This is a grey card......

What it does is help your camera meter obtain the proper exposure for 18% grey.....

Let's say you are shooting white snow..... if you metered off the snow, your snow would look grey, dull.... not white. This is because your camera meter is giving you the exposure settings that would produce 18% grey....

Pretend you are shooting a black dog..... you meter off the dog.... your dog is not going to appear black but a duller shade of grey.....

These example are far easier to see, if one is shooting BW film but it also applies to color film and digital...

To take it one step further, if you don't have a grey card and meter off the snow you should open up 1-2 stops more then what your meter says in order to obtain white.... in other words a longer shutter speed or bigger aperture opening. The meter will tell you it's going to be over-exposed but really it won't be.

Or if metering off the dog, and you want the black dog to look black, you should stop down 1-2 stops .... or a faster shutter speed or smaller aperture opening. In this case the meter will tell you you are underexposing, but you won't be.
Make any sense or totally confused now? :~)

Message edited on: 03/16/2005 18:57

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