Salon - - Photography - Page 4

Ed_L · #46 11-01-2002, 07:58 PM

Jak has some good advice on hyperfocal focusing. I used to shoot weddings, and I'd use that technique when I would shoot the dance floor shots because it was fast shooting, and fairly dark (but I did use flash). I'm not sure if you realize this, but shutter speed has no effect on focus (but it does on movement). Pick the aperture you need, then while metering, you should know if your shutter speed is fast enough. If not, you will have to make adjustments on your aperture setting, which will influence the depth of field. I think Clare was saying to be sure the bright windows do not influence your meter reading, or you could have some very poor exposures. I think it would be good if you could visit the shooting area before the day of shooting, just to get an idea of what you'll run into. Be sure to take your camera to test things out if you go. Best of luck.

Ed

CJ Swartz · #47 11-01-2002, 11:47 PM

Paulette, don't know if it's allowed, but if you can position yourself next to the windows and shoot towards the cheerleaders USING the window light, but not INTO the window light, you'll have wonderful natural lighting and less concern about "blowing out" the highlights from the sunshine.

paulette conlan · #48 11-02-2002, 11:34 AM

Thanks for all of the information.As I understand it now, the lower the aperature( higher f stop) the more that I will have a zone that will be in focus. What I have to do is get the highest possible shutter speed combined with the highest possible f stop to create an infocus zone.

I really can't do anything about where the group that I will be shooting will be positioning themself. It's the only place in the room where they can position themselves to perform.

Fortunately I 'll be able to try out some pictures in advance. I'd gotten so used to my digital camera that I've forgotten so much about using a "real" camera. Unfortunantly I find that my digital camera is not up to par with one of my "real" cameras when I do action photography. The shutter lag drives me crazy.

Paulette

Ed_L · #49 11-02-2002, 04:03 PM

Paulette,

If you find that you don't have quite enough light when you're shooting, you can always push the film (underexpose it) a stop or two, then have it processed as such. I'm not sure what the best film type would be for best results, but maybe someone else (Jak?) can shed some light on that subject. If not, the Kodak website should give you that kind of information (I think). Just remember that if you push film, you lose some quality. Just something else to think about if you run into trouble.

Ed

Jakaleena · #50 11-02-2002, 08:51 PM

It's not usually a good idea to push process color film. BW film lends itself well to push processing, but pushing color film can give some unwanted color shifts and also enhances the grain quite a bit.

Color film has a great deal of latitude built into it and can usually be underexposed by a couple of stops without having to adjust the processing.

The following quote is from The Black & White Darkroom

Quote:

Black and white negative films and color reversal films (slides) can be push processed. Color print films however have a far greater latitude than do color slide films. A color print film can be incorrectly exposed by as much as 2 stops and still produce a satisfactory print using standard processing. Also when color print films are pushed, they may develop strange color casts which are difficult to correct. For these reasons, do not attempt this technique with color print films.

If you have access to the location before hand, it is a good idea to just go and make some test shots. I really do recommend using flash if at all possible. When I shoot rodeos indoors, I use Kodak Supra 800, a good flash, and the fastest shutter speed possible. I prefer 1/250 or better, but sometimes the fastest possible is only 1/125, but with good flash that's usually enough.

If 800 speed film isn't quite enough, Fuji makes a 1600 speed color film (although it is fairly grainy).

Ed_L · #51 11-03-2002, 06:53 AM

Thanks for the info Jak. I've push processed B&W and E-6 films, but I never tried color negative films. Good to know.

Ed

chris h · #52 07-01-2003, 12:18 PM

Dave I was just wondering if you managed any photography with the Pentax or are you still ploughing through the manuals !!!

d_kendal · #53 07-01-2003, 03:27 PM

Hey Chris,

well I read up a bit on the manuals, replaced the dead battery and everything put in a roll of film to test it out, but it didn't actually work, so for now I'm still using a regular point and shoot camera (I found a cheap used Pentax 38-60mm zoom camera). I did get a bit of practice shooting some pics when I went for a bit of a vacation two weeks ago to some nice falls in the southern end of my province. I'll try to post some of them in the gallery when I've got my new system built up (I'm using my Linux server right now as an interim system for email and everything - I'm not going to try to hook up my scanner though, too much of a pain to configure in Linux..) anyway, I've pretty much given up on trying to get an SLR, I'm spending all my money on new computer parts and other things (well, mostly computer parts!)

- David

P.S. Happy Canada Day to all you Canadians on here!!

chris h · #54 07-01-2003, 04:12 PM

Won't that Pentax work in manual mode? Forget all this high end computer stuff and get snapping!

ditto "and other things" Assuming you mean the young ladies of Edmonton cast them aside women are fatal when it comes to creating 'art'

d_kendal · #55 07-01-2003, 04:30 PM

Well actually I tried everything I could think of with the camera and couldn't get it to work, I may try taking it in to a camera shop to see if they can convince it to work for me though.
lol, actually by "other things" I was just referring to bills, i.e. my dsl line, sattelite tv, cell phone.. nothing particularly exciting!

- David

chris h · #56 07-01-2003, 05:26 PM

Funny you should mention ADSL it actually been activated in my rural village so should be bidding pop3 farewell on the 8th July !

d_kendal · #57 07-01-2003, 11:05 PM

nice! I do have to warn you though, once you try it you'll never be able to go back to dial up again, any time I'm forced to use it now I'm always suprised by how incredibly slow it is when compared to broadband.

- David

chris h · #58 07-02-2003, 02:50 AM

Thats the general view of everybody I think Dave. ADSL has been slow to appear outside of the cities here which made it all the more surprising when I got the news here. There are some large offices nearby which I thought might have speeded the arrival of ADSL but they probably had their own private data links anyway.