Not very bright - literally

[sog1927]

I am not an inexperienced photographer.

I have, in my time, done an awful lot of medium format, fairly extreme macro work (up to 10:1, and I've
got the 25mm Luminar to prove it ;-) ). I understand about bellows factors.

Of course, being new to large format, it really didn't register on my tiny little brain that a very tight, full face portrait *is* a macro shot on large format...particularly on transparency film.

I kind of like the mysterious effect produced by those ~2/3 stop underexposed trannies: the midtones that should have been highlights fading off into stygian darkness (where there should've been shadow detail), etc. Think I can get away with claiming I did it on purpose for "artistic effect" ? ;-)

Steve

[lenser]

Hi, Steve,

Due to a similar disaster years ago on a commercial shoot, I bought one of the little Calumet exposure calculator sets. Two parts, a chip that goes in the scene (black on one side, white on the other for total visibility) and a scale that you hold on the ground glass. Lay the scale on the image of the chip and the width of the chip sits at a figure on the scale that is the extended bellows exposure compensation.

Then set the f stop according to your initial exposure reading and the new data, remove the chip from the image area and shoot away with total confidence!!!!

Don't know if Calumet still sells them, but I've seen many show up on Ebay over the last couple of years.

Priceless since you don't have to go through complicated calculations and takes up virtually no space in your kit.

Good luck.

Tim

[Andrew_4548]

There's always the Quickdisc which is a similar idea and free ;)

http://www.salzgeber.at/disc/index.html

It's better if you can laminate it to give it a bit more strength / durability...

[Kevin M Bourque]

Hey, let me show you my 8x10 headshot negatives. I think my shutter was running fast 'cause they're all underexposed.

I like the QuickDisc, too. Just be sure to put it back in your pocket before you take the picture.

[keith english]

Ditto. I use the Calumet set also. But it is easy to forget to take it out of the picture before you shoot. I have the 4x5 tranparancies to prove it.

[sog1927]

I'm trying to picture (pun intended) taping "a chip" to my girlfriend's face so I can measure the magnification before I shoot ;-)

*Somewhere* I've got an old Kodak Master Photo Guide (anyone else remember when Kodak was in the photo business?) with the all the handy-dandy calculator disks for this stuff. That's the nice thing about the laws of physics - they're a lot more reliable than corporations.


Steve

Hi, Steve,

Due to a similar disaster years ago on a commercial shoot, I bought one of the little Calumet exposure calculator sets. Two parts, a chip that goes in the scene (black on one side, white on the other for total visibility) and a scale that you hold on the ground glass. Lay the scale on the image of the chip and the width of the chip sits at a figure on the scale that is the extended bellows exposure compensation.

Then set the f stop according to your initial exposure reading and the new data, remove the chip from the image area and shoot away with total confidence!!!!

Don't know if Calumet still sells them, but I've seen many show up on Ebay over the last couple of years.

Priceless since you don't have to go through complicated calculations and takes up virtually no space in your kit.

Good luck.

Tim

[erie patsellis]

If you can still find them, Quick Sticks (by visual departures) work quite well.


erie

[dwhistance]

I use a tape measure and a lookup table, however I find that with practice I'm using them less and less. I tried Quickdisc's but didn't like them. They worked well enough but it was always a pain putting them into and out of the shot as well as doing the measuring on the ground glass

David Whistance

[Mark Sawyer]

For the lenses I regularly use for close-up work, I've written down the aperture diameters of each f/stop. That way I can just measure the lens-to-film distance, divide by aperture diameter, and have the right effective f/stop value. It's mucjh simpler than the usual "divide the square of this by the square of that and get a factor to multiply by..." system. Doesn't anybody else do it that way?

[marschp]

I noticed that Jack Dykynga actually has the bellows adjustment factor scale stuck onto his monorail bed - 1 scale for his 120mm lens and one scale for his 180mm lens, the two he most often uses in 'macro' shoots - obviously it took some testing and experimentation to set this up in the first place, but I guess it saves a lot of time at image capture. Paul. PS: see page 91 of his book Large Format Nature Photography.

[JJ Viau]

what I do is try to memorize the kind of compensation I need for which shooting situation. It works especially if you always do portraits with the same lens/ film format because the human beings are all about the same size but that is too hot for real macros for me!

[C. D. Keth]

I just calculate a scale for bellows compensation and paste it to the lensboard of the lens. Always there for me. I also know the measurment of my hand span (thumbtip to pinkytip when my hand is all stretched out) so I can estimate accurately enough without carrying a measuring device.