Exposure meters - never mind

Through a fascinating series of events, over the last couple of months I have become deeply involved in studying the evolution of three families of free standing exposure meter. Many fascinating facts came out of this, technical, institutional, and personal.

One of the results of this is a serious expansion of an earlier-published technical article on the general subject, plus three new articles, each on one of those families, a total of 110 pages, with numerous illustrations.

During my shower this morning, I basically composed a message to this forum, describing this project - how I came to take on various branches of it, what were (in summary) some of the fascinating findings, and so forth, which would then introduce links to the four articles.

But I concluded that it would serve the forum just as well if I had lunch instead.

I invite you all to do the same.

Best regards,

Doug

Doug Kerr said:

Through a fascinating series of events, over the last couple of months I have become deeply involved in studying the evolution of three families of free standing exposure meter. Many fascinating facts came out of this, technical, institutional, and personal.

One of the results of this is a serious expansion of an earlier-published technical article on the general subject, plus three new articles, each on one of those families, a total of 110 pages, with numerous illustrations.

During my shower this morning, I basically composed a message to this forum, describing this project - how I came to take on various branches of it, what were (in summary) some of the fascinating findings, and so forth, which would then introduce links to the four articles.

But I concluded that it would serve the forum just as well if I had lunch instead.

I invite you all to do the same.

Click to expand...

Doug

I thought your were going to treat us to a selfie in the shower, you and a glass of bubbly perhaps!

It's amazing when a puppy muses and thinks of the Sonnets by William Shakespeare, the works of Goethe and the 23rd Psalm and then says to himself, "No, I'll just keep it to myself. The world does not need another "Book of Sonnets"!"

Asher

Hi, Asher,

Asher Kelman said:

It's amazing when a puppy muses and thinks of the Sonnets by William Shakespeare, the works of Goethe and the 23rd Psalm and then says to himself, "No, I'll just keep it to myself. The world does not need another "Book of Sonnets"!"

Click to expand...

An excellent observation.

Best regards,

Doug

Doug, I read your latest version of The Secret Life of Exposure Metering. It's a technical tour de force with "illumination" on every page.

You've convinced me that there is a world of difference between Light Metering and Exposure Metering because the latter attempts to incorporate the human preference factor for darker or lighter photographs. And for this fickle and capricious roll of the optical and mental dice there is no rational or repeatable algorithm.

I suspect the way forward (backward?) is not to engage in light metering at all. The famous photographer Margaret Bourke-White used a 4x5 Speed Graphic camera and merely shot all the shutter speeds available, one after another, for every set up. This happened as quickly as her assistant could keep loading film into the camera. One of the negatives was sure to be perfect.

A modern equivalent in digital picture making could be a camera that shoots all the shutter speeds and f-stops and ISOs then presents the matrix of picture outcomes. Pick the one you like: job done.

Hi, Maris,

Maris Rusis said:

Doug, I read your latest version of The Secret Life of Exposure Metering. It's a technical tour de force with "illumination" on every page.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much.

You've convinced me that there is a world of difference between Light Metering and Exposure Metering because the latter attempts to incorporate the human preference factor for darker or lighter photographs. And for this fickle and capricious roll of the optical and mental dice there is no rational or repeatable algorithm.

I suspect the way forward (backward?) is not to engage in light metering at all. The famous photographer Margaret Bourke-White used a 4x5 Speed Graphic camera and merely shot all the shutter speeds available, one after another, for every set up. This happened as quickly as her assistant could keep loading film into the camera. One of the negatives was sure to be perfect.

A modern equivalent in digital picture making could be a camera that shoots all the shutter speeds and f-stops and ISOs then presents the matrix of picture outcomes. Pick the one you like: job done.

Click to expand...

All well said. Thanks.

Best regards,

Doug