Re: Understanhding Exposure
This is a tough area. Exposure is subjective. Besides the 18% vs 12% metering debate, you have to make the scene appear as you see it or as you want it to be seen, how you want to set the mood, etc.
Going back to the original question and spot meters, remember that caucasion skin typically reflects around 36% of the light hitting it. So if you spot meter the skin (not in a shadow area) you would then have to open up 1 to 1-1/2 stops from what the meter says. You can substitute a gray card and the open up 1/2 stop from what the card says.
These methods should place all the values correctly. But they don't guarantee that the highlights and shadows will fall within the usable range of your film or sensor. So you may still get some blown out highlights or black shadows.
The cure for those is to add some fill (reflector or a light) to open up the deep shadows or fly a large diffuser over the group of people to soften the light and tone down the bright hilites.
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