the same as the light falling on the subject. Turn your hand in the light so that the light falls on it the same way it falls on the face of your subject.

→Problem: What if you can’t move in close to your subject? For example, you are photographing a sports event, and can’t step onto the playing field each time lighting conditions change.

→Right: By moving in close for a reading of her facial tones, you are able to produce a picture in which her face is properly exposed. Note, however, the sky. Compare it to the previous picture. We’ve lost all the cloud details. Since the model is our primary subject, this print may be acceptable. But, what if you want both the model’s face and the clouds? We’ll ex¬plore this shortly.

→Important. Use the same techniques when you shoot with color film. As we indicated earlier, your meter doesn’t know what type of film you are using. All it does is read what you point it at and give you a suggested exposure based on this reading. Whether you are shooting with color film or B/W film, the important thing is that you point the meter at the “right” subject. If you understand what to read with your meter, you will get a good exposure regardless of the type of film you are using.

→Right: By taking a closeup reading of the model, you derive a correct exposure that enables you to reproduce detail through out the highlights of her suit and face. This is based on our general principle of moving in close to take a reading of the most important tonal area — in this case, the face.

→Problem: Dark background. You want to photograph your model against a dark foliage background.

→Wrong: If you stand back and take an average reading of the scene, the dark foliage read by the meter will give you a reading calling for more exposure. The result is a picture in which you overexpose the white tones of the model’s suit and the light tones of her face — blocking up these highlights and losing detail in them.

→Wrong: Your body is throwing a shadow on the face. You are reading your shadow, not the skin tones you will photograph!

→Wrong: Don’t measure from so far back even if you are going to shoot from there. Your meter will read not only your subject’s face but also the sky and the background, and the resulting average reading of the entire scene will probably not be right for the tones of the face.

→Right: Here’s how to take a reading with a separate meter. Move in close, same as with a built-in meter.