Grey Card Test Image with Incident Reader

[nldunne]

Following instructions (from an old instruction sheet from my fim days) on how to place a KODAK GREY CARD under house or studio lights, I aimed my incdent paper reader at a point halfway between the subject and light source (suggested by the instruction sheet) to set EV working with HISTOGRAM BOX.

I did NO WORK except cropping on the P C - not even color corrections. This is what the cam gave me. My light is a table lamp with a dimmer switch.

[notsotechie]

It looks all right.
but hard to say if that table is that true colour to your eyes as you have the table not I as it does look good the natural colour of the table.

Cheers

[nldunne]

My table wood is darker than sand , but not mid brown either, and I only used the table lamp for light. In this image, I was not concerned with the accuracy of the table or even the cups re color - mainly just overall exposure accuracy. In time I will be working on that part - color accuracy under certain conditions.

My idea here was to see how accurate the overall exposure was - placing the INCIDENT READER facing the same direction as the CARD. When I look at the overall image,- COLOR and BLACK and WHITE - the accuracy of the INCIDENT READER did not do too bad - exposure wise.

I will be studying this idea of using the meter following the placement of the GREY CARD diagrams much further as I work on my images.

[Featherman]

Judging from the shadow areas inside the mugs it looks pretty good, Norm.
Looking at a histogram, it appears there is still a fair bit of room on the highlight end, if one likes to play at that end as I do.
Interesting experiment.

[nldunne]

Gord

My thanks for the kind words.

When I see how this image turned out, I think I will spend much more of my time in composition study than foolin' around on here in the art programs.

For so long, I have made a 'glorious mess' and lost images 'foolin' with all the art program controls - and I am now starting to take a different look at what direction I want my images to go.

[nldunne]

Following is an image done where I pointed my INCIDENT READER over the cam lens at 90 degrees to a line from the light to the far subject on the chesterfield. I used the same material that I use for the INCIDENT READER over the flash head on this one.

The balance of the flash and table lamp was quite accurate here.

What I was looking for was - the exposure accuracy of the image - more than colors, composition and such in this case. In the end - all I did with this image - was cropping - NO OTHER WORK - was done on the P C.

[eric rose]

I have found over time that giving +1 stop over the recommended gray scale reading gave me the best results. Mind you I use film. YMMV.

[nldunne]

What you say, Eric, is good for Negative Film. Slide Film is not quite so lenient re - exposures - at least that was my findings. Digi cams are like like slide film in that there is no INTERNEGATIVE between the original scene and the final result. As a result, more care has to be taken with digi's - I feel - in this regard.

I did many years with film cams and lens and hand meters and all. When digi's came out, I felt like I wanted to downsize. Also, digi's are like the old, large format film cams 5 X 4 inches and above, where we can work with one image at a time and not a whole roll as in 35 and 120 cams.

One point about large format film cams - I love - is the swing and tilt ability to keep lines straight.

Also, digi's give one more than one opportunity to get a correct exposure. Film cams were somewhat restricted that way.