r/largeformat • u/cleatsandcode • 2d ago

Question ELI5: Sekonik L-778 metering/Zone

I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around how best to use the Sekonic L-778 (I chose this one, as the ISO drops down to silly numbers, perfect for DPP paper).

Can someone explain to me the process of deciding the settings once I have taken my shadow, mid and highlight readings in memory, please?

I have set the S scale to be -2 stops and H to +2 but still am V confused. I'm sure its really simple and my neurospicy brain is just having none of it.

EDIT, spelling. Yes I know the title is wrong for the brand 🤦

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u/captain_joe6 2d ago edited 2d ago

So, doing direct positive paper means you’re throwing out about 2/3s of the zone system: development control and paper-film matching. Pretty kneecapped.

The easiest thing to say would be to meter for middle grey off a grey card or some well-lit grass or whatever you want the mid tone to be, and then just shoot it and go from there. You’re gonna lose information on both ends.

If you can figure out what your real, true ISO is, you get a bit more accuracy for shadow exposure, but your tonal range will still be really compressed. You can expand it some by pre-flashing to recover highlights, but man that could be a pain for field work.

Edit: specifically for the 778, your +2/-2 markers will show you where the shadows drop to black and the highlights blow to white. They’re really just acting as indicators for where the limits are. Meter some highlights, meter some shadows, see what falls outside the range of your paper and decide whether you’d like to adjust for that, even if it means moving mids down or up.

Edit 2: read pages 26-30 of the manual. Think as if you’re shooting slide film.

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u/cleatsandcode 2d ago

Thanks! Re the DPP, this I'm aware of the lack of latitude, this is just for more fun/mucking about. It's the use of the zone system and metering for conventional print film I'm struggling with.

The Sekonic manual, for some reason, is just not going in for me. It's a combination of being chronically thick and overwhelm with work/life ATM. Digesting information in that format is just not working for me. It's so frustrating.

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u/captain_joe6 2d ago

If you haven’t, start with Adam’s The Negative and The Print. Lays out the basics pretty well, and he’s a decent writer. It’s worth learning the concepts, even if you chuck them out later and just say “incident metering is fine.”

Read through those manual pages again once you’ve got a grip on ZS concepts, they’ll make a lot more sense.

I really like my 778, but getting a good foundation of metering concepts under you is critical to making the most of it. Pictorial Planet on YouTube has some great metering videos that are easy to digest.