Improvised Gray Card?

I use anything white or black too. Just dial +2 or -2, respectively. I've found that most shades of red are -1, yellows are +1. Caucasion faces are about +.5. I leave it set to zero for 1/2 stop of underexposure.

Why not simply take a gray card reading then compare it toother possibilities. Since the palm of your hand is alwaysavailable and presumably unchanging, simply read it andcorrect accordingly. If your hand gives a reading of, say, onestop brighter than a card, simply subtract one stop! The true function of a spot meter is to record the various elements of a scene's brightness range, and then to extrapolate a proper final exposure to best record that scene, in my view. Most films are limited to about a 130:1 brightenss range, but nature can provide scenes of 1000:1, hence the Zone Systemin B&W. ANY exposure is bound to be something of a compromise.

Have a look here. (http://www.photonaturalist.com/chromozone/index.asp)

Why are you so interested in complicating your photography? Most causasian faces are are close enought to one stop over what your meter thinks is neutral gray (which of course can only be determined after you have adjusted your meter of course to take into account the mechanical and optical characteristics of your camera and lenses, the processing of the film, determined the "true" sensitivity of the film stock you are using and how your film will be printed) that you can simply dial that in. <P> Or are you just more interested in overcomplicating the whole photo taking process? Sop being so fearful! Do some simple tests and figure out what is going on! How simple? Go outside with a friend, your camera and a roll ofthe film you use most. Set the manufacturer's film speed. Switch toi spot metering, Take a portrait of your friend so that their head fills about 60-75% ofthe frame. Make six exposures: on at the suggest reading, one at 1/2 stop over, one at 1 stop over, one at 1&1/2 stop over, one at 2 stops over, one at 1/2 stop under. Shoot the rest of the roll on a variety of other subjects: bracket if you like. Get the film processed normally, and see what seting works best for the face portraits. You'll have no more need for a gray card.

Why are you so interested in over complicating your photography? Most causasian faces are are close enought to one stop over what your meter thinks is neutral gray (which of course can only be determined after you have adjusted your meter of course to take into account the mechanical and optical characteristics of your camera and lenses, the processing of the film, determined the "true" sensitivity of the film stock you are using and how your film will be printed) that you can simply dial that in. <P> Stop being so fearful! Do some simple tests and figure out what is going on! How simple? Go outside with a friend, your camera and a roll ofthe film you use most. Set the manufacturer's film speed. Switch to spot metering, Take a portrait of your friend so that their head fills about 60-75% ofthe frame. Make six exposures: on at the suggest reading, one at 1/2 stop over, one at 1 stop over, one at 1&1/2 stop over, one at 2 stops over, one at 1/2 stop under. Shoot the rest of the roll on a variety of other subjects: bracket if you like. Get the film processed normally, and see what seting works best for the face portraits. You'll have no more need for a gray card.

I was taught in photography school (RTI) that the palm of the human hand is roughly 1 stop brighter in reflectance than an 18% gray card. And it doesn't matter what race you are! So, unless your hands are covered, or extremely dirty, you can take a reflective reading off the palm of your hand and open up one stop from the reading given. This assumes, of course, that your hand is under the identical lighting conditions as your subject matter. However, this does not take into effect the brightness range of your subject. Does that help you?

Victor Lioce

Grass lit by a high sun and the blue of a sky away from the horizon are both useful analogues to a mid tone. Victor is right however, getting a mid-tone does not necessarily give you the right exposures for highlights and shadows, and you should meter also the brightest and darkest areas in which you wish to record detail and ensure that these fall within a couple of stops of your selected reading. If they don't then you may want to reassess your mid-tone or take some step (recomposition, use of a ND grad) to control the extent of brightness within your composition.

I learned something pretty similar to what Victor said while I was in photo school as well. In studying the zone system, we learned that caucasion skin tones look best at a zone VI, or one stop brighter then Zone V (which is what a grey card is) This makes it easy to get a quick exposure reading with a spot meter. Just read of the back of your hand, or if your shooting a person the highlight side of the face and open up one stop from what the meter reading says.

Unlike what Victor said though, I do think it will change based upon the shade of your skin. We learned that when shooting portraits, placing the highlight side of the face in Zone VI almost always looks the best regardless of race, but that doesn't mean it will give the same exposure value. If you take a reading off of someone with very dark skin and someone with very fare skin, the readings will be different. It just turns out that if they are going to be in the photograph, they will usually look there best at a Zone VI.

I hope I'm not totally confusing you, its a little hard to explain without taking up tons of room. To make it simple, do what another poster said and meter a grey card and then the back of your hand. Find out what the difference is and then you'll have something to meter off of no matter where you go (unless you get into some freak accident and loose both of your hands I guess) Chances are it will be very close to a 1 stop differnce, which makes it easy to remember and easy to set.

Green grass in the sun, north blue sky, palm of the hand-open one stop; all have worked for me.

I would agree with Ellis but would add something to what he said about getting the film processed normally. That part is fine, but what you have to make sure and do is have those 6 prints he mentioned all printed for exactly the same time rather than for best skin exposure. If you don't have them all printed for the same time, then the test is useless. In black and white the proper exposure would be the minimum time to get maximum black through film base plus fog. Its been so long since I printed color that I can't remember what it would be there, but I would think at a point where the effect of the color mask was taken away. good luck.

Remember, I said "The palm of your hand" not the back. Check with any African American friend and compare reflective readings from the PALM of your hands! I am willing to wager that you won't see a significant difference. You will, however, get significant differences from various faces! Even from caucasian to caucasian. However, I don't think Ralf is going to carry various hands around with him! LOL The point I was making is your own palm is a reliable substitute for an 18% gray card, if you remember that it is approximately 1 stop brighter than 18% gray and adjust accordingly. Since I don't know Ralf's racial origins, I wanted to assure him that it didn't matter if he was caucasian or not. YOUR hand is always with YOU! And an 18% or 36% reflectance reading is only ONE indicator for base exposure, not the rule. If you did all of your exposures based soley upon an 18% gray card or an equivalent, then you would end up with the same constant as if you meter with a SLR averaging meter, that is, an average amount of photos shot under average light conditions will turn out average!!! Learning to determine the brightness range of your subject matter, and exposing/developing accordingly, is the only way to get the best results possible in all situations. And, this applies more so to B&W than to color, as you can't manipulate color processing to the degree that you can manipulate B&W, and I wouldn't want to try a typical 2X over exposure with transparency media either, unless, of course I was metering the proverbial black cat in a coal mine!!!!!!!!!!! LOLOL Cheers!

Victor Lioce

A brown paper grocery sack!

Someone seems to have completely missed the point.<br>You meter from the area that you want to register as a mid tone in the final print or tranny. It doesn't matter if that object is 18% grey, pure white, or dark indigo with little mauve polka-dots. This is called 'pre-visualisation', and it's the only reason for not just setting the camera permanently on auto and using it as a point'n'shoot.

pre-visualization is the keyword. spot-meter, and exposure compensate by adding or subtracting light to render this spot the way you see it in your mind. the camera and meter will respond, and light will find its way, magically.

Wow, lots of interesting answers in such a short time and as usually a very wide spectrum of opinions. Thank you guys for trying to get something useful in my skull. .

Now let me clarify my first posting.

I was mainly referring to outdoor photography on color transparency film and think that Pete and Daniel hit it right on the head when they talk about pre-visualization. The only problem is what is the object to put in the mid tone, if there is none in the composition I want to take. Example, I shot two buildings standing together, one was black marble, the other one reflective glass. I didn’t want to show either as gray of course. Solution, meter the bright one, meter the dark one, take the average and hope that everything is still within the brightness range of your film ;-). To me it should be equally good to take some object which has the mentioned mid tone and meter that. My thought from here is what can I relative quickly use as a fixed reference to know what the prevailing light is? Hence the idea of a medium gray object. That’s why I like the suggestion of metering the palm of my hand (I’m Caucasian btw), green grass or blue sky (or a paper bag for that matter).

To further clarify, I’m not mindlessly adjusting my camera to the medium gray. I’m just using it as a fixed point from where to go. It definitely can help me to determine how to show a saturated black or bright white in compositions which have one of them prevailing (like the cat in the coalmine ;-). Kind of using the spot meter as an incident meter which also “just” gives you the average.

Thanks again, Ralf

Hi Ralf,

If you're willing to use/carry on a paperback or a newspaper, why not using a small piece of a greycard? I usally use my spotmeter for almost every situation, pointing it on the subject. Except in doubtful circumstances, than I take the little greycard out and meter it with my spotmeter. Indoor I place it in front of the subject and outdoor I stretch my arm and meter it. I do this when I shoot color; when shooting B/W I read the several meterings and make my decision (using the Zone-system). I hope this is a little tip for you. Lots of success,

Jos Jacobson.

Two comments that don't seem to have been covered in an otherwise pretty extensive set of responses:

1. Proper exposure w/ a standard gray card is 1/2 stop more than what you meter on the card. I finally read the instructions. (GRIN)

2. I took my gray card to the fabric store.... comparison metered various gray fabrics until I found one that was exactly the same as the gray card. Bought a hunk of it... had it sewn to my camera bag. And, I carry a hunk of it folded up in my back pocket. Voila!

Cheers, Scott