Black+White Photography - UK (2019-12)

52
B+W

by Chris Gatcum is published in softback

by Ammonite Press at £19.99

ammonitepress.com

MASTERING FILM

Above It might not be immediately obvious when a scene averages out close to the ‘perfect’ midtone. PHOTOGRAPHY

That was the case with this view looking up through tree branches at a bright sky. At first glance the

high contrast looks anything but mid-grey. However, when you start to average the image out it is

clear that middle grey is (roughly) the overall tone that we are left with.

darker than mid-grey. It is at this point that

the exposure reading you get from your

lightmeter might prove inadequate. That

bright beach or snow scene will appear too

dark as your camera drags the bright tones

down to mid-grey, and that panther will be

too bright as its jet-black coat is lifted to the

same midtone average. In both of these cases,

the meter is giving you ‘mid-grey out’, but it

is not getting ‘mid-grey in’ to start with.

If you were shooting digitally you could

review the image, assess the histogram and

re-shoot but with film it’s not an option. This

is why you need to be more aware of how

your lightmeter works, how it is measuring

light, and the possible pitfalls so that you

know when problems are likely to occur and

what you can do to prevent or overcome

them. And you need to be aware of all of this

without the benefit of instant feedback or

confirmation of success, which just adds to

the tension, excitement and overall challenge

of shooting film – three things that are

arguably heightened when you start to shoot

blind and make pictures on emulsion.

S

ince the dawn of photography, a

number of methods have been used

to determine photographic exposures

but the birth of lightmeters as we

know them today came in the early 1930s.

These handheld photoelectric meters could

objectively read the light reaching their

selenium cell and would typically provide

an arbitrary number that could be cross-

referenced to find an appropriate shutter

speed and aperture. Over the following years

these lightmeters increased in their general

sophistication and sensitivity (as CdS meters

replaced selenium in some instances) and by

the 1950s it was not uncommon for cameras

to have a built-in selenium meter that

enabled automatic exposure control.

In 1960 the first camera with TTL

(Through The Lens) metering arrived

and it’s fair to say this revolutionised

photography. It was now possible to measure

the light passing through the lens to the

film rather than the light falling on an

arbitrary panel on the camera, and this

made exposure readings more accurate.

Further developments ensued and a variety

of metering patterns evolved that enabled

the photographer to control more precisely

the area being measured, and in doing so

make the exposures more accurate.

Since then, metering has continued to

develop, with advanced multi-area metering

patterns, OTF (Off The Film) metering

that measures the light in real time as an

exposure is being made, and highlight

and shadow spot metering with automatic

averaging just some of the options that have

appeared over the years. What all of these

metering options have in common is the

type of light they are measuring.

›

© Chris Gatcum