a little help please...

[wblanchard]

i am shooting a bride and groom tomorrow afternoon at 4pm cst. this will be outside and i will have my hexar af loaded with fuji nph 400 film. they want their photos taken in front of a water fountain. she will be wearing a off white dress, the same color of the veil. the groom will be in dark suit. she has a olive skin and he has a mulato skin color. I also have some neopan 1600 film to use. I wanted to shoot the NPH 400 at 320 to bring out some of his dark suit.

yes..i know my lens is limited on the hexar af, but they want full body shots and backgrounds like old vintage photographs. and i plan on using the hexar af flash unit.

My problem or question is this:
what speed setting, if possible with my hexar af, would stop the water and make it look like time stopped? I plan on using my bogen tripod. i just thought this would be a cool image for them.

i plan on doing a focus on her eyes and recomposing for the shot. would i need to over or underexpose with the neopan 1600 outside?

Thanks for all the help.
Panic Bill in Milwaukee

 

[FrankS]

My problem or question is this:
what speed setting, if possible with my hexar af, would stop the water and make it look like time stopped? I plan on using my bogen tripod. i just thought this would be a cool image for them.

The Hexar AF's top shutter speed is 1/250 sec.

i plan on doing a focus on her eyes and recomposing for the shot. would i need to over or underexpose with the neopan 1600 outside?

There would be no point to using 1600 speed film over 400 speed film because the camera isn't going to have a faster shutter speed than 1/250 sec. which you will get using 400 speed film outside

 

[pshinkaw]

I would expose for the darkest skin tone.

Usually running water requires at least 1/125 to make it freeze.

The real challenge is in not losing detail in the white wedding dress while trying to preserve detail in the facial features.

If you elect to use a fill-flash, go easy with it, because of the tendecy to wash-out the dress.

-Paul

 

[BJ Bignell]

Bill,

I'll bet 1/250 is enough, and 1/1000 will freeze it solid... If it's nice and sunny, that's something like f/11 with 400 film. It's no sin to bracket, either.

Tell them you're gonna try three different shots, and do them at 1/15 (nice blur effect, but at ISO 400 you'll likely need a ND filter), 1/250, and 1/1000. IMO, when the water is frozen too much, it sometimes looks strange.

edit/
That's right, the top speed on your camera is 250... well, do you have another camera you can take, as a backup at least?

BJ

 

[FrankS]

I repeat, Hexar af's top shutter speed is 1/250sec.

 

[wblanchard]

thanks for hammering the point frank! 🙂 its like telling me im too short! j/k with you frank.

i still think 400 speed film at 1/250 will do a nice job with the image. nph film on a sunny day or overcast will work wonders. but i thank you for the reassurance. so if i focus on her or his eyes and recompose at the same distance it should turn out good. but with darker skin tones, i may have to bracket to make sure.

im sorry guys, im really old school thinking. i always used my eyes as the meter on sunny days. if i dial in at sunny 16 and i need to squint my eyes to see the subject matter, i know to overexpose by 1 or 2. i guess all this thinking is making me nervous about tomorrow.

 

[FrankS]

It wasn't so much for you that I was repeating it, it was for others who were talking about 1/1000 sec speeds. Pray for an overcast day. Full-on sun is a bitch for photographing people. If it is sunny, you practically have to turn their backs to it and try and shade your lens from it. If the light comes in from the side and cuts across their faces, you'll have problems, so get their whole face in shadow. Shadow exposure is 3 stops less than sunny 16 exposure so set the Hexar AF at f8 if you've got their faces in shadow. The camera will see all this sun coming in and max out a 1/250 sec and you'll be overexposing by 1 stop to get important facial detail on skin that you said was a bit darker.

 

[back alley]

sun is easy...just get an assistant and a big gold reflector!
😉

joe

 

[FrankS]

Try sunglasses on the bride and groom. Cool shot, they might like it. Move into the shade for any other shots, but stay the h*ll away from dappled sunlight in the shade. It looks good to the eye, but film can't handle the contrast.

 

[Bertram2]

sun is easy...just get an assistant and a big gold reflector!
😉

joe

Exactly this would be my recommendation too. The contrast gets too strong otherwise.
And I would like to add that 1/250 is not enuff to really freeze a fountain, splashing water can need up to 1/4000 sec , depending on what you have to shoot.

For your kind of photo I'd prefer the more dynamic blurred water anyway.

Best,
Bertram