ISO twentyfivethousandfourhundred

[menos]

I had a sleepless night yesterday.
What to do then, if there is no moon outside, an overcast night, a camera, that does only shoot to ISO 1600?

Exactly - grab the slowest lens, you have, go outside and shoot low light for some fun push processing ;-) !

In my case, that meant an EPSON R-D1 digital rangefinder and a Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 Heliar combined with cold weather and a public toilet building in Shanghai.

Sounds like fun …eh?

click here to my blog with all the details or just watch the photos below:

http://www.teknopunk.com/en/Blog/Blog.html

… too bad, the image quality doesn't resemble the real file quality from the uncropped full size files. Any tips on raising the file quality during down sizing and compressing are highly welcome.
--
www.teknopunk.com
www.teknopunk.com/load.meter.shutterspeed.aperture.shoot/

 

[Al Kaplan]

An interesting excercize in what the Epson camera is capable of doing, but then you show a photograph that could as easily been shot on a view camera with 8x10 film? With those sharp edged shadow it looks like mid morning or afternoon with a bright sun shining in a clear sky. I'm puzzled. I can understand maybe shooting some type of event wher motion needed stopping...

 

[Pickett Wilson]

I guess my question is how you determined this exposure to be the equivalent of ISO 25,000?

 

[Keith]

I guess my question is how you determined this exposure to be the equivalent of ISO 25,000?

I would have thought you'd shoot at 1600 and underexpose by four stops ... then push it by that amount in post processing!

 

[Ezzie]

Methinks the same.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Can the RD-1 meter indicate anything but underexposure with it that dark, though? I assume he was using a handheld meter.

 

[isorgb]

menos, which software did you use for this experiment?

 

[menos]

Naah Al, this is just about playing with a new camera due to boredom at night.
It helps, to find some limits and gives fun, to explore the tech.

Here are the originals:

and:

Pitch black night with a street lamp as the only light source.
Can't handhold a view camera at 1/4sec still though ;-)

I will continue, to explore the R-D1 further (and of course will also photograph more "meaningful" subjects - promise.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Kind of looks like Tri-X in Rodinol. At least with a view camera you could have avoided the converging vertical lines.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Ah, I see. You were able to get a proper exposure, but pushed it to open up the shadows.

 

[Al Kaplan]

I guess it is fun to do. I just thought of a picture that I have framed in my hallway that I shot in 1962 by fire light inside a big light colored tent of a girl playing guitar. At the time I was pushing the envelope with the latest technology: Kodak Royal-X Pan Recording in just introduced Acufine, rating the combo at 3200.


I sure don't see any open shadows in your picture.

 

[menos]

It is great fun to do these things, Al. Before my first rangefinder, I shot a D3 quite a bit at ISO 3200 and more. One of the first thoughts when I bought the M6 was: it only meters to ISO 1600 and this thing called film is only rated ISO 400? What do I do now?"

That was the moment, when I started, to try out software pushing with Lightroom.
Every time, I find out more things about it - love it.

@ Picket:

Actually my method with this photo was more the crude neanderthal way. I just pushed the exposure by 4 stops and went with curve adjustments from there ;-) I was too lazy, to spent much time on this experiment ;-)

I don't have a handheld meter (and try to avoid one). The R-D1 does only meter to ISO 1600 (as the M6) and you are on your own from there. The histogram though provides some idea, in how bad area you move after dark.

@ isorgb:

I use Adobe Lightroom and love it.



I might pack some gloves for tonight and net a few shots more - can check the glove quality of the R-D1 this way the first time.

 

[Al Kaplan]

Royal-X Pan was factory rated by Kodak at 1250 back in 1962. A few years later it was replaced (in 35mm) by 2475 Recording and then 2484 Recording (hope I remembered those numbers right), both on thin Estar base and available in 35mm cassettes. The 2484wasn't really any more grainy that the original mid-1950's Tri-X. They all easily pushed a stop or two in Acufine. I think that Kodak's suggested developer was their own HC-110.

Once 2475 became available in cassettes a lot of shops stocked it and a lot of newspapers kept some on hand. The bigger problem was that we could shoot hand held in situations where a Gossen Luna-Pro had trouble making a reading, but there were tricks to work around that.

What about Fuji 1600?

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Shot a lot of 2475 recording film back in the day. Folks don't know from grain these days! 2475 was incredibly grainy, but if you needed the speed, that was the way to get the shot.

 

[menos]

Al, Picket, it is always interesting to hear about these experiences, as I made my first steps in photography from digital ;-)

If you start this late, there is a lot to explore and learn, making it a fun process even more so. Some film and chemicals might be gone and history, but most of the interesting stuff should be still around for experiments.

 

[Pickett Wilson]

Menos, the "good old days" really weren't. 🙂

 

[Ezzie]

The expression goes "Mad as a hatter" Had photography and darkrooms been invented earlier, it would have read "Mad as a phtotgrapher", I for one do not relish inhaling chemical fumes any more.