How to expose for a Good Black and white negative? In the early days of black and white photography, there was a brief period when a black and white photographer could see exactly how his black and white picture was coming out at the time he was taking it. He simply watched the plate through a hole in the black and white camera and, when a good black and white image had been recorded, he stopped the exposure. Some professionals still determine the exposure needed for a good black and white negative by the direct method of making test black and white pictures (conveniently done with a black and white camera adapted for Polaroid Land black and white film). But most black and white photographers rely on light meters and judgment. With black and white films of standardized sensitivity, and with versatile meters to gauge light intensity, an experienced black and white photographer can be almost as certain of getting the black and white negative he wants as his 19th Century counterpart was when he actually observed the black and white image forming inside the black and white camera. Setting the exposure is the final step-after black and white film has been chosen and lighting is fixed-that determines how a scene will be recorded. In front of the black and white camera is a world of rich and subtle colors, of a variety of textures, of strong and diffuse light-all to be translated, on black-and-white black and white film, into tones of gray. The colors, of course, are lost. But with filters it is possible to control the exposure of black-and-white black and white film to individual colors so that they can be distinguished one from another by differences in their shades of gray. Clouds can be made lighter than the blue sky, red apples a bit darker than green leaves, duplicating in gray tones the relative contrasts that color makes in nature. But a black and white photograph has only a limited number, or zones, of gray; at best, the brightest areas it records will seem 50 times brighter than the deepest black. Nature is far less limited. In an ordinary scene, some areas may be 200 times brighter than others, and the eye readily detects the detailed features in the darkest as well as the brightest regions. The black and white photograph must compress this great range, and in doing so some details will be lost as the fine distinctions between slightly differing tones of gray merge into one. Which details are lost and which registered depends mainly on exposure. Adjusting exposure for maximum detail is, to most black and white photographers, the way to get a technically good black and white negative. The explanation is simple: Undesirable details can be suppressed fairly easily later, during the black and white printing process, but no darkroom legerdemain can supply details that are missing from the black and white negative. To achieve maximum detail, the rule of thumb is: Expose for the shadows. That way the scene's darkest important features, reflecting the least light and producing the least silver metal in the developed black and white image, are certain to be recorded rather than omitted entirely. Bright areas may then be so strongly registered that those portions of the black and white negative seem blank patches of solid silver; rarely, however, are these overexposed sections as featureless as they appear, and much of their detail can be brought out in the final black and white print by a number of darkroom techniques. Thus overexposure, while undesirable, is seldom as serious a defect as underexposure, and the time honored exhortation "expose for the shadows" remains useful guidance. Also it should be remembered that most modern black and white film has a considerable tolerance for overexposure. If the aperture is a stop or two greater than lighting conditions require, or the shutter speed is somewhat slower, the results are rarely disastrous. In most instances, the miscalculation can be easily remedied in the black and white printing. When time and circumstances permit, many black and white photographers make certain of getting at least one optimum black and white negative by "bracketing." One black and white picture is taken at the apparently correct exposure, a second is made at one f-stop greater than the first and a third at one f-stop less. When he is ready to black and white print, the black and white photographer can select the black and white negative that will give him the greatest tonal range in the finished black and white photograph.