The photographer should know these settings in an instant. How does one know this in an instant?
Practice, my boy or girl, for that matter, practice.
Practice all the time.
After enough frames and enough fucked up ugly contact sheets one will know when they “have it.”
After tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of frames one will not have a use for a light meter.
In the absence of the ability to be a human light meter you will not be able to just go out and make photos. Rather, and in the meantime, take meter
readings off of your hand. Most rangefinders have centre-weighted metering systems. Yes, these areas change given the lens that’s on the body but
you shouldn’t be using anything but a fifty or thirty-five millimetre anyway. Yeah, a prime lens. I know certain photographers think these went out
of style but they can go fuck themselves and wake up at dawn and make solitary landscapes. The world needs more landscape photos! ;)
When you’re in the sun check the reading – given the aperture that best suits the kind of subject you may feel like photographing – and see where
you’re at. Note it. Mentally. You’ll look like an idiot referring back and forth to notes. That said, make notes later. Trust me on this.
Someone’s always watching. Remember ... you’re a ghost. You’re an intelligence agent doing “advance work.” Blend. Blend. Blend.
When you’re in the shade or under trees, again, take a reading.
Check to see if some window illumination will make it necessary to adjust your settings by a stop or so.
Check your settings as the sun or the light changes as the day moves to evening.
Do this until you know your preferred ISO and what it will require of your camera equipment to make a suitable exposure.
You will not succeed every time.
But you will learn.
You will learn by doing.
You will hopefully learn by your successes and most hopefully by your failures. It’s a gradual process.
Your goal should be to know the EXACT light and how it’s going to affect your film given the conditions present.
coco
(coco)
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