Those with meterless rangefinders: how do you set your exposure?

Those with meterless rangefinders: how do you set your exposure?

  • I spot meter everything. Usually twice.

    Votes: 34 3.7%

  • I use a handheld incident meter with every shot.

    Votes: 135 14.7%

  • I only meter when I think the light has changed.

    Votes: 390 42.4%

  • I use the sunny 16 rule almost exclusively.

    Votes: 211 22.9%

  • I use an EV chart.

    Votes: 43 4.7%

  • I have been shooting long enough that it is intuitive for me.

    Votes: 107 11.6%
  • Total voters
    920
Call me stupid. I like the challenge of guessing right. Sunny 16 for years. Home-made business-card-sized brightness/exp chart very helpful in interiors. Using forgiving TriX and Portra 400 is a big help.

Always spotmetered with 8x10, but those days are over.
 
I learned photography with my father's Contina. It did not have a working meter, so guessing was needed. In Iraq, most of the time, you can use the Sunny 16 Rule, but I was unaware of this rule then.

Later, I used slow slide film exclusively [normal film: ASA 50, fast film: ASA 100], so critical metering was needed. I got used to using a spotmeter. It allows me critical metering.
 
For street photography of the quick brand, the best I have found is to wrist a digital meter very close to the right hand (if you write with your right hand), but with a very little distance freedom from the palm, in order to just let it drop after the exposure, and seize the camera.

The shorter the distance of the meter from the palm and fingers, the lesser the time to waist untill the reading. Let's not forget too that after the exposure we have to set the camera, and afterwards start framing :bang:

The meter never interferes with the camera, since the camera gripping starts with the palm hightening the camera, while the meter short wrist tends to go downwards at the same time by the gravitation laws.

Now you start to confuse your potential subjects, are they to look at your camera, proudly leaning over your chest, or at that small device wristed to your hand ?

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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I've memorized a few key points on the EV chart (the ultimate exposure computer one), then I just interpolate after guessing the EV.

I calibrate my eyes whenever I go shooting with a TTL body. Specifically, I guess the exposure value, compensate for ISO, then compute the shutter speed for a desired aperture.

I guess that means I think in Aperture Priority... Weird...

Ciao,

Christopher
 
I use one of the following methods or a combination of the following methods to determine exposure with my meterless rangefinders (35mm, 6x7cm, and 6x9cm):

1. Sunny 16 guideline
2. Hand held incident/reflective light meter
3. Hand held flash light meter
4. Flash guide number
5. Digital camera for performing test shots

Since none of the poll options applied to what I do to determine exposure, I did not vote.
 
Praxis Unitas said:
I've memorized a few key points on the EV chart (the ultimate exposure computer one), then I just interpolate after guessing the EV.
I calibrate my eyes whenever I go shooting with a TTL body. Specifically, I guess the exposure value, compensate for ISO, then compute the shutter speed for a desired aperture.
Click to expand...

I do exactly the same thing but instead of memorizing anything from an EV chart, I spent a couple hours with a meter testing my ability to evaluate the light and my understanding of different lighting situations. Occasionally, I'll bring out the meter (often w/o any intention to photograph anything) to read new lighting situations and to reinforce what I already know.

The nice thing about this system is that I almost always remember what EV value (independent of ISO) I used, from which is easy to deduce or estimate aperture and shutter speed. It also helps me evaluate the results and further fine-tune my ability to read the light.
 
Back in grad school i did a test with colour neg film, and found that you could over expose colour neg film up to two stops over and it will still be printable (though there will be more contrast). So, for neg film, if you are going to err, do it on the side of over exposure (although I wouldn't deliberately over expose by two stops!).

In general, when shooting for myself, I just look at the scene and can pretty well figure it out. I use 400 speed film most of the time, and it seems to work out fine.
 
My Weston Master IV is almost always with me when out using any meterless camera. I usually only measure once if lighting conditions permit and change accordingly, but I do double check if it gets tricky. If I ever forgot the meter, the sunny 16 has always worked for me outside.
 
I ;lused to do a lot of street shooting with just a Nikon S2, 50mm lens and a Sekonic incident meter. One reading in the sun, one in the shade - and a little judgement. It worked fine.

Cheers
Morry Katz
 
I picked the last entry, about being so experienced that actually metering is beneath me.

Which is actually a load of bull - I guess. Yep, that is the plain and simple of it - I guess at the exposure. Oh I let those rules guide me, like "sunny 16" which in Arizona is more like sunny 22, or open up two stops for back lighting. But since I never seem to have my old Gossen at hand when the picture happens, I've learned to be lucky in my guesswork.

Thankfully I shoot trix so it doesn't really matter if I'm a stop or two off. But it's a good thing I like grain.
 
Well I don't think the allowed answers were comprehensive enough to address the issue. I use something like a modified Sunny 16 rule except in more difficult light situations such as late or early evening - especially with clouds present, interior shots, interior shots with demanding film like slide film, and so forth, but in common exterior lighting situations I don't really need the meter, although I usually carry one.
 
I use sunny 16 in easy situations but I always carry my gossen sixtomat for tricky lighting. I am also trying to commit the exposure chart mentioned earlier to memory. The chart is especially useful for sunsets, night time photography, and indoors in poor light.
 
My Weston V goes in my shirt pocket for a little security but in truth I rarely use it. I often use XP-2 so certainly the latitude of the film certainly helps.
 
I took the "only meter when the light has changed" option, as that's what I mostly do when using an external meter. When shooting RF and an in-camera meter, I tend to use my hand as a "pale grey card" and meter the same way. I've not been shooting film very long, so I'm only just starting to train my exposure sense by estimating an exposure then checking it with the meter. At my current experience, using an external meter as resulted in vastly more consistent negatives vs. guesstimating or relying on a TTL meter (and my sketchy judgement of the subject vs. middle grey). I hope to train myself up over the next year so that I do better without the meter.

When shooting LF I'm not in a rush, so I meter every shot, sometimes placing the exposure via spot metering, sometimes via incident metering.
 
I guess. Well, not really. I judge by how much shadow intensity there is.

My grandfather taught me that trick years ago. Never to judge by the sun, rather by what the shadows look like.
 
I have a Zarya and MIR, but I have a small shoe mount Vivitar CDS meter I use at times. Every so often, I double check if the lighting is wierd or doesn't fit the "Sunny 16" guidelines. But, Hay, Neg. Film has about 2-stops under and 1-stop over, so, it all works out in the end 95% of the time.
 
When I came back...

When I came back...

to rangefinders from SLRs, I religiously incident metered every shot for about a year. After clumsily losing one meter and a low light cell from another meter, some re-thinking needed to be done.

I leave the remaining meters I own at home now. I guess at every shot, and much to my surprize.....I can salvage a decent print out of most of my negs.

If the shot is thought to be important I swing a two stop bracket around my guess. Another roll of film in my pocket is still lighter than a meter.

I leave my socks on the floor every night, too.

Jo
 
For those of you fortunate enough to have an Olympus 35LC, the problem is solved by the ingenious design that allowed the meter to be viewed on the top of the camera as well as the viewfinder.
 
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