I took several photos of a small park with trees and houses on the otherside of the park. The park is shaded from the trees and came out dark but can still see detail. The houses were out in the sun and came out very bright, can barely make out any detail. I'm guessing that I did not expose for the shadows. I used T-Max 100, which I had a problem with on shaded streets trying to use a shutter speed to avoid camera shake. Any suggestions? Thanks.

-- STEVEN (SAGJRNY@HOTMAIL.COM), November 17, 1999

Answers

You say that the shadows are dark but they show detail. that means your exposure is close to right on. What you have is a scene whose range of brightnesses exceeds the range of the film, which means you have to control the highlight end by development of the negative and/or choice of paper contrast.

Now you are standing at the doorway of the Zone System, which is a way of implementing in your own situation the old stand-by "Expose for the shadows; develop for the highlights."

Lots of knowledgable people here and lots of information "out there" about these topics.

-- Tony Brent (ajbrent@mich.com), November 17, 1999.

Start by printing on Grade 1 paper.

-- Bill Mitchell (bmitch@home.com), November 17, 1999.

The problem with this kind of shot is the reflective light meter built into your camera (I'm assuming that's what you used). these meters usually measure a fairy wide angle (30 degrees) and average the reading. It then gives you an exposure that will turn the metered area to 18% gray or zone V. Your dark areas become overexposed and your light areas underexposed. The only solution for this kind of shot is to get a 1 degree spot meter and learn the basic zone system, then you can precisely set your exposure to bring out as much detail as is possible.

-- John Laragh (jwl@taconic.net), November 20, 1999.

First of all you need to find a film speed that will consistently give you adequate shadow detail and then once that is found, find a developing time that will give you the proper highlight detail with the widest shadow/highlight separation without blowing out the highlights and rendering shadows as empty black. And all that on a grade 2 paper or equivalent VC paper. It is known as the zone system but whatever you want to call it, it is just learning what your materials will do. Get some film and go outside. Shoot a scene that has some very dark areas in which the shadows still have some decent detail but is still pretty dark. Shoot at the ISO that the manufacturer has given as the proper speed for the film. Now shoot 2 exposures of the scene at 1/2 stop more exposure. +1/2 if using exposure compensation mode on camera. Now shoot 2 more exposures at 1 stop over that. Now 1-1/2 stops more. Now go shoot the rest of the roll of whatever you normally shoot. But shoot 2 exposures of each scene you choose at normal ISO and one at +1 stops more. Process and print. Which exposure looks to have the best shadow detail? That's your film speed. With Tmax 100 it's probably ISO 80 or 64. Now do the same thing with one more roll but now use your new film speed. Shoot you normally found scenes. But try to have some bright highlights in the scene. Bright but with some detail. The side of a bright building or off white clouds. When you are through process at the normal time and normal temperature that the manufacturer gives. If you are really bright and you want to, try cutting the film strip into three separate strips and process at normal time, 30% more and 30% less. Print. Now which looks best? That's your new processing time. Simple huh? James

-- james (james_mickelson@hotmail.com), November 28, 1999.