Do you ever use the 18% gray card with the TTL meter?

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Do you ever use the TTL meter on a gray card? How do you hold the card-- vertically or at a 45 degree angle?

-- Frank Horn (owlhoot45@hotmail.com), April 04, 2002

Answers

Yes and vertically.

-- Albert Knapp MD (albertknappmd@mac.com), April 04, 2002.

if it's truly an 18% grey, it must be angled. 18% is a myth. meters are actually calibrated to a liter tone.

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), April 04, 2002.

I was always taught to hold it at an angle. If you shoot it straight on you will overexposure by about 1 to 1 1/2 stops. I also use my well-tanned hand, medium colored grasses and faded asphalt with surprisingly good results. My 18 percent gray card doesn't show near the wear it should because I am too lazy to dig it out.

.........

-- Dayton P. Strickland (daytonst@bellsouth.net), April 04, 2002.


Roger:

18% is a myth. meters are actually calibrated to a liter tone.

A liter tone; did you mean that they are volumetric or did you mean 13 %. ;o)

Art

-- Art (AKarr90975@aol.com), April 04, 2002.


I always use my hand knowing that I have to adjust 1 to 1.5 stop. Most convenient gray card I can find!

-- Eric Kragtwijk (e.kragtwijk@hccnet.nl), April 04, 2002.


In 35+ years of photography I have never owned or used a gray card. Finding a medium-tone object to read, or failing that, judging how many stops off medium-tone an object is, is just not that complicated. And when in doubt, I bracket.

-- Jay (infinitydt@aol.com), April 04, 2002.

I only use one for sensitometric film tests - and actually shoot pictures of it as well as meter it.

In the field I don't carry one. I belive you ARE supposed to tilt it for metering - but towards the light source - which is not always UP. For exposure tests I shoot it straight on.

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), April 04, 2002.


I used it a lot over the last few days to test the various chromes - never for real shooting - maybe I should, my pix might actually look decent :-)

-- Anam Alpenia (aalpenia@dasar.com), April 04, 2002.

it's a good thing you don't have to take a test to buy a leica!! anyway, as per kodak instructions since time immemorial (or at least the early '70s), the card should be held at an angle to achieve the right mid tone calibration. you are actually looking for about 12.5% grey -- 18% is a printing industry convention for middle grey, not a photo convention, thus the discrepancy. however, unless you are calibrating a meter -- something you don't want to do yourself anyway -- there is not much use for the grey card in the field. just learn your zones, figure out where you want to place your tones, and count on your meter being roughly accurate -- at least until it convinces you otherwise. cheers. is there a shockingly small amount of m7 talk on this LEICA site or what??

-- roger michel (michel@tcn.org), April 04, 2002.

I take a photo of a slightly modified grey card when working indoors on paid shoots. My card has three colours on it - deep black, a clean white and the 18% grey

With a photo of the three colour targets, I can use these in PShop to quickly get a good colour balance irrespective of the scene lighting or colour.

-- Andrew Nemeth (azn@nemeng.com), April 04, 2002.



I use a gray card once, set the camera, and forget it until different lighting or aperture. Simple and effective.

-- James (snodoggydogg@hotmail.com), April 04, 2002.

Frank:

I rarely use a gray card, substituting my hand if necessary. On the subject of use of the 18% gray card, I would like to quote the following: Kodak Color Dataguide, Fifth edition, second printing 1975,

"Besides its use as a reference area in printing, the neutral gray card, when used with a reflected-light exposure meter, is helpful in determining exposure in either artificial light or daylight, in adjusting the lighting ratio for studio photography, and in checking the lighting distribution on indoor subjects. To determine the exposure indoors, hold the card close to and in front of the subject, turning the card so that it faces halfway between the camera and the main light; then take the light reading from the card, with the meter not more than 6 inches away."

FWIW

-- Mark J. (logical1@catholic.org), April 05, 2002.


For Indoor I sometimes use one. Outdoor there is useally enough to find that can be used. Grass is the main thing, concrete roads another.

You have to tilt it so the light is refelected in the same way as of the topic. If possible, put the card on top of the topic or hold it as close as possible. With portraits useally my first shot is the model looking over the edge of the greycard and I use the spotmeter to measure the light. After that I set my camera to manual and start shooting. It's also a good reference when printing. I first optimize the print of the shot with the greycard, then when that's fine I print all worth-while shots with the same settings. After that I check them and fine-tune where applicable and if needed.

Reinier

-- ReinierV (rvlaam@xs4all.nl), April 05, 2002.


Bloody hell, sometimes I get angry of how much people spend on equipment and how little people understand the basic techniques. Read Ansel Adams The Zone System and understand that you yourself master in which zone the subject is placed, according to what you want! Forget the grey card. Use a spot meter or move up close, take the reading of the important subject/shade and decide how YOU want it to print. (substitute shades for highlights if using positive film since density is reversed, remember...). As Jay points out, if you are taking pictures of people in the same light, just do one reading of your hand in maximum light, i.e. maximum reflection and place it in Zone 6 by opening up one step from what the meter tells you (yes it is the same for positive film). If you meter the hand in shadow by turning the hand so no reflection occurs, it would mean zone 4 and you should close one stop, BECAUSE the bloody meter is calibrated to read everything as zone 5 (reflection 18% or 12% or whatever, it doesn't matter, since testing film and paper will give your personal film speed and developing time for YOUR visualization of how the zones should look). Wonderful isn't it?

-- Thomas Krantz (tkrantz@kpmg.dk), April 25, 2002.

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