Today, i'm going to get into the opposites of photography. They don't attract at all.. that was a cheeky turn of words used to pull you in with something familiar. After that, this is all pure honesty.. pure reality and stuff i've happily (or unhappily) happened upon.
Shadows and highlights... ANALOGUE VS DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY.
Now this is a real fucker for anyone trying to switch between the two.
With digital, if you're going to get the exposure of the photo wrong (or want to retain information to save later) it's better to under-expose (not let in enough light) as the shadows preserve loads of detail. If you over-expose and let in too much light, the highlights are blown out forever never to be saved. Sadface. Therefore it's better to shoot under to later save a sky. This means you can get away with faster shutter speeds in low light and save it later.
With FILM however, you need to do the opposite. Firstly, take a light meter reading exposing for the shadows (which means you'll naturally be over-exposing (letting in too much light for the mids and the highlights) and then overexpose a little more (+1 stop for portra and fuji 400h) - Highlights can be pulled back LOADS whereas if you don't let in enough light, the shadows retain very little if no information at all and will just get hella grainy and destroyed! Film has a lot of latitude to save an image that is overexposed if you get your exposure wrong so really it's so forgiving.
NERD OUT OVER
i lied. This is a photography blog. It's only just begun. sozzle xx