eh-up from Halifax, Yorkshire

[Gordon M]

Hi. I’m another recent convert to the joys and tribulations of LF, having been shooting for about a year now. I’m based near Halifax, West Yorkshire, and have been doing mostly local stuff, as well as the Northern Dales (Swaledale particularly) which I get to fairly often. I’m doing almost entirely landscape, using an Ebony 45 (yes another one, sorry), and colour transparency. I think I’m now at the point where I have an inkling of how much I don’t know, so its great to have access to such a well informed and friendly forum….

On which note, I’d be grateful for advice on the following exposure issue, as my reading/surfing seems to give different advice. Say I meter a scene and discover that the exposure range between the darkest part I want detail in, and the lightest part I want detail in, is more that the exposure range of the film. Lets assume that the film has a five stop range, and the metered range is six stops. Some things I have read say you should use a 1 stop ND grad to bring the highlights to within the films range, others than a stronger ND grad should be used to bring the lightest part down to the level of the mid tone. Is there a right and wrong way here, or is it just a matter of what you think best matches your vision? Perhaps the second way is used because there is less risk of burnt highlights if your metering is not spot on? Any advice appreciated.

PS. I’m not averse to the odd teashop visit!….

[Joanna Carter]

I’m doing almost entirely landscape, using an Ebony 45 (yes another one, sorry)

You really don't have to apologise, you know

Say I meter a scene and discover that the exposure range between the darkest part I want detail in, and the lightest part I want detail in, is more that the exposure range of the film. Lets assume that the film has a five stop range, and the metered range is six stops. Some things I have read say you should use a 1 stop ND grad to bring the highlights to within the films range, others than a stronger ND grad should be used to bring the lightest part down to the level of the mid tone. Is there a right and wrong way here, or is it just a matter of what you think best matches your vision?
The answer here, IMO, has to be whatever you think is most appropriate to render the scene as you expect it.

Having said that, I have found that 1 stop of ND grad can still not be enough for the bright bits of clouds if those bits are exactly 1 stop outside range. It really has to be a matter of "suck it and see".

Can I also ask which films you are using ? I have found that Velvia 100 will only really cope with 4 stops, Provia araound 5 and Astia sometimes up to 6 stops. But these figures will depend on just what level of detail you find acceptable in shadow and highlight areas.

PS. I’m not averse to the odd teashop visit!….

Ah good, so you'll be buying the first round ?

[Gordon M]

I'm using mostly Velvia 50 (not tried the 100 yet), and have been working on a 4.5-5 stop range - sounds like I might be better assuming 4 stops and see how that goes. Thanks Joanna

[Apple]

Hello Gordon,

Welcome to the crowd - I'm not too far away in the joys of Kirklees

For the exposure, I guess it's personal preference as to how much you want to kill the highlights in the sky. There's stopping them blowing out or there's dragging them down low enough to get a tone in them. The problems may come if you start making things look potentially unnatural / over-filtered or the filter is too strong and you can't hide the transition so you get a line across the picture and everybody says you've ruined the shot with the filter...

I suppose I'm of the "don't make it look like I've used a filter" crowd but also have a look around the site for Tom Perkins' pictures - some fine images and strongly filtered (I'm assuming) but the saturation is high so they become 'powerful' rather than overdone...

Andrew

[Tom Perkins]

Hi Gordon,
I used to have lots of problems with getting exposures correct, at least half of what I was shooting was underexposed. Now I put the darkest tone I want to be rendered with detail one stop bellow mid-tone, and work from that, i.e if the sky is 5 stops brighter than that I will apply a 3 stop grad, bringing it down to one stop above mid-tone. It may seem that I am compressing the tones a lot, but when you see the film it looks fine, the film sort of "fills in" the rest of its range, and you still get black blacks and white whites. Give it a try. I have also found that this method works well when you want to scan your images on a flatbed scanners, which seem to hate dark shadows. This image is a good example, my meter told me I could get away with a 2 stop grad, but I put a 3 stop on, and I still had to drag detail out of the shadows. By the way I am shooting provia.

[Gordon M]

Hi, I guess my main problem was getting what I perceived as over exposure in highlights even when 'logically the exposure I set plus grads should mean all was OK, so thnaks everyone for the useful advice which I'll follow up.