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Overheard a guy at the lab say his negatives looked flat - made me rethink my metering
I was dropping off a roll at the local shop and this older dude was complaining his scans came back flat. The clerk asked if he was spot metering off shadows. I always just set my camera to center weighted and guessed. Tried his trick on a roll of Portra 400 last weekend and the contrast was WAY better. Has anyone else had luck switching up how they meter for black and white?
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marymorgan1mo ago
Heard what you said about spot metering off shadows and had to try it myself. Used to just go with the sunny 16 rule and hope for the best. After a few rolls of flat negatives, I figured it was just my developing technique. Switched to metering for the darkest part of the scene and opening up two stops. First roll of Tri-X came out with real blacks and nice highlights. Totally changed my mind about how important exact metering is for black and white film.
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patricia9051mo ago
I get what you're saying about metering for shadows, but I've had the opposite experience. Metering off shadows usually gives me more dense negs that are harder to print, while center weighted or even a good incident reading keeps things balanced. Feels like the real trick is knowing your film's latitude more than just picking one spot to meter off.
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