Filed under: Photography
Exposure Guide for Transparency Film
© 1996 Kevin C. O’Neil, Eastern Light Nature Photography, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
The “System”
This “system” provides accurate exposures guides for the most common lighting situations faced by photographers using transparency film: Normal or Low Light and Bright Sunny Days. This system is not “unique” or “special” in any way. It is the system used by almost all nature photographers (whether they know it or not). Although these guides are generally applicable to print films, because of the wider latitude (i.e., ability to provide proper exposure where the range and contrast of light is great) of print films, the compensation suggestions may not be great enough to provide for proper exposure for print films.
Two Simple Rules
Two simple exposure compensation rules to remember with slide film are “LO-DC” and “LC-DO.”
In Normal or Low Light, and when the tone of the subject matter is Light, you need to Open up to ensure proper exposure. If the subject matter is Dark, you need to Close down to ensure proper exposure. LO-DC means Light Subject, Open Up – Dark Subject, Close Down
On a Bright Sunny Day, and when the tone of the subject matter is Light, you need to Close down to ensure proper exposure. If the subject matter is Dark, you need to Open up to ensure proper exposure. LC-DO means Light Subject, Close Down – Dark Subject, Open Up
These may seem not seem logical at first, but you need to remember that your camera exposure meter is calibrated to properly expose an 18% gray card (a medium tone subject). When you meter a subject lighter than 18% gray under Normal or Low Light, such as snow, the camera meter “tells” you how to expose the snow as if it were a medium tone subject. The resulting image of snow therefore looks gray! When faced with this situation and you are using slide film, you must compensate by opening up 1.5 to 2 stops so that snow is white (i.e., Light/Open).
The opposite is true. If shooting a dark subject under Normal or Low Light, such as a black bear, your meter will give you the proper exposure for an 18% gray card, turning the black bear into a gray bear (or at least a tone of black that is much lighter than the bear actually appeared). Because the subject is Dark, you need to Close down (i.e., Dark/Close).
On a Bright Sunny Day, the rules of exposure shift. Rather than attempt to explain this here, accept it as “truth” and experiment. You’ll be pleased with the results. This exposure rule is often referred to as the “Sunny f/16 Rule.” This means that on a Bright Sunny Day with few clouds in the sky, the proper exposure for a subject with front lighting is f/16 at a shutter speed closest to your ISO film speed. If I was shooting Fuji Velvia (ISO 50), the proper exposure would be 1/60th of a second at f/16, or a combination of shutter speed and f-stop equal to this (i.e., 125th at f/11). One note of caution, always avoid shooting on a Bright Sunny Day unless the subject matter or timing leave you with no alternative. The resulting images are generally not as good as ones taken under better lighting conditions (early morning, late afternoon or on cloudy days).
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This article talks about exposure times for different varitations of brightness. This will become handy in the next months due to the sun shining brightly and overcast rainy days causing some trouble. This was helpful to me and I am now ready to shoot those tough bright shots.
Comment by Taylor Watson April 30, 2007 @ 4:19 pmthis artical is pointless to me because we have all ready done slide film. and on top of that this is a hard artial to read i keep geting lost and it did not keep my attion veary well
Comment by clint neal April 30, 2007 @ 4:19 pmyeah so this article is about the system photographers use to take pictures in the low light and dark areias so it is a highly usefull article with many interesting feaetures
Comment by daniel hanna April 30, 2007 @ 4:20 pmthis article is about get a good shot of either dark or light subjects in different kinds of lighting. i thought this article was pretty simple, because we’ve been told how to compensate for lighting numerous occasions. so the article was alright.
Comment by brittany jackson April 30, 2007 @ 4:21 pmThis article was very informative and useful to anyone who wants to shot nature photos. There are many techniques that you must use to get the photo you want. For different lighting situations you should remember the tips they give in this article about LO-DC means Light Subject, Open Up DS-CD Dark Subject, Close Down.
Comment by Sarah Clark April 30, 2007 @ 4:21 pmthis article is very useful. It puts good acronyms for whether or not your should open up the aperture or close down, depending on the different light situations. It uses L, for light, O for open, D for dark, and C for close. These are used for transparency film
Comment by Joe osborn April 30, 2007 @ 4:22 pmThis is a very useful and efficient article, giving the reader a “system” of exposure guides for two different photographing/ lighting situations. The LO-DC and LC-DO rules apply to both low light and bright light exposures and how to correctly set the aperture setting for both. ISO settings and rules of exposures may shift for various situations.
Comment by Rebecca Beasley April 30, 2007 @ 4:22 pmThis article is a nifty little piece of information for those who can’t find themselves without their cameras. Knowing good exposures, apertures, and f-stops is a key thing to photography. That is why I highly suggest reading this article before you go out and get trigger happy with your camera.
Comment by Matt Bradley April 30, 2007 @ 4:23 pmI’m not exactly sure what the system is. This article is very usful. It tells you how to measure your exposures in different types of light. This would’ve been a useful article towards the beginning of the year. It’s nice to get a refresher though.
Comment by Taylor Hodges April 30, 2007 @ 4:23 pmThis article was kind of interesting because I knew about having to open up or closing down for some things but I did not know about this acronym; “LO-DC” and “LC-DO” I think it is a good way to help you remember what to do in the different situations. The article was very helpful though and I hope I can remember this acronym.
Comment by Rachel Strang April 30, 2007 @ 4:25 pmThis article gives guides for exposures for very common lighting situations that many photographers using transparency film. These tips are extremely useful because it gives us ways to take pictures with varying brightnesses, such as outside. This aids us in our projects.
Comment by clint neal April 30, 2007 @ 4:25 pmsorry i just posted that under clint’s name.
This article gives guides for exposures for very common lighting situations that many photographers using transparency film. These tips are extremely useful because it gives us ways to take pictures with varying brightnesses, such as outside. This aids us in our projects.
Comment by Ellidia Guan April 30, 2007 @ 4:26 pmThis article reminds me a what we studied a few weeks ago. At first, using the shutter and aperture with night/low light and bright sunny days can be confusing, but after a while, you get used to it (it’s backwards from what we usually do). This was a nice review article because I sort of forgot about that.
Comment by Kierstin Quick April 30, 2007 @ 4:26 pmThis article is about how to use transparency film and what exposure to use when working with it. This article is pretty cool. It gives you a way of remembering what to do for certain lighting situations. In normal lighting situations, LO-DC means Light Subject, Open Up-Dark Subject, Close Down. On a bright sunny day,
Comment by David Desjardins April 30, 2007 @ 4:27 pmLC-DO means Light Subject, Close Down-Dark Subject, Open Up. I think this information will really help me in the near future.
This article was talking about practical tips for exposure time for transparency film. I think the article is very useful and gives great tips for measuring the distance of light to the film. It provides food exposure times and the right f-stops to use in your shot. I like how it explains low lightning and bright sunny days exposure times.
Comment by Jhamicah Harbut April 30, 2007 @ 4:27 pmthis article dicusses a useful guide for all to use that gives examples for many different scenarios with exposure in sunlight.With this item one could gain the knowledge of taking all sorts of new amazing pictures out in the sun. I would most likely take advantage of this knowledge for i would surely enjoy expanding my options. Woot
Comment by will bradley April 30, 2007 @ 4:28 pmToday’s article gave some helpful tips on shooting in different lights. It discussed how to compensate for various forms of light. To help remember the settings, you can use the LO-DC and LC-DO acronyms. yay.
Comment by Danny Wallace April 30, 2007 @ 4:28 pmI have always found transperacy film to be quite annoying or as i call it “anal”. The reason i despise it so much is the fact that there is an entire exposure guide to the thing.
Comment by Ryan Stewart >. April 30, 2007 @ 4:29 pmI mean its a really interesting subject and all its just really annoying in my veiws and probably countless others. >.
The article talks about shooting film on either a bright sunny day or a normal or low light situation. It just gives helpful tips so you can get a good shot in these sorts of situations. It says to avoid the bright sunny days if possible and only shoot then if there is no other alternative.
Comment by David Dunn April 30, 2007 @ 4:29 pmi enjoyed reading this article. it was very informative and interesting. the system that the article discussed seemed very easy to use. i thin kthat the system could really help anyone who wanted to increase their skill with photography. most of the advice was very easy to use.
Comment by Kierstin Quick April 30, 2007 @ 4:31 pmi enjoyed reading this article. it was very informative and interesting. the system that the article discussed seemed very easy to use. i thin kthat the system could really help anyone who wanted to increase their skill with photography. most of the advice was very easy to use.
Comment by Jared Noffsinger April 30, 2007 @ 4:32 pmtodays artical was a very helpful artical about light Exposure for Transparency Film. it was very simple and easy to understand and didnt make it to complecated.
Comment by sean samokar April 30, 2007 @ 4:35 pmthis was a useful article, it was more of a review of everything we have already been over. it gives you a nice guide of exposures.
Comment by Rebecca The Great April 30, 2007 @ 4:39 pmi think that the little acronym was a cool way to remembre your exposures. though it is elementary it is still a good idea and a good learning technique that could help yo uif you ever forget what to do. even though the exposure rules are easy there are a lot of them and anything will help to remember them
Comment by Brennan Talkington April 30, 2007 @ 5:37 pmThis article was very useful but it reminded me of stuff we just recently went over in the past week or so. These tips are usefull becuase they give us ways to take better pictures. I think this would have been more useful had we gotten this article before we learned most of whats in it, but it was a good review.
Comment by jamie Roberts May 1, 2007 @ 1:47 pmi THiNK THiS iS KiND OF A POiNTLESS ARTiCLE. WE HAVE ALREADY COMPLETED SLiDE FiLM AND JUST TELLiNG US THiNGS WE ALREADY KNOW. i GUESS iTS TO REFRESH OUR MEMORiES OR JUST AN EASY ARTiCLE BUT HARD TO READ iN A WAY. THiS HAD ME WANTiNG TO FALL ASLEEP OR JUST NOT READ iT AT ALL
Comment by MYLiSSA TYREE May 2, 2007 @ 4:38 pm