P3D Re: Exposing Christmas lights

["Greg Wageman" <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> From: John W Roberts <roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> For the illuminated building example I agree, but I think it would take a
> mighty intelligent meter to correctly expose outdoor Christmas *lights*
> at night so that the lights are properly defined and not washed out (bright
> colors) and the area between the lights is dark. If you use a conventional
> meter, you're likely to get an image, but I expect the lights themselves
> will be heavily overexposed.

Remember that a reflected-light meter averages the scene.  Depending on
how much of the total scene actually contains lights, a meter might not
have to be very "intelligent" at all to give a reasonable exposure.  And of
course you, as the intelligent human behind the camera, having experience
with how your meter works, know when to compensate.

And as was mentioned earlier, you can also "spot meter" by moving in
close to the subject, taking a reading (to get that area exposed as 18% grey)
and use that reading for the entire scene.  It really isn't difficult, once you
have some experience (like many things in life).   The more you use it and
see the results, the more you will be able to anticipate how it will expose
any particular scene (true also of sunny16, of course).  Careful notes are
helpful, too, so that you have a reminder of what the meter said and what
worked when you bracketed.

> To make matters more complicated, I would probably want bare bulbs and
frosted
> bulbs to be exposed differently, or at least I would have different criteria
> for judging acceptable exposure.

Again, I'm not advocating slavish devotion to your meter's reading.  My
point simply is that a meter reading will give you a starting point which
will give an image (as opposed to a guess, which may give nothing useful,
or a chart which may or may not be close depending on many factors).
Then some intelligent use of bracketing from there will likely give you
the look you want.

	-Greg


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