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photo question 2-Aug-2004 At 11:34:44 AM onsight

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On 1/08/2004 Mighty Mouse wrote:
>n/p's
>>how's your travel going?
>
>also while i got ya, quick technical question....shooting on snow (using
>provia400f) should i meter off of the actual snow or off the subject? when
>i try meter off the snow then open up 1.5-2 stops i get great detail out
>of the snow but the subject is almost always too dark, but when i meter
>off the subject i get great blue skies and clear subject but the snow is
>hazy.... :-/

Three months in Europe was great thanks. If I ever get time I'll write a quick trip report...

What do you mean by hazy - too dark - or was it just the conditions were different? Metering off the snow and +1.5-2 sounds rights to me. If subject still too dark then the scene sounds really contrasty (sunny?). Why 400 ASA and not a better, slower, film? You must be some seriously fast action eh? Although I'm not sure a slower film will help much w the contrast problem, it might. I assume you're in manual mode; are you using spot metering too? Have you tried working out a benchmark, like metering off the palm of your hand (once you work out where that falls in the tonal range), or 18% grey card as a mid-tone. Or maybe try an incident light meter whilst you work out what's going on. Basically sounds like you need to do some tests (write down what you were thinking and metering off at the time so you can compare it with the results later).

It's worth cracking the manual spot-metering technique, once you've got it dialed then you're set.

Hope this helps. I haven't shot much snow for years. Glenn Tempest an expert in that field (earth to Glenn, come in Glenn...)