Correction...... 2 Stops Under Exposure on black should read 1/8 not 1/6..... sorry about that. Yes LP you are correct in that even if you don't have a grey card reading off any mid tone object will work.... concrete, grass in open shade.... these types of things will work too. The issue you are talking about is a pretty common one for most landscape artists. The contrast range that our eyes can see is about 12-14 stops difference..... where film and digital sensors it's more like 5 or so stops! I don't want to confuse the issue by going into a long winded diatribe on Graduated ND filters but they are a good thing for this type of problem.... If you're in a high contrasty light situation.... a good thing to do is meter the important areas... the bright areas and then the darkest area.... how many stops difference is it? More than 5.... than you're probably going to have an issue with either blown out highlights or lost detail in the shadow/dark areas. That being said, and I'm no expert on landscapes, but I would think that metering off a nice blue area of sky and opening up 1-1/12 stops might be a good place to start....?

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