[pure-silver] Re: Adams' Moonrise

At 07:04 AM 11/20/2006, you wrote:


On Nov 20, 2006, at 2:54 AM, Dana H. Myers wrote:


Ansel exposed "Moonrise" using incident "metering" (without a meter).


        I don't want to get involved in this thread, but this is not
correct. Adams based the Moonrise exposure on his knowledge of the
Moon's *reflected* luminance. In the zone system, there is an
exposure formula that lets you quickly calculate exposure if you know
the luminance (in foot candles) of an area you wish to appear as a
specific tonal value in the print. In this case, he wanted the Moon
to hold good highlight value, so he calculated the exposure based on
its luminance (which he already knew) and opened up three stops,
placing the Moon on Zone VIII (I believe - I'm typing this from
memory). The calculated exposure would have been exactly the same if
he had metered the Moon with a spot meter and opened up three stops.
So it was really more like 'reflected "metering" (without a meter).'

Regards,
Aaron Reece
Oswego, NY, USA
If I remember correctly also, he missed the exposure pretty badly. I think he forgot to add the filter factor when he put the red 25 filter on the lens. There have been several copy negs of this image made with intensification applied. The original prints don't look anything like how it is printed now. 

lee\c


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