Response to under exposed

Jim: If you develop longer, you just get more highlight density; you can't develop shadow detail. 'Expose for shadows, Develop for highlights.' I suspect you may be getting unreliable exposure readings, or misinterpreting the reciprosity curve. Foilage reflects a lot of infra-red radiation, but film is not very sensitive to IR. The bad news: light meters read IR very well. This leads to underexposed foilage which is usually placed on zone III, right where we read our basic exposure. Developing time for brightness range expansion or contraction is determined by the placement of zone VII. Meters are not sensitive to UV, but film is! (Alway use a UV filter!) Luckily there is one meter that reads light the same way film 'sees' it. Zone VI Studios (available through Calumet) modifies Pentax spot meters to 'see' like Tri-X. See 'Camera & Darkroom) April 93, p.51. Or maybe you can get a Zone VI catalogue from Calumet.

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