Sunday, March 30, 2008

Wedding

This past weekend, I got to shoot a wedding again. I thought I'd gotten out of that business six years ago! But it was one of my nephews, so I promised to shoot it and give them an album as my wedding gift.
Now I remember why I quit doing them; it's very hard work! Fortunately, his new bride is a beautiful gal; I always enjoy shooting beautiful people.
I just hope they enjoy the fruit of my labors.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Hand-held or in-camera meter?

Just returned from my PhoArts group meeting. It's an invitation-only group of serious photographers (say the name quickly and you'll learn a little more about us). The topic of in-camera reflective metering vs. hand-held incident metering came up and a lively discussion ensued. We all agreed the current crop of digital D-SLRs and even some point and shoots have very good reflective meters that will do a good job under most conditions. But there are some conditions that can cause poor exposures when using them. For example, when everything in the viewfinder is very dark or very light, the reflective meter will try to render them as 18% grey (gray?). Or if shooting into a gorgeous sunset with an object in the foreground, that object will be rendered as a black silhouette. But if an incident meter is used to measure the light falling onto the subject (vs. being reflected back to the camera), you will get a much more acceptable exposure. So for all you shooters who have "retired" your hand-held incident meters, put them back in your bag and use them when conditions are appropriate!