Depth of Field on Windy Day

[jmontague]

I am still earning my LF wings and have been struggling with the trade-off between depth of field and shutter speed. I shoot HP5+ in 4x5 with a Nagaoka field camera.

I hike every weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park, so I take a lot of my photos there. I like shooting trees and even a mildly windy day makes things challenging for me.

So, what is your technique? Pushing two or three stops? I am all ears (eyes, actually) so please let me know what I should be doing - other than waiting for a calm day (they are few).

Thanks,
Jim


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[jmontague]

I am still earning my LF wings and have been struggling with the trade-off between depth of field and shutter speed. I shoot HP5+ in 4x5 with a Nagaoka field camera.



I hike every weekend in Rocky Mountain National Park, so I take a lot of my photos there. I like shooting trees and even a mildly windy day makes things challenging for me.



So, what is your technique? Pushing two or three stops? I am all ears (eyes, actually) so please let me know what I should be doing - other than waiting for a calm day (they are few).



Thanks,

Jim





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[Graham Patterson]

If you can compose so that the critical part of your subject forms a single plane, you can use movements or camera position to keep the depth of field requirements to a minimum. Typically photograph trees but keep the foreground to a minimum so you only need to deal with a vertical plane, and not vertical and horizontal. But if you cannot get the shutter speed you need with the lens wide-open - make motion the subject, or concentrate on something that does not move.

[Andy Eads]

Jim,
Optical effect vs Temporal effect. Consider that using long exposure times can create interesting blur effects in the things that are moving. Turn the balance the other way, you can create interesting effects with very shallow depth of field. I'd experiment trying to make the most of what mother nature is serving up at the moment. With practice, the story telling power of your photos will far exceed the static postcard. I would avoid "pushing" film; for me it has had deleterious unintended consequences. Andy

[j.e.simmons]

I just put the word "wind" in the photo's title.

[vinny]

what he said or find the nearest watering hole and have a cold one or two til the wind dies down. That's what I do. Otherwise, I'll shoot medium format when it's nasty out.

[Drew Wiley]

Around here the wind never seems to stop except between Nov and Jan, though not this year! The heavier the tripod, the better, preferably a wooden one. Throw away a ballhead if you have one. Otherwise, HP5 should make it easy. It's all in the timing. You just have to learn through experience the difference between a gust
and a steady wind push, and how to catch that mere second or so when it stops. Name of the game. No need to underexpose and "push" film and waste the whole tonality that large format gives. If anything, you should rate HP5 a tad slower. So if you don't like the answer of "waiting", guess my own experience of it working day-in/day-out for decades now won't help you much. Large format isn't for snapshooting.

[Kirk Gittings]

Around here the wind never seems to stop except between Nov and Jan, though not this year! The heavier the tripod, the better, preferably a wooden one. Throw away a ballhead if you have one. Otherwise, HP5 should make it easy. It's all in the timing. You just have to learn through experience the difference between a gust
and a steady wind push, and how to catch that mere second or so when it stops. Name of the game. No need to underexpose and "push" film and waste the whole tonality that large format gives. If anything, you should rate HP5 a tad slower. So if you don't like the answer of "waiting", guess my own experience of it working day-in/day-out for decades now won't help you much. Large format isn't for snapshooting.

In addition I always carry a smallish Lightdisk with me that I hold upwind of the camera at an angle so the wind skates over the camera. I have been successful at shooting at a few seconds in strong winds. Of course while the image is sharp trees and such will be moving. BUT I consider that aesthetically before ever making an exposure. I have been doing this for decades and never fear a wind in terms of camera movement. And I shoot FP4+ at ISO 64.

[jp]

Stand upwind of the tripod if wind is causing camera movement/vibration.

[Mark Sampson]

A big umbrella, held upwind of the camera, will do a lot to reduce wind-caused vibrations in your setup. Doesn't help with subject movement, I know, but it helps. Exposure for HP5+ in sunlight should be something like 1/60@ f/16 or so, which seems reasonable enough.