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I know that some of us didn't get as much time as we needed to take all the pictures we started to discover on our first visit. I have contacted the baths with a view to gaining access for those of us who can make it, or are local enough, for either Sunday the 24th or Saturday the 30th of September. I am going down for a "swift reccy" on Monday (18th) and would like to have a rough idea of how many people would like to take advantage of this opportunity.

This visit is intended to be supplementary to the first one and has to be partaken on the understanding that we will not have exclusive access to all parts of the building, as various things, including filling the Gala Pool, will be going on.

If you feel you can work under these conditions, then please respond ASAP. This visit in no way precludes the next visit being organised by Paul, so if you can't make it or don't want to be limited in what you can('t) do, don't worry, another dedicated day will be available.

I can make the 30th.

Marc

I can't make either of those dates, I'm in London on the 24th, and starting a weeks break in Alnwick on the 30th.

OK folks, anyone who wants to come, we can gain access to the Baths from 10:00 on Sunday 24th September. Please let me know if anyone else can make this.

add two of us - I'll get the hamster fired up on the flashgun charger wheel

Well, I managed to get the trannies from Sunday into the labs today and here are the results.

First, a window catch in the second class booking office



Next, a section of the main first class staircase. With a polariser and a slight bellows extension, the exposure was about 12mins @ f32



Then we went into the basement under the pools and found this bunch of pipework and inspection lights. We measured this shot as 11 stops range from shadows to lightbulbs So I decided to use Astia and a combination of 80A+82B filters to get rid of most, but not all, of the tungsten light colouring. Exposure was about 5mins @ f32



Finally two shots taken in the filter room (but with no filters on the camera )

The first was taken at about 5mins @ f32



...and after taking a digital shot which looked good at 30 secs @f32...



... we decided to try another LF shot at 1min20secs @ f32 to see how close the ISO rating on the D200 was to film.



Marc mentioned that digital ISO ratings are not always the same as film, and certainly the 5min LF shot was closer to the 30 sec digital one than this second shot, which was a lot darker on the trannie. So we decided to monochrome this second shot, as it seemed to suit the mood better. Although, looking at the two pictures on screen, it is hard to tell they are almost two stops different in exposure.

And the award for the fastest posting after a meet goes to...

Let me guess, the one of the bannister was taken on Fuji? It's spot on for the exposure - so Charles was right with his time as well. Did you go round with the duster beforehand to shine it up?

For the last comparison set, I like the 5min colour image of the filters (and that's from a B&W person :shudder: ) as it shows more of the decay - rust etc which is lost in the mono rendition. It also benefits from the deeper detail in the shadows whereas the mono blocks up more and the distance "disappears."

The middle picture on the digi is has grown on me - it's nice and muted and gives a similar effect to the colour but less "in your face" as though a layer of dust has been allowed to settle and you're the first one in years that's just pushed open the door and gone in to take a picture...

To me, the B&W picture doesn't give any impression of age / neglect as I've been in chemical plants where that look is completely normal - nobody cleans up and things stay as they are until something has to be done with them (although modern places would mainly be stainless and have solenoid actuated valves and a maintenance plan )

I'll see what I get with the 1 and 2 minute exposures @ f22 and also the 2 and 4 minute ones looking the other way. I know I'm going to have to not shorten the development as most pictures were only approx 4 or 5 stops range in there - especially the ones of the guage and the paintwork in the boiler room.

Andrew

PS Is it me (and dare I utter it to the colour temperature meter wielding person) or does the one of the pipework under the baths have a magenta cast to it - it seems a bit pinky?

Apple wrote:Let me guess, the one of the bannister was taken on Fuji? It's spot on for the exposure - so Charles was right with his time as well. Did you go round with the duster beforehand to shine it up?

The one thing that you can't see from the finished image is the mess that the polarizer made of the reflected highlights on the tiles I had to use a partial polarisation to reduce the glare from the sunlight coming through the front door windows, whilst leaving some highlights. I really had to tweak the reds and yellows in Photoshop to get the "brighter" tiles to look their real colour instead of garish magenta and sickly ochre.

Apple wrote:For the last comparison set, I like the 5min colour image of the filters (and that's from a B&W person :shudder: ) as it shows more of the decay - rust etc which is lost in the mono rendition. It also benefits from the deeper detail in the shadows whereas the mono blocks up more and the distance "disappears."

I have actually reduced the brightness on the 5min shot to make the image feel as murky as it felt on the day, without blocking up the shadow areas completely.

Apple wrote:The middle picture on the digi is has grown on me - it's nice and muted and gives a similar effect to the colour but less "in your face" as though a layer of dust has been allowed to settle and you're the first one in years that's just pushed open the door and gone in to take a picture...

Yes, this is mainly the effect of not having the saturation of Velvia; perhaps I might reduce the saturation on the LF shot ?

Apple wrote:To me, the B&W picture doesn't give any impression of age / neglect ...

Odd that One area where colour really does help is portraying rust on something that is the same tone.

Apple wrote:PS Is it me (and dare I utter it to the colour temperature meter wielding person) or does the one of the pipework under the baths have a magenta cast to it - it seems a bit pinky?

Given that my colour meter couldn't even suggest a filter The meter gave me a colour temperature of less than 2900K which is equivalent to a mired shift of -206. I had to dial in an offset of about 25 MS just to get the maximum filter suggestion of 80A+80D. That offset is the equivalent of adding an 81B to a totally neutral colour, and I decided to try and keep the warm feeling that the light gave, by bumping this up to the equivalent of an 81D. Maybe I should add a bit of yellow to make the cast a sort of orange rather than the pink which is apparent ?

Andrew, you weren't doubting my ability to light meter, were you?
Joanna, your second visit was well worth. IMO a better batch than the first lot you showed. How much of the baths were closed? The picture of the main staircase is well worked out although I have misgivings about removing parts of pictures in Photoshop. Any chance you could post or email the original to gauge the difference? Are the highlights you are talking about the natural iridescence of the tiles or some other reflection? Of the boiler pipe pictures, the digital one (5th one down) is the most successful with muted colours and a murky atmosphere.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Charles

Charles - not doubting it - it just appeared to be a long exposure time at first but when filters and reciprocity corrections etc were added in and you were using 50ASA it makes sense. Joanna worked it through for her shot and came to the same conclusions

Great minds think alike?

I adore the picture of the glossy green staircase, wonderful.

I do like lovely saturated colours, I'm a Velvia guy and I make no apologies for it

I don't know if that shot was taken on Velvia or not, but the colours on it are marvelous, well seen.

I'll put a few pictures up for comparison etc.

No. 1 - Filtration Room general view, 1m @ f/22, developed for effectively N+1



No. 2 - Boiler gauge taken from side, 4m @ f/32, also N+1 dev. I thought about calling this "Circles of Confusion" for photo types, or "Under Pressure" for any Queen fans...



No. 3 - Peeling paint and chopped copper pipe, 1m @ f/22, also N+1 dev. Given a slight colour fill to replicate the dreary, grimy cream paint that is there - it may have been white originally but in the lowish light and all the muck around, it appeared a yellowy / cream to me.



All were given N+ development as they metered at something like 4 or 5 stops range - I thought I needed to pep them up a tad... In the first one, there's full highlight and shadow detail on the neg but the scanner's lost the dark recesses in the ceiling.

Edited to shrink pictures slightly to approx 200k each.

Andrew