Best B&W for the snowy mountains

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Bill N

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May 20, 2007
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I have never shot film ski mountaineering. But just purchased a sweet Rollei 35.
Any B&W film recommendations?
Thanks!
 
Your choice of 400 iso film plus a yellow or orange filter. As much as i prefer 100, if you're zone focusing, you've got an edge with faster film. Lately I've been using more Kodak TMY2.
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Fuji GSW690iii / Tri-X/ print on Forte FB
Flickr
 
I took different cameras from XA to Start on me while skiing.
Don't know why, but I liked skiing with Nikkormat and 28 3.5 Nikkor lens :)

Didn't find one film been more special than other. If you are during sunny day, 100-125 ISO is more suitable.
 
CMS 20 - the resolution is outstanding. With it you can see that the little black spots are indeed skiers or climbers. 1/100 sek, f8. If you need more speed, acros II is probably the best choice. None of these would be my choice for an early start. Ilford orto plus could also a good choice.
 
james.liam said:
Did you bring along a Sherpa with a strong back? ;)
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No Sherpas, the Fujis as you know, are big & light. They're just bulky.i used a Lowepro fanny pack with the waist belt cut off and a shoulder strap added. Backpack with mountain gear plus the Lowepro diagonally in front. I switched to the Mamiya 6 and now the Plaubel Makina 670.
If you consider using a contrast filter, the exposure if/when you're in the shadows, the change of light intensity from first light until late afternoon, as well as near/far depth of field, it's hard to count on slow films to stop skiier movement.....& that's not factoring your breathing due to activity (since we're not talking about pro, location photographers for set-up shots).
If you're choosing the landscape aspect and you can choose your time, i like both FP4+ and Tmax 100 processed in Pyrocat HD.

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1/250 5.6

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Tri-X yellow filter, Mamiya 6 50mm,
 
Also, remember to over-expose by a stop or two to make the snow bright white. The light meter on most cameras try for a perfect 18% gray averaged over the whole photo, so if there's a lot of snow in the image the whole image will be dimmed, and the snow will look gray while people will be too dark.

If the picture doesn't have any snow in the scene, use standard metering.

Have fun,
Scott
 
Sunny f16

Sunny f16

I agree with Skucera that the metering of most cameras (mine anyway) is off by a couple of stops where snow makes up most of the field of view. I always check the meter against the sunny f16 rule and find that the rule usually is correct. Now I just set the camera manually based on that. I suppose that an incident light meter would be better, but it’s just another piece of equipment to carry along under what are usually somewhat trying conditions.
 
KenR said:
I agree with Skucera that the metering of most cameras (mine anyway) is off by a couple of stops where snow makes up most of the field of view. I always check the meter against the sunny f16 rule and find that the rule usually is correct. Now I just set the camera manually based on that. I suppose that an incident light meter would be better, but it’s just another piece of equipment to carry along under what are usually somewhat trying conditions.
Click to expand...

Another vote for the sunny f16. Also there some phone apps that you can get decent results by metering for your hands.
 
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