Hi! Dynamic Range

My aim has always been to catch every bit of texture, color and detail that I can. Way back when I used Kodak High Contrast Copy and H&W Control Developer (H&W promised large format quality from 35mm film), I kept trying all sorts of films and developers since I didn't really want to schlep medium or large format stuff around.

Oy, is it easier today... an 8 to 10 megapixel dslr, raw file and some basic attention to what one is doing and 11x14 and 16x20 prints are great.

Everything I learned from perusing Ansel Adams books - "The Print", "The Negative" and "The Camera" helped immensely (although I never went too crazy with all the paper and film testing that seemed to be required - left all that up to David Vestal). All of Adam's work still applies - seeing where and how tone and contrast will fall in the final print. Often this requires disagreeing the camera meter, or relying (not ideal, but sometimes unavoidable) on the contrast range of the sensor.

The old down and dirty film technique (for black and white) was expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights. This meant overexpose about a stop and cut back on development 20%- 30%. Shooting through a light yellow filter helped. Slide film was another story - I simply underexposed a little and hoped for the best.

If there is a down and dirty digital method I would have to guess it goes something like this:
1. Realize that the camera's meter is trying to average everything out to some middle point.
2. Know when that will work.
3. Know when it won't.
4. Bracket. But not too much.
5. Assuming that a high quality print is the point - try to see the finished print of the subject before you press the shutter release.

And shoot shoot shoot and shoot some more.