I have to tell someone...

[h2oman]

... so all of you will be the ones! I just got back my first ten 4x5 chromes. I was fully prepared for disappointment, but they weren't bad. Here's the rundown on some issues I had:

Two were very poorly exposed. In my notes I find that for one of them I figured I needed a five second exposure and I counted "thousand and one, ..." For the other it says in my notes that I tried to compensate for a polarizing filter and "I think I may have confused myself and calculated the wrong exposure." I have been using my DSLR for a light meter, and its lowest ISO is 100 and I was using ISO 50 film. My camera was reading some 1/3 stop from a "standard" one, I was adding a stop for the different film speed and maybe two for the filter, and...I got confused!:confused:

I had one shot with near and far trees, so I left the front standard vertical and shot at f/22. The immediate foreground is not sharp. I learned a bit from that one.:o

I had one scene that I thought had some artistic merit, and one of the essentials of the composition was some shadows of trees in the foreground. I took the shot, took out the quickload holder. A few minutes later I went to remove the quickload envelope but instead gave the film a good shot of sunlight! So I quickly exposed another sheet, but the shadows had moved. That shot still came out OK.

But the bottom line is that I'm hooked! :) Some thanks definitely go to Paul "Blueberrydesk" for selling me my camera and first lens and spotting me some expired film, Jim Andracki for setting me up with good deals on some odds and ends and also giving me some expired film, and others on this forum when I have specifically posted or just lurked.

I wish I had a scanner so I could post a couple of my shots!

Gregg Waterman
Klamath Falls, OR

PS If any of you like doing landscapes and you are passing through Klamath Falls between more civilized parts of the world, shoot me a line.

[Kevin Crisp]

These kinds of things happen with something so new and different. You'll get it down in no time, keep at it.

[Ron Marshall]

I probably blew about a third of my first 50 sheets. Sounds like you're doing fine. It's tough shooting positives since your exposure has to be pretty close.

[Daniel_Buck]

Might I suggest using B&W film while you are learning to calculate exposure? chromes are much more expensive! I haven't built myself up to color yet :-\

[BradS]

geez, and not once did you pull the dark slide before closing the shutter? That's pretty darned good.

[h2oman]

Haven't pulled the darkslide before closing the shutter yet, but I have taken a few shots without pulling the darkslide out! I guess that is the better way to go, the film is still unexposed...

Just shooting color 'cause that's all I've ever done!

[Blueberrydesk]

Gregg, glad to hear that you're enjoying LF, it's definitely addictive. :) I may be able to pass by your way in early april. I'll be lugging my soon to be delivered 8x10 Tachihara so I'd love to get out and shoot with you. I'll let you know more when I do, and I'll pm you with details.

Paul

ps. I think I still have my Epson 2450 scanner that will handle 4x5 sheet film. If it's still in the garage, I'll bring it up, gratis. For some reason I can't get it to work with my desktop anymore since I got a new machine, but I'm a computer moron, so to speak. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the scanner, and I've since bought a newer one. It's yours if you want it.

[Martin K]

I also think you are doing fine. Yesterday was telling my wife about when I started on LF and you seem to be doing better than I did. Keep it up.

[Joseph O'Neil]

Two were very poorly exposed. In my notes I find that for one of them I figured I needed a five second exposure and I counted "thousand and one, ..." For the other it says in my notes that I tried to compensate for a polarizing filter and "I think I may have confused myself and calculated the wrong exposure."

Real easy to do - reciprocisty failure it's called - although my spelling is off.

the other thing to remember with a DSLR (I use Nikon D40 myself) is that the CCD and CMOS sensors inside those camerras "see" light differently than film does. So even if you back track and extrapolate, you will still be off. Eventually you will get it right, and it will be something along the lines of :

"okay, at 100 ISO on my DLSR, I mulitiply by 2.5X to shoot 50 ISO chrome and I multiply by 1.8X to shoot 100 ISO B&W to my taste"

This is just all made up, but you get the point. It's simply a matter of trial and error with carefull note taking to get it right.

For what it is worth, and this may sound expensive, but I've always personally believed it takes a box of 25 sheets to "learn" a new film, and at least another 100 sheets to "master" a new film, be it colour or B&W

good luck
joe

[mrladewig]

I have to agree Gregg. Pretty good to not have any major errors.

I did pretty good on my first few sheets. All exposed roughly at the right exposure. No pulled darkslides. Then it all went downhill for a while. I pulled the back darkslide twice. I've had light leaks galore. Did the one-one-thousand thing and got blank sheets.

[SamReeves]

Welcome. I've been through K-Falls a few times before. I've always wondered why the auto dealers there stock more cars than there are people. :D

[Garry Madlung]

When I don't get my expsures right on slide film I feel like a miserable failure. When it's on, things are grand. The bracketing thing is sensitive, and even 1/3 of a stop can be a lot. For my polarizer I compensate 2 1/2 stops. The really tricky part can be reciprocity. That's a whole other story, and I tend to over sompensate.
Kodak apparently has a color slide film that has no reciprocity up to 10 seconds...or am I hearing things?

Even if everthing I have said is useless, I would recommend very strongly getting a very good light meter. Learn how to use it and read it properly. Using it on incidental is best or perhaps with a grey card to spot meter (or something that will give you a reliable reading) will make life a lot easier.

I'd like to get a quick load holder myself. That seems to be a good move on your part.

Garry

[Daniel_Buck]

a nice little remedy for making sure you never pull the dark slide to early, is to test-fire the shutter once before you pull the slide (or before you place the holder in). If the shutter fires, you know the blades are closed and light tight. If it doesn't fire (on modern shutters anyway?) the shutter blades aren't closed yet.

I started doing this from the get go, mainly because I wanted to make sure the shutter worked before I fired a shot, as one of my lenses was older and beatup looking. As a side benefit, I've never pulled the dark slide early. :)

[jpkirk]

Yup a good incident light meter. Or get an incident/spot meter and then figure out the zone system. Siekonic makes cool ones. The hardest part is to determine, in a color world, what is a neutral tone. Not to bad once you get used to it. The second thing is a stop watch. You will find times where you will want to do a 30 second, 45 second, 1minute 30 second exposures. Doing that one thousand one thing is tough to do in those timeframes.

[David Luttmann]

If you have a DSLR, bring it along as a meter. The JPG you see on your screen will be pretty good as view of your exposure. With reciprocity failure in mind, adjust your exposure from a film chart download. You can't rely on the DSLR for anything much over 5 seconds as the digital file won't suffer from any reciprocity failure.

Do you have a few samples to post? I've got friends in K-Falls....if I'm down there, I'll drop you a line.....you can show me a few spots to capture some images :D