A fellow shooter at the camera swap told me my scans were too flat and he was right

I dropped my ISO by two stops when metering for shadows and the difference in my black and white rolls from that Portland trip was night and day has anyone else gotten this kind of feedback from a stranger at a meetup?

2 comments

2 Comments

parker_bell1mo ago

Metering for shadows at a lower ISO is basically cheating the light meter into giving you more detail where film usually gives up. The funny thing is nobody talks about how that trick actually changes your developing times too, not just your exposure.

sean_foster521mo ago

My buddy Dave from the camera store in Austin told me the same thing about his scans last winter. It's wild how we all get so used to flat shadows we forget what real contrast looks like. That's just how life works though, you get comfortable with bad habits until some random person points it out and everything clicks. Dropping ISO for shadows is one of those simple tricks that changes your whole approach, like realizing you've been tying your shoes wrong for years. I bet half the people at that swap were secretly glad he said something.