Try
setting your camera for a 2/3 stop underexposure. If that is not enough, then
try a 1 stop underexposure.
Actually I am
shooting manually and ignoring the in-camera meter, but I did notice that, for
the most part, the in-camera meter was pretty much in-line with my hand held
meter. The correct exposure (independent of any light meter reading)
produced a perfect Q14 greyscale from L*100, (absolute white patch) to L*9
(maximum black) with the 8 patch (18% grey) at L*70. The same exposure produces
L*70 from a full frame Kodak grey card.
In fact when I set the camera
to automatic and shoot white, grey and black cards they all translate roughly to
L*70. I would immediately suspect
that my camera was simply overexposing if it weren’t for the fact that this
overexposure produces a perfect Q14 grey scale. But this could be a coincidence.
On the other hand it sounds
like you are telling me the 18% grey card is no longer pertinent since it is no
longer the centre point of the new “move to the right” exposure strategy,
especially when the camera range exceeds the target. If my results are universal, (and they
probably arent, which is why I am going out to get a bunch of more cameras
to test), I am wondering if there isn’t a digital grey card that can be
used reliably for digital capture to produce this perfect exposure in the field.
Of course the field will provide a dynamic range that will exceed the camera,
but similar tests that I have performed outside seem to indicate that the best
exposure produces a grey card at somewhere between L*64 and L*70. The only problem seems to be expecting
L*54. Maybe it would be simpler to
start targeting L*70 from an 18% grey card to obtain the right exposure? .
OR perhaps the in-camera histogram with clipping
preview has made both the light meter and the grey card redundant?