Digital BW, The Print

Anthony G. Atkielski wrote:
> The EXIF data for virtually every photo shows deliberate underexposure
> of up to 2 stops.  

Okay, I see what you're saying.

Quite normally, I tend to underexpose 1/3 stop from whatever
the ISO marker is. Digital shooting, in that regard, much more 
reminds me of what it was like to work with transparency film 
than when I used negative film (when I use to shoot neg film,
for example, quite normal that I use to over-expose by
2/3 f/stop).

Beyond that, there were times where I was shooting on this
trip where I didn't altogether trust what my lightmeter was
telling me (lightmeters can read light, but they can't interpret
what they read). And so in those moments if there seemed
to me a discrepency between what the lightmeter said
and what the scene was showing me (perhaps reflecting
more light than the "average" scene), then I'd perhaps
bracket my exposures, and decide later on which final
image seemed the most workable.

And so yeah, sometimes it was just the case that the image
I most found workable was the one which was 1 or 2
f/stops underexposed relative to what the lightmeter
suggested was the exposure to shoot at.

************ 

> Most photos have been retouched to lighten or darken
> certain areas as well.

Oh yes, absolutely. Mother nature's lighting does not always
co-operate exactly the way I want her to. So not altogether
unusual that I will do some burning or dodging in different
areas of my image so that I get something which I am
personally more pleased with. 

And that part of it grew out of my decades of working in a 
physical darkroom (spending more hours and even years
in the dark than I'd care to admit), and so that part of my image 
making just carried on when I left the physical darkroom
for the digital darkroom (which at least allows me to
sit in front of my computer screen rather than sending
seemingly endless hours standing in the dark hunched
over chemical trays).

So hopefully that better answers the earlier question.

But the earlier answer also still stand as to why they
are the way they are -- my holiday... so I got to make
the images the way I wanted. And that's the way I 
make my images today.

CJ