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A common mistake I keep seeing with metering for backlit subjects
I've been developing my own black and white film for about a year now, and I keep noticing people's shots where a person in front of a window is just a silhouette. They meter for the bright background and the subject goes dark. I learned the hard way after ruining a roll from a family visit in Chicago by doing the same thing. You need to take a reading directly off your subject's face, or even overexpose by a stop or two from your camera's suggested setting. Has anyone else found a reliable way to handle this without a dedicated spot meter?
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eva_lewis25d ago
Stumble on this same issue all the time and it reminds me of how people mess up simple stuff in day to day life too, like not adjusting their driving when it starts raining or forgetting to bring a coat when the forecast says cold. @mason209 nailed it about sacrificing a roll to the gods, but I think the bigger pattern is we just trust the machine too much. Cameras are dumb without us telling them what matters, same way people assume a GPS knows the best route when it clearly doesn't. Meter off a grey card or even your palm held in the same light as your subject, works better than guessing and saves you from another wasted roll.
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mason2092mo ago
Oh man, the classic "who is that person?" silhouette shot. I guess we all have to sacrifice a family roll to the photography gods to learn that lesson.
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