Another exeriment with overexposure

I have been playing with the idea of overexposing a few stops and just shooting without metering that much. If I am at 2.8 aperture, then shooting at like 1/125 or 1/250 in the shade and just going for it even if the light changes. Check these out. I was at a session and my light meter started giving me the same exact reading even when I moved it to a very different lighting situation, so I obviously knew it wasn't working. I just tried to make a conservative estimate of what the light was at erring on the side of overexposure. I took both of these images right at sunset and my setting for both images was 2.0 1/60 (it was my conservative estimate, remember? But I forgot to give it a few more stops when we went into the direct sun). I am guessing that I was about six stops over in the sunny one and maybe 3ish in the shaded one.

Look how sunny and colorful the overexposed image is! It's very Hawaiian vacation-ish and this is Oregon!! The water was grey to the natural eye!!

Exposure Comparisons

I have been looking forward to the results of this test for a while! Let me explain, the close series is taken with the 400H. The image on the far left is one stop overexposed, the far image on the right is 6 stops overexposed and each image in between represents one stop difference. The second series (more zoomed out) is the same thing, but with the 800Z. Notice how the more overexposed the image is, the more soft and less contrasty it becomes. Now, I was really surprised there wasn't a greater difference in the images and the two images side by side were taken from the 400H test and I just played with with color and levels in photoshop to make them look really similar. You have so much latitude shooting film! When in doubt, just bump up your exposure! None of the images in the two series are photoshopped.

With that, I am going to announce my studies in film are mostly complete! I don't have enough content to continue posting everyday, but every once in a while when I learn something new, I will try to share it.

Fuji Neopan 1600

There are a few of the getting ready pictures from the wedding I posted yesterday. I was so ticked that these turned out so well. I metered for the light side of the room and the dark side (when I switched to the angle of the shadows. At one point, I forgot to switch back to the light side and overexposed some of the images a total of two stops, but they looked great! It was so impressive to have that kind of latitude with true black and white film. At one of the last weddings I did (but haven't gotten the film back for) I wanted to take a bunch of candid shots of the guests talking and enjoying each others company, but I wanted to shoot it film. So what did I do? I exposed for all angles of the area I was shooting and there was about a one stop difference from the shadier side of the area to the brighter side. I am really liking to overexpose everything at one stop just as a given for protection(because underexposing is like the worst thing you can possibly do), so I metered for the shadiest area and exposed over that one stop. That means that all of the images I shot of the guests were either one or two stops overexposed depending on where they were standing and what angle I shot it. Those will be posted at a later date and I hope they turn out, but I thought I was pretty clever on that one :)

Some 800Z

These are taken right out of camera and 1/2 stop overexposed. I exposed for the shadows with my light meter and the light meter was telling me that it was overexposing at the aperture I wanted 1.5 so I doubled the shudder speed to make it only .5 over. These are straight out of the camera taken at f2.8 with the Pentax 645. I did have some issue with flair as you can see and although I do like flair sometimes, it just doesn't look very good on film and I also want to have control and not ever be surprised when I get my film back. For that reason, when I buy my Contax (which is hopefully soon) I will be getting a bellows for it to block all flair. Jon has one on his Contax and says it works like a charm and way better than the lens hood that goes with the Contax lens.

Some Bad Ones

What went wrong? I don't know...could have been because I didn't have a light meter? Okay, so these are some that I wonder about. They are weird looking. What do you think? They were shot with 400H.

Wedding Day

The next two posts are from the day we had "Bride and Groom" models. I am just throwing these up with not a ton of details, they just need to be posted :) They are all taken the Jon Canlas way with exposing for the shadows, very simple! I hope I can replicate the look at home, ha ha. We will see when I get me next batch of film it!

I also have some pictures that I took from the rooftop restaurant at the hostel where a lot of us stayed. What a view!!

I don't want a learning curve!

It is so difficult to make mistakes shooting film! Today at a wedding I fear that I underexposed some of my images by 4 stops! Luckily Mel was there shooting digital as my backup so there is no harm other than to my hopes and dreams of getting some amazing film shots. I feel like I am getting so much better at shooting film and I rocked that roll other than my one tiny little issue of completely ruining the roll!

Ya know, that is the second time I have messed up my exposure because I forgot to check the aperture before shooting away, the first time I caught it after shooting only three images and just re shot them, but this time, my heart broke a little inside.

On a more positive note, I got a bunch of film back from the lab (I have been shooting a roll or two at every wedding this year and I LOVE what I am getting! Here is a pretty image that I love. Click on it to see it bigger because this little thumbnail just won't do it justice ;)

More of the same

The context of some of these has been explained in earlier posts. Another head shot of Polly (my main testing-out-my-own-ideas model) and touching strangers in the harsh harsh sun. Film is amazing!

These are from the second day of shooting when we had families as models. Again, these are straight out of camera. I can't wait to post some of the new film I shot from my last wedding! It is my first attempt to get this amazing stuff on my own!