M6 exposure problem

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I´ve only had my M6 for about 4 months, and in this time I have gotten very good exposures. On World AIDS day I decided to photograph the lighting of a thousand wax candles. I loaded an ISO 400 slide film and decided to base my meterreading on the people that lighted the candles. So I moved in as close as possible and took a meterreading from one persons clothes, because he was wearing fairly dark clothes I closed down a half stop. My exposure was about f/2.8 and 1/50 s. I bracketed the exposures +/- a half stop. I just got my slides back today, all but three shots was underexposed by at least a stop. I was actually only able to see the flames surronding the people that lighted the candles (I coulden´t even see proper silhuettes). I guess that the reason for this underexposure was that a small percentage of the metering field also covered some of the candles, and the meter was thereby fooled. How would you guys meter for such a lighting-situation? Is there a way to meter directly from the candles ( if it was a bonfire I would have metered for the flames and tehn overexposed by 1.5 stops)?

-- Jonas Vilslev (jonasvilslev@groenjord.dk), December 10, 2001

Answers

One of the things about using a manual exposure camera versus a fully automatic one is that you develop a "meter" in your head over time. I was not there, but based on your scenario, I would never expect to have an exposure like f/2.8 @1/50th for a candle lit subject. Part of using the manual camera is mentally challenging the results of the exposure given by the meter and seeing if it is close to your estimation, (you will be amazed over time at how often you are within a half a stop before taking a reading!), and if need be, determine if the best measurement was taken. My experience with candle lit portraits in my home (not counting the variable of subject distance from the candle) is in the f/2.0 @ between 1/15th and 1/30th with ISO 400.

This is probably a simple error in a very tricky situation that fooled the meter. If I were in the same situation I would have either bracketed a bit more than a half of a stop to ensure I good a good exposure (sometimes "correct" isn't the "best" exposure), or I would have used my incident meter to measure the actual light from the candles and transferred that reading to the camera.

Before I had my M6, I was using non-metered M3s and M2s and I used an old Kodak calculator (just cardboard with a wheel that spins) that had scenes, (room with lights, neon, stage shows, etc...), and you rotated the film speed to that scene to get the exposre. It was amazing how good it worked. After using it for years, I could quote the exposures from memory.

-- Al Smith (smith58@msn.com), December 10, 2001.


In a situation like this, I would start with an exposure of say f2 and 1/30 and then bracket. From past experience, I know that the M6 TTL light meter will not give an accurate reading. I usually have to overexpose by one or two stops to get a decent photo. I used to do the same thing with Nikon and Canon SLRs in the past. There is no substitute for experience! :-)

-- Muhammad Chishty (applemac97@aol.com), December 10, 2001.

I agree with Al and Muhammad....it's a tricky situation and I think an incident reading (or spot reading) would have been correct. This is not a situation for the M6 meter! When will Leica bring out a M7 or M6PJ (photo-journalist) model WITHOUT a built in meter ala M2/3/4 for us who do not need it (I know....marketing strategy)? It could be a very reliable tool....and cheaper (does Leica want that?).

An incident meter is a great thing to always have along on any photo opportunity, if only to double check tricky shots!

-- Todd Phillips (toddvphillips@webtv.net), December 10, 2001.


Jonas-

You said you stopped down a ˝ stop, shouldn't you have opened up a bit?

-- jeff voorhees (debontekou@yahoo.com), December 12, 2001.


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