Response to Do you expose the film accurately or overexpose?

It seems the question is "What is correct exposure?" Now if you follow Alan's analogy that your film will show detail for 2 stops below your exposure setting and maybe 6 stops above your exposure setting but to get a good exposure read the highlight and shadow and expose for the mid-point. Lets put some numbers in and see what happens: 100 ISO film, gray card reads EV 15, 2 stops below is EV 13 and 6 stops above is EV 21, that would give an exposure of 1/125 at F/16. If we find the mid-point that would be EV 17 with an exposure of 1/125 at F/32. If only 2 stops of exposure are held on the film below our exposure setting that would equate to EV 15 and everything that lived in the EV 13 & 14 range would be lost on the negative and never make it to the print. In a less contrasty photo this approach would work, in this situation it didn't. I think to sum up what most of the "Masters" have felt since the beginning of photography, those using the zone system and those using other exposure methods is DON'T underexpose and DON'T overdevelop.

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