 BetterPhoto Member |
shooting on a dull day I'm required a 1/500sec shutter to stop action, but also need depth of field. My camera is loaded with plus-x pan, and correct aperture at 1/500sec. is f/4. What do I do to shoot at a smaller aperture?
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Mark Feldstein |
Unless you're trying to stop the movement of an aircraft moving at supersonic speed, 1/125th of a second stops most action including sports. So, slow down your shutter and adjust your f-stop accordingly. Also, panning with whatever you're trying to stop is useful, say a sports car on a track. Use a tripod or monopod if you're concerned about blurriness caused by camera shake. Also use a camera support if you're using a lens with a long focal length like anything over say 150mm when working at that 1/125th shutte speed. Plus-X is great film. I shoot it fairly often. But try a slightly faster version like Tri-x at either 400 ISO or for a touch more contrast, 250 ISO. Tell the lab when you have it processed that you exposed it for a 1 stop PULL. Tri-x is actually my film of choice for nearly anything, including portraits, indoors or out, day or nite, with or without fill flash. Most of the b&w stuff on my website was shot with Tri-X. It's very versatile stuff and readily available at places like b&hphotovideo.com in New York, reasonably inexpensive. I buy it by the pound or brick I think. If you try it, experiment with it at various speeds like 250, 300, 400, and even 800 or 1200. Keep a written record of your exposures and see which ISO works best for you under which conditions. AND, btw, both Tri-x and Plus-X work very well with various contrast enhancing filters like using a red, green, sometimes yellow, or blue.
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Why do you have to have a small aperture? You don't want to use a bigger aperture or is this some homework guideline?
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Mark Feldstein |
Hmmmmmmmmmm...never thought of the homework angle. Good catch Greg. M
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Christopher A. Walrath |
One following note on Mark's ideas about shooting at varying ISO's. If you expose one negative at one speed rating then you will need to expose all negs on that roll at the same speed as you cannot feasibly seperate the latent images for seperate developing. If you want to have a little flexiblity, you might consider lugging around a second camera body if you anticipate the need, one to shoot at a normal speed and another to shoot at your augmented speed. Welcome to the group and keep on clickin'. Thank you.
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Mark Feldstein |
Interesting point Chris. OTOH, I think the results you get by varying ISOs and exposure on the same roll depend on the latitude of the film you're working with. For example Fuji Press or Kodak Ektapress color negative stock allows you to shoot substantially different ISO's on the same roll within a 4 stop range. Reason is because any printer worth his/her salt should be able to get a decent print from a negative within that 4 stop range. The same is true with old stand by films like Tri-X and Plus-X. They have a pretty wide latitude too depending on who's printing and how they're printed and on which grade of paper. I like the two body idea. I do that pretty much all the time, usually transparency film in one, b&w (Tri-X) in the second. Also obviates the need for changing lenses alot. The other thing I've done, but I process a lot of my own film, is when I shoot two largely different ISOs on the same roll, say 1/2 up front and then change it after frame 18, is just find an approx mid point on the roll, snip it in half and store the second half for processing later. Yeah, it costs one frame, usually a Pulitzer award winner
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Christopher A. Walrath |
True about the exposure latitude of B&W emulsion. I can generally get about seven stops worth of detail from a neg if I'm not in a hurry. And as you said, any printer with a GED or better could get something with that kind of forgiveness. Happy RahmaHannaKwanz-Mas all.
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