Film Photography - Using a Spotmeter
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- This video explains the basics of Spotmetering for film photographers.
After a brief examination of a typical Spotmeter I look at how it is used to measure a scene with examples for B&W, Colour Negative and Slide films.
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Email: steveonions1@gmail.com Twitter: Steve_ONions / steve_onions Instagram: steveonions1 / steveonions1
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oh oh oh ....37 years after i startet measuring with any light meter including the selen cell type ones , it was you mr. o´nions, who explained it the right way. thank you so much. i finally got the difference between positive and negative film concerning meetering....now, that i am aware of this - i will try my best to make better positives. i wish you all the best and thank you again for " ...you have to get rid of the highlights..." stay healthy and please continue with these fabulous foto hiking tours.....greeting fron a typical german wandersman...andy
Thanks Andreas.
Those recommendations are extremely good ideas ! I use a separate light meter also because I use several different film cameras. One meter seems best. Thank you. RS. Canada
Thanks Richard. Using a single light meter does ensure consistency and promotes good technique.
My first "spotmeter" was an attachment that went on my Gossen Luna Pro that gave me a choice of a 15 or 30 degree spot. My next meter was a Sekonic L-488 digital spot meter and life got better. A very good video and I am glad that you covered the differences between metering for slide and for print film. For many years, my favorite color film was Kodachrome 25 and it was not forgiving.
Thank you.
Thank you this is the first time on 45 years of photography I had the zone system explained in a way I understand. This will help a lot.
Glad you liked it Richard.
most methodic person I ever seen, at least in the photographic comunity, love this guy
🙂
You are by far my favorite youtube channel on the matter of film photography, as a beginner it is a pleasure to learn from you experience and expertise. And I am always blown away by the quality both of your photographs and your videos. I don't often comment but I really wanted to thank you for your work.
Thanks Gauthier, that’s very kind of you to say.
Light meters are wonderful. I use them as I use various cameras
Another brilliant tutorial, the best that I have come across for metering and the zone system. I went looking for a spot meter after seeing your video and discovered that I'd have to sell all my film cameras to buy one!
Thanks Sameer, spotmeters have never been cheap sadly.
Richard took the words right out of my mind. Steve is top shelf among the photo guys. Both talented artist and able teacher. Thanks and greetings from Germany.
Thank you Jan, that’s very kind 😊
Thanks Steve for making the video no one else would. It answered quite a few questions.
I’m glad you liked it Joseph.
Excellent video. Great pacing, great examples and great length
Thank you 😊
I have been on a massive binge watching your channel as I just discovered it. This has to be the best explanation of metering and the zone system I have seen on TH-cam. It answered all of the questions I had as I am about to jump into the film world for the first time soon. Your channel is amazing, and thank you for putting out helpful, insightful, and interesting content.
Thanks John, really glad you found the video useful.
Another great video!
Fantastic explanation. Thank you so much
really helpful , thank you for this video
Very well explained!!
Great video look forward to the in depth video on a particular film stock. Thanks
Nicely done, as usual. Thanks for delivering on the promise! Can't wait for the in-depth version.
Best explanation of using the Zone system and its relationship to the camera setting.
Thanks, great video. Now everything became clear to me.
Glad it helped!
great informative video thank you
This is fantastically helpful. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Steve nice work. God to see you are bringing back that film art style we left a few years back. Keep save !
Thanks Stafford.
As usual Steve,...very much enjoyed!..take care.
Thanks Christopher.
Many thanks, excellent video and helpful!!!
Thank you 😊
Excellent! So clear and concise.
Cheers Bob.
Excellent Video
An excellent lesson, thanks for doing it.
Thank Alan.
This is such a helpful video. I love every video Mr. O'nions puts out. his work has been extremely helpful as I learn film photography.
Thank you Zakary.
Thanks for sharing your knowledge and experience with us once again. Really high quality content.
Looking forward for the follow-up video!
Thanks Abel.
Thank you for yet again another video on the finer details of film photography.
You’re welcome George.
Excellent presentation and explanation Steve. Well done!!
Thanks Christos.
Excellent explanation on spot metering! Super clear and concise.
Thanks Dave.
Brilliant video which really helped me understand zone metering. Cheers!
Glad it helped Jacob.
Thank you so much for taking the time to explain
You’re welcome Claudio.
A very interesting and informative presentation!
Thanks Andrew.
Brilliant, really super helpful and I have watched and read so much on spot metering. Thank you!
Glad you liked it Martin.
Excellent video, Steve. Love the technical information 🙏🏽
You’re welcome 😊
Thank you, explained very well
Thank Brian.
Love your channel Steve. Your videos are very informative and very well delivered. This particular video clear demonstrated the use and value of the spot meter for creating the correct exposure. Thanks
I’m glad you found it useful Patricia.
An excellent description of a complex subject, brief and concise. Well done Steve and keep safe.
Cheers Phillip.
Very solid and good elaboration, appreciate it Steve, keep on with the good effort of your videos
Thanks Patrick 👍
Thank you for this video. I found it quite helpful.
Glad to be of help Alan.
This is great Steve, thanks. I am always questioning my spot metering techniques...this really helps.
Glad you liked it Bill.
Very nice and clear explanation, just the way I was thought how light metering works. I only shoot digital but that doesn’t make any difference in the way you meter (only more dr than slide film) I have exactly the same Sekonic meter, works a charm.
I absolutely love your videos. So enjoyable to watch and equally informative. It’s really helping me get back into film photography after a long hiatus.
Great to hear that Nicholas 🙂
Your explanation has been so helpful. I agree more videos on these with the color film would be awesome too. Thank you for your content. It's very inspirational.
Thank you! Will do!
This is superb information Steve, thank you. I'll probably watch this a couple of times and make notes to carry with me. I've not yet attempted to shoot slide film but it's on the list.
Glad it was useful Glenn.
I've just bought exactly the same meter for use with my Mamiya C330. Thanks for the helpful tutorial!
Glad it was useful Rupert.
Thanks for sharing that with us!
You’re welcome 😊
Earned a sub from me for explaining this so well!
Great video, well done explanation,many thanks!
Thanks Nat.
@@SteveONions have a great Sunday,stay safe!
Thanks Steve! Even though I regularly use a spotmeter and shoot slide, I still feel like I learned something just by hearing how you do it. Very nice!
Thanks Arild.
Great explanation! took me a long time to find a comprehensive one here
Glad you liked it Julián.
This is such an incredibly educational video for a beginner such as myself. Your use of example photos and elaboration on the metering process in the moment was really illuminating (pun slightly intended). Thanks, Steve!
Glad you liked it 🙂
I have just bought myself a spotmeter a couple of days ago.
This video has certainly improved my knowledge to use it even better now.
looking forward to learn more about specific filmstocks from you!
Good timing Faber, you will soon get used to using the meter an wonder how you managed without it.
Thank you! This was extremely educational for me and I have been shooting for some time now. Professionally explained! :D
Thanks Manca.
Excellent post! Thanks, Steve. Some of this information needs to be known more widely to avoid the disappointments that may go with film photography.
Thanks Walter.
Thank you for this video - it is the singular clearest explanation of how to meter for shadows and get what you want. I have been worried I have been under-exposing my images and, looking at this, I am! I look forward to getting out and tring to be a bit braver with shadows!
Glad you found it useful Chris. I always remember the quote from Ansel Adams that went was I believe ‘when I got a spot meter my typical exposures went up by one stop’.
Appreciate this tutorial, Steve. Been out shooting with my 4x5 Rangefinder (it's a converted Polaroid 110) and used the two-stops faster method here with my FP4 and HP5. Works out pretty well so far. Will definitely come in handy when I shoot some Rollei RPX 25 with a camera on sticks. Cheers.
Thanks Bill, glad your exposures are coming out just fine 👍
Nice one Steve, Just got my minolta spotmeter F still works after many years.
Another fine piece of equipment John 👍
Excellent spotmeter discussion with examples; really enjoyed the color positive aspect because I do not us; still clinging to my Pentax Spotmeter V (analog) w/ Zone VI studio scale for the last 35 years... as always great job Steve!!
Thanks Randy, those original Pentax models have given so much service over the years.
Thanks for the comprehensive, yet brief run through your process for metering Steve. I have pulled my fathers old 35 mm film camera out of the closet and am thinking of giving it a go with either HP5 + or Kodak Tri-X 400 film.
Thanks Larry and I hope you manage to get out with the camera soon.
Very helpful!!!
Glad it was useful Laura.
Nice one Steve.
Cheers James.
Hi Steve - excellent explanation as always. I've used my Pentax Spotmeter for years with B&W negatives of all formats from 35mm to 4x5". For slides (Provia) I always use 35mm in my F4S and am happy with the exposures I get from the TTL set to "partial spot".
Thanks Ray. I’ve also had very good slides from my Nikon’s using their inbuilt meters. The F80 is nearly always spot on.
Steve,
Great job. After following the late Richard White and others I was getting fairly competent with the zone system. I followed your strategy and nailed it. You made what I once thought complicated and confusing simply and straight forward. I follow your channel and have gained great knowledge from your work.. Thank you.
Glad you found it useful Michael, it’s a lot easier to do than describe 🙂
Steve, you go into a lot of detail; but it is very helpful for anyone who has a desire to know what is happening. Thank you!
Thanks Michael 🙂
Steve, an excellent outline on the use of the Sekonic and spot metering in general. As a reversal film only user I do use the highs and lows averaged in most cases. I also carry a gray small folding disk as a second look if the light is fairly consistent throughout. Usually pre-dawn images. I've used a spot meter for years and it pushed my keeper count up tremendously with regard to exposure issues. I use the Sekonic 758 these days and found that reversing the default settings of the thumb(read) & forefinger (store) buttons much more to my liking. All programmable of course in the unit on reversing the usage of those items.
I’ve looked at the later spot meters and really like some of the new features, when my 508 dies I’ll probably get one. I also find that in flat lighting an average meter reading is fine for reversal film and if I have one of my Nikon’s I’ll rely on the internal meter.
Very useful info. Thanks! I will try to think in terms of zones. Now, some people I think have a different philosophy on the slide film part. Sometimes shadows can be nearly black and it's fine, but I often feel that blown highlights ruin the image more often than too dark shadows. Maybe this is from my frustration early on with getting images back from the lab that were washed out, or maybe I just like mysterious darks. There are always exceptions of course.
I’m the same. I can live with a solid shadow area but and substantial area of pure white kills an image for me.
Awesome vid! I just recently got back into film, I grew up in photography in the 70s. I have a Nikon F4, Olympus OM-2SP, and a Minolta XD-11 ( was my first film camera in the 70s). I just won on eBay a Minolta Autocord. I need to get back to metering and your video has helped my bunches!
Sounds great!
Wow 😲😲 Four (4) cameras, how many rolls of film do you have? Sorry, but I couldn't help it😉😉.
To make things even 'easier' use Ralph Lambrechts exposure 'wheel'. Page 258-259 in his collaboration book with Chris Woodhouse "Way Beyond Monochrome". I have been using this for about 20 years (my book copy is c2003). I have not had a missed exposure since. What I really love from this post is the differences between negs and slides and metering as such. Steve, you are an inspiration.
Brett Weston Q "Photography is 90% sheer, brutal drudgery. The other 10% is inspiration" ..
Very interesting and helpful Steve! I’m still getting my head around the Zone System, and have only recently started to use a Pentax V spotmeter. You’ve given me a better understanding, for which I’m grateful. Incidentally, I’ve also recently shot my first-ever roll of slide film (Kodak Ektachrome), using my recently-acquired Nikon FA, and only one of the 36 shots was poorly exposed. I really like the look of this film, and the FA’s matrix meter seems to be very effective.
Thanks Neil. I think the FA was the first camera to have matrix metering and it improved on Nikon's already effective centre weighted mode. I should try Ektachrome, I have a liking for neutral films and it might fit the bill.
Steve O'Nions It’s also 3/4 the price of Velvia. If you want to see some of the test shots I took, my Instagram ID is shortstroke596.
Hey Steve, great as always! Just wished to have a little bit of information on the using the dome on the Sekonic for measuring.
I’ll do an incident metering video one day Martin.
Am gonna have to re-watch this a few times. Never found it easy. Knowing the 9 stop gradient seems to be key. I think!
It took me some time too, easier to do than explain 🙂
Thanks a lot for this video. Very simple explanation that anyone can understand. Keep up with the good work you do.
Great video as always! Learnt a lot. Would love to see a video about using slide film + spot metering + grad filters to control a scene with big dr. I've found it challenging to accurately place grads using the waist level finder on my medium format camera. Would be curious to learn from your process!
Great suggestion for a future video David.
When I learned that my spot meter was giving me a reading that turned everything a medium grey. It made getting a good exposure really very simple. For example meter snow and the meter will give you a reading that will turn it medium grey . So open up a couple stops maybe more and get the white you know the snow actually is. Same with shadow areas except you will stop down from the reading to get the deep shadows captured the way they are. I also have a 18% grey card with me when i am shooting close subjects such as fern or flowers etc. Set the card near the subject take a spot reading off the card and this time you do use the reading as is for a perfect exposure.
I should also carry an 18% grey card Terry as sometimes it would simplify the process.
Why would you leave the metered reading alone? If you were in close photographing a white flower wouldn’t leaving the actual reading as your exposure give you a gray flower?
@@NarcissismSurvivor Not when metering off the grey card. Put the Card in the same light as the flower and meter off it for the correct exposure. No adjustment needed.
Thanks for this
You’re welcome Graham.
Nicely done Steve, thanks for sharing. Get it right 'in camera" is my motto, less to fix (if at all) later in post. Although I must admit there is a certain lazy joy in occasionally using digital where you can chimp like crazy to get the exposure right!
Thanks Marc 🙂
OK! You've convinced me! Now the challenge -- an affordable one!!!!! :-) Thanks Steve!
Good luck !!
My Pentax Spotmeter V has a genial scale that works perfectly with two-spot metering. Never missed a slide.
Recently bought the same model - couldn't afford the digital model. Also useful with an 18% gray card for incident light on the subject. The rotary scale is perfect for converting the EV value to a camera setting.
Just had a little go in the garden with my meter. Not enough dark stuff round the house really, but even so it worked and is very useful........Now to find the dynamic range of my digital camera.
You'll probably have a lot of lot of range with a modern camera John, you can treat the shadows with impunity and still get plenty of detail in there.
brilliant
what an informative video. on both spot metering and the zone system. thank you! i have a sekonic 308 meter, which is not a spot meter. Can you recommend a "budget friendly" spot meter? thank you!
There’s not really a cheap option these days Nate, my Seconic L-508 is definitely one of the most affordable.
Very helpful, thanks. Im off to try and find a spotmeter lol
Hi Steve, thanks for such an instructive and useful video on spotmetering so helpful especially concerning the latitude of different film stock (I learned a lot). I have a Minolta Spotmeter F and love it as I try to apply the zone system - as you say it enables metering from such small area of the scene that you cannot get close to. Quick question how do you factor in for filters do you just add the necessary number of stops to the shutter duration (I was wondering why you don't use the exposure compensation dial) thanks Tony
Good question Tony. I work out the exposure without the filter then add that in, effectively lengthening the shutter speed. I the. Apply any other factors such as reciprocity failure or bellows extension for large format.
I use the same Sekonic 508 and really like it, but I must say: If the scene is not very constrasty, I use it in ambient light meter mode and usually have no bad results.
If the scene is contrasty though, the spotmeter is the best method of metering. For small format I use an Olympus OM-4 quite often and when I use this camera, I do not take an external meter, since this funny little thing has an inbuilt spotmeter. Not the tightest 1° spot, but the split screen in the center is the measuring spot, so it is TTL and tight enough. The best reason to love the little thing.
With slide - difficult. I love Provia 100 (Velvia is a bit too much color for my liking). But I only use it with my 6x6 SLR and quite often I use neutral grad filters. In gerneral I think I will stop shooting slide once the current stock in the freezer is gone and use Ektar 100 and Portra 160 exclusively in the future.
Spot metering is probably overkill for low contrast scenes shot with negative film, it’s hard to get the reading wrong! I’ve sometimes used the incident meter for colour slide and it works very well.
I’ve never used the spot meter in my later film cameras, I prefer the matrix options.
I'm trying the zonal system when I go out to shoot portraits on Provia 100F later this month. I don't have a handheld light meter so I will use the spot meter on my Nikon Z6 (I'm shooting digital that day as well as slide film) in aperture priority with the ISO fixed at 100. I get the feeling the bright skin tones I'll need to place somewhere from zone 6-7 (I've learned that the exposure ceiling of Provia is around +2EV). I may bracket +1, +1.5 and +2EV and hopefully learn where this magic EV number is (although I expect this will change in different weather conditions - maybe zone 6 in overcast/flat conditions and closer to 7 in bright conditions). Wish me luck
Hope it goes well Dave, Provia is more forgiving than a lot of other slide films.
Steve thanks for your videos! do you have any exercises/tips to recognize the metered area? like the bw tree picture you metered in the middle, problay I would have metered in another area...
Hi Gigi. Everyone has their own 'metering area' but it doesn't matter too much as long as you are consistent. One persons idea of a significant shadow area, Zone III is different from another but when shooting negative materials I always err on the side of overexposure. I pick and area I want to see plenty of shadow detail in and work from there, often placing this on Zone II to give it even more exposure and richness.
If shooting slides I always ensure the brightest area is not overexposed, often this will require the use of neutral density graduated filters.
Hope that helps!
Back in those days, about 40 years ago, I shoot mostly slides with my OM-2 for private use. Mostly with Kodachrome 25 and Velvia 50. Can't remember once that I missed the metering. Now I have even better metering system, in my "new" OM-3Ti. But I'm agree that I need a good spotmeter for my MF and LF camera. Thank's for explaining. By the way, I had a very good color meter, what I sold for a good penny.
I also got pretty good at metering with my Nikon’s but the lack of a decent (or any) medium/large format inbuilt metering makes a separate one invaluable.
In addition to my digital Sekonic color meter, I still have my old Gossen Sixticolor color meter. 😊
I was really happy to find your site. I have a question about metering. When you get a fractional stop such as f 22.8 and you can't actually set that on your camera do you round up to the next stop or back down to f 22.
Good question Graham. If I’m shouting negative film I always allow any extra exposure by using the larger fstop. So if it reads 1/15@f/11.6 I’d go for f/11. With slide film I’d avoid the overexposure so probably go the other way but it does depend on where you choose to meter so it’s never going to be exact.
Exposure spot on with spot meter. The neg for shade and pos for highlights approach is fine. My Sekonic 758 can be used to calibrate a film or a camera. This makes dynamic range explicitly visible in the user interface (an app is used as tool).
Finding the darkest point in your image, then the brightest, places both measurements on the display and suggests the optimal exposure. Here the photographer decides what to do when subject dynamic range is larger than film/camera dynamic range: all highlights, all lowlights or a piece of both.
So, we can simplify and focus our metering as explained, or work with dynamic ranges.
We ought not call this light metering, though, as we meter the subject ...
Personally, I still use (incident) light metering most. That is, now my new digital camera can meter for the highlights and I love this a lot, so the meter is using batteries for standby ... Or flash metering in the studio.
Be aware that a discrete meter does not know your lens's T stop and you have to compensate differently for each lens, potentially. In pos film you may underexpose a bit and not notice you lost something. In neg film, you lose critical shadow details. With cameras metering through the lens (TTL) the T stop got forgotten, but with the discrete meter we need the awareness.
And when you develop/process your own film, make this part of your meter/film calibration runs. By the way, with leaf shutters in exchangeable lenses, run a calibration of the shutters, say once a year (test shots of gray scales in controlled light). After all, you got here because you want perfect exposure and maximum utilization of dynamic range.
When you digitally scan your work, you can benefit from image processing software that can make the shoulders of the film's density as function of log I*t curve suitable for use, which they weren't in the old days. And check out the effects of opening as 32-bits to high and low details.
As I predominantly shoot negative materials and err on the side of extra exposure I can largely ignore the variations of shutter and aperture that can indeed ruin a slide image. Processing is very important for B&W but I chose not to include it here as it's a whole set of videos in its own right!
Thank you Steve for this blog. Brings back memories of when I used to shoot film. Nowadays, I simply use ETTR to make sure highlights are retained and manipulate the image in post for the shadows. Digital sensors are so.much better in dynamic range that we have all forgotten about the need to carefully consider exposure settings.
I also use ETTR with digital cameras and have no problem with shadow detail, works very well indeed.
You haven't tried Portra 400 then!
Useful video Steve. With slide film do you find you have to shoot the scene in certain conditions? I've found due to the limited dynamic range I shoot mostly in the golden hour and if required a grad filter.
The other thing is, do you rate your colour negative film 1 or 2 stops slower? There is a group that goes with that trend ..... to get those pastel colours.
Hi Raymond. I am careful when using slide film that the brightness range is quite low or I will end up with dense shadows or blown highlights. With negative film I always err on the side of overexposure if there is any doubt when metering but I generally favour using box speed as I spot meter which almost always leads to greater exposure than an in-camera meter.
The overexposed pastel look works very well in certain situations especially when it is extremely bright but for many of the situations I work in it is not so good and I prefer to use the manufacturers speed.
Just found this timeless video, thanks Steve. I have a L-508 coming to me, would you recommend calibrating it in advance with any method? Thx. Nolan
Thanks Nolan. Every meter will read (and behave) slightly different so it’s a matter of going out and experimenting. The whole business of judging things like ‘significant shadow detail’ is very subjective and one man’s zone 3 is another man’s zone 4. With negative materials I’d generally advise overexposure if you can’t be sure, this is unlikely to ever harm a shot unlike under exposure which will soon spoil an image.
I still use a Pentax spot meter I bought in 1972. It works like a charm, except for the complete lack of memory and calculating devices found in more modern digital models . My own memory is 73 years old and a digital assist would be nice. Thanks Steve, you do good work. By the way, I think I learned almost everything I know about b&w film photography from Ansel Adams' The Negative. It is old but for me it has been a bible.
Thanks Michael, you’ve have more than a fair return on your investment I think 👍
If you have a smartphone, there are pretty good exposure metering apps available.
@@valueforvalue76 Alas I don't use a smartphone, I'm a true Luddite I guess. Thank you for you for suggestion though.
@@michaelbailey1578 Nothing wrong with that, I'm sure we'd all get more accomplished if we did not carry smartphones.
Hi Steve, in your video you say, that the angle of spotmetering can be changed from 1 to 4 degrees. I didn't find any information about this in new Seconic lightmeters. What special model do you use? Thank you for your very instructive videos. Although I am no native speaker I can understand every word of you because of your excellent speech.
Thanks Manfred. Mine is an old L-508 but to be honest I can’t see when I’d ever use anything except 1 degree.
*Good video:* One exception I can think of is snow scenes, where the right exposure may be two or three stops above the average value over the whole view. Thus, you need to expose for the objects of interest, and disregard the snow itself, most of which will be grossly overexposed, and totally white. Nobody likes grey snow! :-)
I hope we can see a video on this channel about how, when, and why to an incident light meter.
Good point about the snow 👍. I’ll do an incident video one day. 🙂
Absolutely terrific video Steve, thank you!
I'm close to buying a spot metre. I was wondering if there's any you recommend? I see you have a Sekonic but have heard people say the zone system is a bit easier to follow with the Pentax Digital Spotmeter. I have a Sekonic L-308 so already have an incident metre if needed. These metres are quite expensive though so would really appreciate your advice!
Hi Martin. I’ve never owned a Pentax model but know people who have and they love them. I do like Sekonic too and they are still making spotmeters so I’d likely buy another newer one if my old 508 dies.
@@SteveONions Thanks a lot Steve!