Snow and the 35mm Elmar

[Sanders McNew]

The photos with the Superb from the Serra show were superb. Looking forward to seeing what you do next with it.

Do you ever shoot color? I thought the uncoated Heliar had a nice effect with a punchy, but not off the scale, slide film like Provia 100F.

Funny you should mention the Serra shots --
I posted them here in another thread on TLRs.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=665280&postcount=358

I've not shot color film before, but I would like to
play with some muted color film, or film with an
odd/imprecise rendering of the palette. Any
suggestions?

Sanders.

 

[Sanders McNew]

Is that a coated Elmar?
... Still Fomapan?

John, it is uncoated. I used a FISON hood.
And yes, still Foma 200, rated at EI 80.

Sanders

 

[john neal]

John, it is uncoated. I used a FISON hood.
Sanders

You have controlled the potential for flare very well, given that the lens is uncoated, my Elmar shots in similar conditions have been very soft. I don't have a FISON (could never afford a nice one). I do have a Swiss after-market hood (can't remember the name) but I think it vignettes slightly with the Summaron.

I'm just hoping that we get some snow this winter - the last five or six have been very mild where I live.

 

[David Goldfarb]

I've not shot color film before, but I would like to
play with some muted color film, or film with an
odd/imprecise rendering of the palette. Any
suggestions?

Sanders.

The Heliar will take some of the edge off, so something like Provia should be just about right. If you want something more muted, try Astia 100F for transparencies or for color neg Portra 160NC.

Years ago I used to like Agfachrome 100, which could print easily to Cibachrome without need for masking, but I never tried the more recent versions of this film. Astia and Portra 160NC are in the same ballpark.

 

[john neal]

I've not shot color film before, but I would like to
play with some muted color film, or film with an
odd/imprecise rendering of the palette. Any
suggestions?

I find that Kodak 200VR print film comes out quite nicely muted with an uncoated lens - just rate it at 120asa and get it processed normally. It's a bit like 1970's colour film, not too saturated. I find it cheap too - at our local supermarket I get 2 x 36 cassettes for less than £1.70.

 

[sepiareverb]

Love that fresh snow in NY. When I lived on B'way (@ 125th) I had a great fresh snow day out along the river under Riverside Drive. They had dismantled the ironwork back then to restore it all, and fresh snow on the stacked iron was lovely. If I can dig out a print this-afternoon I'll scan it. We've fresh snow here in VT today, a very sloppy one so I'm off today- college closed up due to weather!

Found it.

 

[dingowarlord]

Great Image Sanders, I can just hear the dog saying; "You Looking at me?"
It was nasty weather. I was driving down Broadway yesterday morning around 8:00am.

 

[rumbliegeos]

Beautiful photographs - I clearly need to pull some b+w film out of the freezer, and shoot some of our accumulating 12" of snow. Not that it matters, but is that an afghan or wolfhound?
gerry

 

[Sanders McNew]

is that an afghan or wolfhound?

Beats me. Someone else called him a Borzoi.
(I thought that was a Russian ballet company.)

 

[FPjohn]

GW means more precipitation

GW means more precipitation

Marvelous!

 

[LeicaTom]

That`s a classic shot....just love the dog, poor thing he`s NOT digging the weather at all

I`d feel the same way too

Tom

 

[KenD]

Sanders-

If you really want to bend the color pallette try Ektachrome infrared! It is getting a bit hard to find, but really produces some wild colors. It may not be as much fun in the winter since the biggest shifts tend to be the vegetation if you are outdoors.

Ken

 

[Sanders McNew]

If you really want to bend the color pallette try Ektachrome infrared! It is getting a bit hard to find, but really produces some wild colors. It may not be as much fun in the winter since the biggest shifts tend to be the vegetation if you are outdoors.

I am thinking more about a look at the other extreme
-- something really muted, almost black and white,
with grain.

Suggestions?

 

[David Goldfarb]

Portra 160NC is pretty muted.

Of course with larger cameras there's Polaroid type 669/59/809. This one's 809--

 

[KenD]

I am thinking more about a look at the other extreme
-- something really muted, almost black and white,
with grain.

Suggestions?

Fastest slide film you can find, push processed, overexposed 1 stop beyond your pushed speed, shoot with your widest lens (or zoom out with your feet), and crop like crazy so you get major blow-up. Check out some of Sarah Moon's early stuff. Some of David Hamilton's stuff is similar, but Moon's grain is gigantic. Gets very soft, muted, impessionistic. Shoot daylight with tungsten and it starts to look somewhere in between sepia toned and soft color.

 

[John Shriver]

Overexposed Kodachrome 200.

 

[sepiareverb]

Fuji Provia 400F @ 800 might work- 640 gives a little less harsh grain, but Provia 400F has a good 'city grey' even when shot in the winter woods. Sorry, no scans to post.

 

[kuzano]

Compensation for the prime failing of meters

Compensation for the prime failing of meters

Thats a wonderful shot. How did you go about setting the exposure? Did you meter against the snow, sky or what? Hpoe we get some this year.

The meter only does one thing... it measures light, and it does it badly on a scene with unusual lighting characteristics.

Actually, in the picture posted, there is a lot of average scene in the upper and right side of the scene, so I'd tilt the meter up and right just a tad and take the shot as metered. The other option, since it's a snow day and most other images for the day may be weighted to the bright side, would be to meter the scene toward the bright and then open up 1 to 1.5 stops to bring the white back up from grey. (exposure compensation says increase the exposure when the scene is overly bright, decrease the exposure when the scene is overly dark). It took me a long time to understand compensation until "the light went on". The meters job is to render a neutral (18%) grey. So when it sees snow, it stops the shutter or f-stop down to turn the white neutral (grey dingy snow). You must open up to render white snow. Conversely, when the meter reads a largely dark scene, it opens the exposure up to bring the blacks up to neutral grey. To get the darks back, you must override the meter reading and stop down.

That's why all the modern metered camera's have exposure compensation built in to them. You know... the little wheel that goes up + two stops and down - two stops.

 

[Stu W]

Beats me. Someone else called him a Borzoi.
(I thought that was a Russian ballet company.)

I think it's a Russian Wolfhound which I believe is the same as a Borzoi. I end up in Brighton Beach a lot and there are a ton of them there. Stu

 

[sepiareverb]

Fall asleep on the train Stu? 😀