Norwood's dome in incident light exposure meters

[Doug Kerr]

Many incident light exposure meters, both electromechanical and electronic, have a light collector in the form of a translucent hemispherical dome, or something similar.

This construct has its roots in a development by Donald W. Norwood in the late 1930s. The story is a fascinating one, with many twists and turns.

The story, best I can reconstruct it, is told in considerable detail in my article on The Pumpkin, "Norwood’s dome: a revolution in
incident‑light photographic exposure metering".

I have just posted to The Pumpkin a revised issue of that article (as Issue 6). There is essentially no new nor substantially-changed information in this issue. It is primarily intended just to improve the presentation.

The article is indexed here on The Pumpkin:

The Pumpkin

Index page of Doug Kerr's The Pumpkin

dougkerr.net

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

The basic concept behind the "dome" light collector on incident light photographic exposure meters is this.

A given "potency' of illumination falling on a subject from some direction other than "from the camera position" is "less effective" in creating a certain exposure result than the same "potency of illumination" falling on the subject in the direction from the camera position.

This cannot be predicted with any theoretical model - do not look for ways to prove this that involve cosines or such. This is an empirical reality. This comes about largely because the human visual assessment of when two exposure results are "comparable" depends in an unpredictable way on how a subject's features may be "shaded" by illumination coming from different directions.

But various researchers - including Don Norwood - have by subjective testing determined typically by what degree a certain potency of illumination affects the assessment of the exposure result as a function of its angle of arrival at the subject.

If we make an incident light exposure meter whose directivity (sensitivity as a function of the angle of arrival of the light) follows that function, then a single measurement made with the meter, regardless of the direction from which the illumination comes, can recommend the desirable photographic exposure for the shot.

And that is what the dome collector on an incident light exposure meter does.

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Well, once I pick up my pen it is hard for me to put it down!

Since I recently announced here a new issue of my article on "Norwood's dome". I have further massaged it a couple of times.

The latest issue as of this writing is Issue 7. The link given in an earlier message to its listing on the index page of The Pumpkin is still valid, but here it is again:

The Pumpkin

Index page of Doug Kerr's The Pumpkin

dougkerr.net

Best regards,

Doug

 

[Doug Kerr]

Don Norwood's original vision, from which the development of the "Norwood's dome" incident light exposure metering system unfolded, starts with this assertion (and I paraphrase):

"As to a photo of a human face, under varied lighting setups, the 'proper' photographic exposure is that based in the average illuminance on the face (the part visible to the camera) on the same basis as if the illumination on the face was wholly 'head on'."

I have poo-pooed this outlook as not being supported by any kind of photometric-photographic model.

He also said that a hemisphere was a fairly good approximation of a human face (that is, the part of it that could be seen by the camera.

Norwood then continued to say that, since an exposure meter with a hemispherical receptor responded to the average illuminance on that receptor, the exposure recommendation of such a meter would be appropriate for various (perhaps all) lighting setups for a human face.

I next note that for some while before the introduction of Norwood's metering method, photographers often used
"duplex metering", in which an incident light meter was used to separately measure the illuminance on the subject from the directions of the two principal lights. Those readings (on an illuminance basis) we averaged, and the result fed into the exposure meter's exposure calculator. Its result was considered the proper photographic exposure for the shot.

This was often found to gave a very desirable result.

Even simpler, as a "rule of thumb" for a setup where the principal illumination came from the side of the subject (at 90° from the camera), photographers were advised to use an exposure one stop greater than would have used with the same light source aimed "head on" to the subject (i.e., from essentially the camera position).

This too was often found to gave a very desirable result (for the cases to which it applied).

Back now to Norwood's vision.

It then turns out that, for lighting from the side (from 90°), the theoretical exposure recommendation from Norwood's system would be the same as that theoretically given, for that lighting setup, by either the duplex metering procedure or the "rule of thumb". Fancy that!

So we are left to wonder whether Don Norwood was prescient or just lucky.

Best regards,

Doug