The goal today was to go out and play...well, actually test the Pentax Digital Spot Meter that I have just set up with the Zone system...and set up the Toyo 45A and burn a few sheets of film. I was thinking about some Kodak Tmax 100 because it is crystal clear with blue blue skies and my shutter speed wouldn't be too long for a nice clear landscape image...Well, this is what mother nature decided to do instead.
Sustained north winds (it's kinda cold) at 20 mph and wind gusts up to 55 mph.
Not the kind of weather I want to set up my 4x5 on a tripod and walk away from for even a second. Let alone the blur from everything moving - a lot! So, I decided that today was not a good day to load up the 4x5 and hike out to the field that I have been wanting to photograph...for fear that I might be blown over.
Just a bit breezy today.
I know my bamboo moves a lot when it's windy, but it was almost laying down a few times. It was WINDY!
I stayed inside, pulled out my Pentax Digital Spot Meter. I've used one in the past...but it has been a while, and Like riding a bike, I needed to get familiar with how it worked again and how it would work for me.
The Pentax Digital Spot Meter is pretty simple in how it works. Here are a few pics (iphone) on what it looks, it is pretty small and pretty analog-ish. Hopefully I can go through a little of how it works for me.
So after a few readings, I started to feel a lot more comfortable using it.
Here it is - isn't it pretty!
The ASA is essentially the same thing as the ISO - the rated sensitivity to light or film speed. ISO - International Organization for Standardization was created in 1987 and for the most part became the widely used measurement of a films speed and replaced ASA - American Standards Association. That being said, this spot meter was made before 1987...So, on the front of the spot meter, there is the ASA designation in green- this is set to the film speed (ISO) or what you are planning on shooting the film at. Next is the shutter speed in white, then the f-stop in blue followed by the EV - Exposure Value in neon Orange. The you see a gray scale in roman numerals...that is fro the Zone System. When you look through the eye piece while pointing the meters 1 degree spot meter at a highlight or brightest area in your image view, press the trigger and make note of the EV number. From here, zone VIII is the brightest zone where detail is still kept in the hight lights. Move the EV number that you just read to zone VIII. Now look at the aperture that you would like to record your image at, you will see the corresponding shutter speed (white)...set your camera and away your go... But wait...there's more. What if the black area in your image is dark - really, really dark. I usually take a meter reading at the darkest are in my image view too. I look at where I want the darks to fall on the Zone System scale - Zone II being the darkest area in which shadow detail can still be seen - before it blocks up or goes muddy or just becomes a big black blob. Here is the thing, When shooting film you shoot for the shadows. When shooting Digital you shoot for the highlights. Technically there is a lot more to it than that. In the image below, the shadows in the deep area of the forest measured at EV 8 and the highlights in the brightest area of the cloud at EV 14...which just so happened to work out perfectly for me in that EV 8 is at Zone II and EV 14 is at Zone VIII. I chose to shoot this image with a pretty shallow depth of field and shot it at f8 @ 1/30th of a second. There was a tiny little breeze that I had to watch out for, but overall, the negative looks great and the scan looks great too. This was shot on Ilford FP4 rated at 125, Toyo 45A with Ilex 90mm f5.6 lens in the middle of the day - roughly 1:00 pm in the afternoon the day before the horrible winds. I just hadn't had time to develop and scan it. Image below!
I honestly have not had this much fun photographing landscape in a long time. Now I want to road trip!!!! Hmmm, where might that take me?
0 Comments