 |
| Prepare the Ground. (Tri-X 400, Nikon F3). |
Miniature photography (and photography in general) has become substantially easier with the advent of advanced integrated light meters and digital displays that preview what the photo will look like when you press the shutter. These features, common on modern mirrorless and phone cameras (and DSLRs to an extent), make achieving a desired outcome more intuitive, since you can adjust settings and see the effects in real time. When taking miniature photos using film, however, things are more difficult. With film, you do not have the luxury of previewing the picture before taking it. Most film cameras have relatively simple integrated light meters that measure reflected light and estimate the necessary setting required to obtain what it thinks is a proper exposure (often trying to achieve 18% neutral gray). These, however, can be easily fooled when lighting conditions are not ideal, resulting in meter predictions that lead to over- or underexposed images, if you do not know how the meter works. For example, when using my Nikon F3 and Minolta SrT 201, their internal meters often overexpose images of miniatures, since the scenes I try to capture are dark and moody, but the integrated meter attempts to increase the exposure to achieve neutral gray. In the past few months, I have been using an external incident light meter to get around this issue.
