Split Grad + IR Filter With Ilford SFX 200?

[tgtaylor]

Would using a split grad to, say knock down a bright sky, make sense with Ilford SFX 200?

What about with other IR films? Anyone tried it?

Would you position the Grad in front or behind the IR filter?

[Wallace_Billingham]

Most ND filters are transparent to IR light so they have no effect. However blue skies get rendered very dark with IR film and filters anyway. Clouds will be very white no matter what

[tgtaylor]

Thanks for the reply Wallace.

What I am trying to determine is whether or not it would be beneficial to meter and expose for the subject and use a grad to knock the sky down if it is too far out. I don't have any experience with IR film. About two weeks ago at high noon I took an exposure overlooking the city of San Francisco from a high hill with a 35mm camera. For exposure I used the camera's (an F3) reading and opened-up 6 stops from that for the filter. I didn't meter the sky at the time so I don't know how far out it was, if any, from the houses and buildings below. The sky came out black in the print and the image itself shows promise. I'll be going back with a larger camera when the sun is at an angle.

Thomas

[Wallace_Billingham]

Thomas,

What you want for darker skies is to have the sun behind you when you shoot. I have found that metering a scene for IR work is not really all that helpful. I shoot a lot of Efke IR820 film with a Hoya R72 and through trial and error have just trained my eyes to guess what the exposure should be

[evan clarke]

Thanks for the reply Wallace.

What I am trying to determine is whether or not it would be beneficial to meter and expose for the subject and use a grad to knock the sky down if it is too far out. I don't have any experience with IR film. About two weeks ago at high noon I took an exposure overlooking the city of San Francisco from a high hill with a 35mm camera. For exposure I used the camera's (an F3) reading and opened-up 6 stops from that for the filter. I didn't meter the sky at the time so I don't know how far out it was, if any, from the houses and buildings below. The sky came out black in the print and the image itself shows promise. I'll be going back with a larger camera when the sun is at an angle.

Thomas

I carry strong red, strong yellow and strong orange gradient resin filters and do just that although I don't expose much SFX. I combine a colored gradient with ND and standard contrast filters..it works wonderfully. I always strive to meter only zones IV to VII...Evan Clarke

[tgtaylor]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I guess what I'm really asking is this: Does over/under exposure have any effect on the IR effect of the film? For example, in the San Francisco image above if the sky was significantly brighter that the main subject (the city), and you exposed to optimize the city resulting in an "overexposed" sky, would that overexposure have any effect on the resulting IR effects in the sky?

Thomas

[Diane Maher]

Over exposure will tend to lose detail in the highlights. Underexposure can get muddy looking with IR. Okay, the underexposure comment is based on my experience with Kodak HIE (b/w) IR film in the shade on an overcast day. The over exposure comment is based on the same film in bright sunny conditions. I think that it is nice to keep some detail in the film, at least you can tell what the subject is.

However...if you are shooting a distant scene, then it might not matter so much that you don't have detail in your highlights.

If possible, I would recommend shooting a test roll and doing some bracketing and, most importantly, take note as to your exposure settings. I have found that notes are the most effective (and quickest) way to learn how to shoot IR film.

Diane