polaroid with color negs

[Chad Barrington]

I've been out of LF for a while now, but am using my honeymoon this September to Hawaii as a good reason to get back into it. Now, I have shot 99% black and white with the exception of about3 chromes- but want to shoot color negs during my trip to print myself when I get back. So the question I have is- Is shooting polaroids like I was with chromes or studio work to check my exposure going to be as critical? Neg film has a little more wiggle room than chromes when it comes to printing, and I'd rather bracket than spend extra time in Hawaii screwing with polaroid. Plus, it's one more thing I'd like to not have to lug along and a few bucks I can save and use on film. Any feedback would help. Thanks!

[Ed Richards]

> I'd rather bracket than spend extra time in Hawaii screwing with polaroid.

This is your honeymoon - I suggest that you do not spend time screwing with the camera at all.:-)

[Chris Gardner]

Chad,

I shoot almost exclusively color negative film (4x5 and 8x10). Color negative film is amazingly forgiving. Unlike/the opposite of, transparency film you must make sure to expose enough to get information on the film. Highlight blowout occurs, but is not your worst enemy like with transparency film. Color neg. film is rather like B&W in this, but will eventually turn muddy on the overexposure end as well (like B&W).

Depending on your personal system for metering and shooting B&W, an incident meter will get you by in most cases. Otherwise a spotmeter can be better to make sure you get sufficient shadow exposure. If you happen to shoot in the challenging situation of jungle foliage you will be thankful for a spotmeter. The negative film will more or less handle the wild contrast range you might encounter with sun and trees. Do some tests at home first with the spotmeter to see what an exceptable contrast (# of stops) range is for your chosen color negative film. Then out shooting you have no need for polaroid.

You might also consider bringing more than one film for contrast and light quality differences, something like Portra NC, VC, and 100T. Color negative film can definitely lack punch sometimes when printed. If you plan on a lot of dusk work or something with tungsten in it the 100T will easier to print and has better reciprocity characteristics. If you are scanning your negatives and not printing analog then ignore my points about NC and VC for contrast and to some extent the color correction of 100T. But the reciprocity still holds, though Portra isn't so poor in this category. Fuji films are of course also great options. Mostly the brand difference has an effect of color pallette IMHO. I actually use Fuji NPL a lot.

[John Berry ( Roadkill )]

If she percieves your spending more attention on the camera than her, you'll be free to do time exposures of the stars, cause you won't be doing nothing else. Choose wisely.

[Donald Qualls]

Worth nothing that it's both cheaper and faster (in on-site time) to bracket negative film than to shoot a Polaroid to check exposure. Unless your lady is also a photographer, less time spent with the camera is likely to be a Good Thing. Well, unless you're taking pictures *of* your lady. Then you might prefer Polaroids anyway...