Photographing interiors of covered bridges?

[John Kasaian]

It had to happen sooner or later. I've got five covered bridges to photograph and I need some details of the truss work, which in these examples are inside the bridge's superstructure.
Just to make things interesting, some of them are closed off so I'll have to shoot through grates from one of the portals without actually entering the structure, and nearly all these bridges are 200'-300'+ in length (oh yeah, I don't have strobes either, although I could rent some for the shoots) My extension cord isn't long enough to use my hot lights
These will be B&W 8x10s, the fastest film I've got is TMY-1. I could take the interiors with a 35mm and a 2.8 lens, but I'd prefer to stick with one format if possible.
Any suggestions?

[Eric Woodbury]

I have never done anything like this, so I don't really know....

How about painting the inside with flashlight and monitoring the exposure with a digital setup? The digital would have to allow viewing without interrupting the exposure. Wouldn't work in the daytime, but maybe twilight.

[lenser]

John,

I had a somewhat similar situation years ago on a restored covered bridge that I was assigned to shoot for the engineers that did the restoration. Fortunately, the side lighting produced by the fact that light enters from the far entrance works in your favor. It will highlight edges of the framing and make the details stand out very well. To try to light this through the barriers would actually work against you since any light from roughly the camera position would tend to flatten the three dimensional qualities that light from the far entrance will create. Besides, you will already have a substancial amount of daylight from your end that will spill in around you.

Avilable light is your best friend in this situation.

As to technique, use your camera's swings to eliminate depth of field problems (same as tilt, only sideways instead of on the vertical), cover that with a small f stop
(22 or 32) and set your shutter to accomodate that f stop for exposure.

I did my shoot with a 4x5 Zone VI, but the technique is about the same for 8x10. Just be sure you have an accurate meter, good levels, time for very long exposures and an extremely stable tripod.

Good luck.

Tim

[Toyon]

Fireflies.

[jnantz]

hi john

i hate to suggest this
but if you can do a dry run with your
35mm on mainly the bridge/s that you can't get access INSIDE
and bracket a little bit ... it will give you a very good idea what you will
be up against.

i wouldn't worry about artificial light, as tim said long exposure and available
light will be great.

2 or 3 minute exposures are always fun

do you have to photograph the substructure and abutments too ?

good luck!

john

[Gary Beasley]

Use Acros and as much time as needed. I've done some pretty long exposure that came out quite nice.

[Don7x17]

Evening and open flash -- try to get close to the walls and flash the opposite side to keep you out of the image (if you flash with yourself between the camera and where the flash lands, you'll see your outline).

I've used this sucessfully on several covered bridges. If you time it right, at the end of dusk, the open (far) end of the bridge will expose correctly with the long exposure needed for the open flash....

Bummer this won't work with the ones with the grill. I presume Kinghts Ferry is one you are trying for? I've driven that one many times back in the early 1980's. Its now closed to traffic...which makes it easier for you ;-)

[ki6mf]

Do a night shot and bracket by doing 5-10-15 -20 minute exposure F22 compensating developer.

[venchka]

A very early attempt with 4x5. Had I wanted the interior I would have framed differently. Illustrates what lenser is saying about light from the other end. Also, not manipulation of exposure & development. I'm sure you could do much better. There is a lot of detail in the roof framing on the negative.

[Paul Metcalf]

Not a bridge, but probably similar lighting. This is 4+ minute exposure on rdpIII. There is a lot more light than one perceives in these circumstances. For sure though eliminate as much of the bright areas as possible as they will burn out (you can see some of those in the attached pic). The light that creeps in through cracks and holes adds to the essence of being in a dark interior, and stopping down a bit with a lens in modern non-round aperture can add the star effect to the highlights if desired.