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[OM] Re: 1st roll with an OM

Subject: [OM] Re: 1st roll with an OM
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 04 Jun 2006 14:07:52 -0400
Pretty darn good for the first roll.  I especially liked the abstract 
pattern of #12.  I also liked the man under the tree in #10.  I'm 
probably the last person who should be giving compositon advice but, in 
my opinion, the man under the tree would have been a much more powerful 
portrait if he was shifted toward the right side of the frame so that 
he's off center to the right, his right leg and foot is fully in the 
picture and he's looking at the camera so that his gaze is more into the 
open side of the frame.

#10 and several others are outdoor photos in full sun which leads to a 
problem of the film and viewing media not being able to capture the full 
  brightness range.  Since you can't capture the whole thing you have to 
decide where it's going to fall.  Some average?  Or will you expose more 
for the highlights or the shadows?  In the case of the man under the 
tree I think the exposure should be for properly exposed skin in the 
sun.  I think that's probably a good rule for many (but not all) shots 
containing people.  Without people, such as #1 and #2 you have to decide 
what is the main subject or what covers the most area.  In #1 I think 
the proper exposure should be for the white flower in sunlight.  In #2 
the main subject and majority of the frame is in shade.

Fortunately, in full sun it's easy to figure out what the correct 
exposure is without a meter using the "sunny 16" rule.  In full sunlight 
from late morning to mid afternoon the correct exposure is f/16 at a 
shutter speed which is the inverse of the ISO on the film.  You would 
likely choose some different aperture for other reasons but you can 
adjust the shutter speed from that base exposure.  For example, for #10; 
to get the exposure correct on the sunlit arms and face the correct 
exposure with ISO 100 film would be 1/100 second at f/16.  Since you 
don't have a 1/100 speed on the camera you'd have to choose 1/125 which 
is 1/3 stop faster.  Therefore, the adjusted exposure would be 1/125 at 
f/11-2/3.  For a more pleasing depth of field you might like to shoot 
this closer to f/5.6 so you could up the shutter speed by three stops to 
1/1000, open the lens to f/5.6 and then open another 1/3 stop to account 
for the shutter speed being actually 1/3 stop too fast for the ISO 100 film.

For #2 the main subject and area of the frame is in shade so you need to 
open up more.  From the base sunny 16 rule exposure, for open shade, 
such as the side of a house in shade with open sky above, you need to 
open up 3 stops.  For heavy shade under trees you need to open up an 
additional 2 stops or 5 stops altogether from the sunlit scene.  Often 
times these rules of thumb will give you a better exposure than that 
recommended by your meter.  Relfected light meters are easily fooled by 
the color and reflectivity of the scene.

Then, if you do scanning and digital manipulations you can start to work 
with a whole different set of rules to capture the full dynamic range of 
the scene.  Assuming you want to do that... which you sometimes don't.  :-)

Let's see some more,
Chuck Norcutt

priit@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> First of all, thanks for the helpful replies about the motor socket cap. I 
> had some issues with mail filters so I wasn't even aware I was receiving 
> them (list messages were discarded as spam, for a while I was blissfully 
> unaware of this but a long silence eventually seemed suspicious, so a 
> quick look at the list archives clarified the situation)
> 
> Actually, I've been a bit overwhelmed with the amount of traffic since 
> then, having time to read maybe half of it :-)
> 
> Anyway, I decided to post some pictures from my first roll shot with an 
> OM camera. They are not significant in any other way.
> 
> http://www.softshark.ee/~priit/13/
> 
> p.
> 
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