Testing, Testing: Nikon F2 (with metering prism)

Spent a morning a about a week ago, walking around downtown Denver with a Nikon F2 and a roll of Ilford 125 35mm film (24 exposures). I shot a roll earlier without the metering prism on top of the camera, you can see that post here, but this time I shot with the metering prism attached to see how well it meters.

Trinity United Methodist Church in downtown Denver. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Paramount Theatre, downtown Denver. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Larimer Square, downtown Denver. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Civic Center Park, Denver. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Civic Center Park, Denver. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

View of Colorado Capitol Building, shot from Civic Center Park. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Denver County Courthouse. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Denver, CO Union Station. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Denver, CO Union Station. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

Denver, CO Union Station. Shot with Ilford 125 35mm film, with Nikon F2.

I did a little editing in Silver Efex Pro, but I was actually really happy with how the prism metered. Any exposure errors were on my end, not the cameras.

Enjoy.

Testing, Testing: Nikon F2 (without metering prism)

In the continuing quest to find my groove back into film photography, I took out another oldie but goody for a little practice shooting. On this day my practice roll was shot with the Nikon F2. The film I used was Ilford 125 35mm (24 exposures).

These Nikons originally came without any in camera metering, and then later you were able to buy a metering prism you could attach to the body. On this day, I shot without the metering prism attached, I’ll have a post on Wednesday of some images I shot using the metering prism. I used a metering app I have on my phone to give me a general idea of the light. The light stayed consistently sunny the whole time, so I only metered at the start and just made minor adjustments when jumping from shade to sun.

The images were a little underexposed (I did a little editing in Silver Efex Pro, including the slight tint to the images), but came out pretty well. I dropped the ball on my self metering when trying to photograph my brother and his kids inside a barn. And for someone who is always fighting for good focus, I was actually pleased with the focus, just about the way I like it. The lens I used was a Nikkor F/2 50mm, I love shooting with a good 50mm.

I didn’t clean up any dust spots for now, so excuse if they’re a little dirty. I also decided not to clean up the lens flare on the shot with my Father and Sister-In-Law, I might change my mind on that later but right now I like it.

Enjoy.

Photo Tales: Piece Of Wood

 

Piece Of Wood

By Michael Powell

It was just sitting there. How does a piece of wood bring so much joy? How does a little object convey so much emotion? With a particular series of notes played in a particular order, how can that change the mood from from what could sound like a bloody war of two opposing sides to two people dancing and looking into each others’ eyes while falling in love? It was just sitting there, a piece of wood. A piece of wood that was made by a man. Perhaps a musician, perhaps a simple carpenter, perhaps a father to give to his son on his fifth birthday. Either way it goes, this piece of wood would probably go on to do great things and if I could see what this piece of wood would do in it’s lifetime, my mind just explodes. It could be a crowded auditorium, it could be a wedding on the Queen Mary, it could be a change jar and a shopping cart. These are things I think about, when I look at that piece of wood.

Pinhole Test Part 3: Ooooo, Ahhhh, Pretty

Here’s a look at some of the shots I think came out success(ish). Most of them are still nowhere near what I would consider a shot I’d be content with, but I think they’re still interesting (even if it was by accident). Enjoy.

Colorado Trail, near Kenosha Pass. Ilford ISO 125, roughly 1 minute exposure.

Portrait attempt along the Colorado Trail, near Kenosha Pass. Ilford ISO 125, roughly 1 minute exposure.

Accidental double exposure. The image is of a little pond along the road to Boreas Pass, Coloardo. The second image is of the track for High Plains Raceway, in Colorado. Ilford ISO 50 film, exposures are roughly 10 seconds for the first image and 8 for the second image.

Colorado Trail, near Kenosha Pass. Ilford ISO 125, roughly 20 second exposure.

Colorado Trail, near Kenosha Pass. Ilford ISO 125, roughly 20 second exposure.

Pond along the way to Boreas Pass. Ilford ISO 125, roughly 20 second exposure.

Bench in Parsons Garden, Seattle WA. Expired Ilford ISO125, exposure roughly 20 seconds.

View from Mt. Bierstadt, Colorado. Ilford ISO125, roughly a 15 second exposure.

View of the Puget Sound from Lincoln Park, Seattle WA. Expired Ilford ISO125 film. Exposure roughly 10 seconds.

 

Side Note: An added comment I should of had in Part 2 of the pinhole test post, I should of been considering reciprocity failure when shooting these long exposures with the camera. I just shot another roll of film with the pinhole yesterday, attempting to use compensation for reciprocity. Once I get the film back, I’ll do a post about the results and talk more about reciprocity failure.

Pinhole Test Part 2: Trial and Error…and error.

Sorry for the delay, I said I’d have this up on Friday, but here is part two.

Decided to start playing again with film. I had a few rolls of Ilford 120 film laying around, that had expired a few years ago, but thought I’d play around with them and see what (if anything) came out. I decided to shoot most of the rolls with a pinhole camera my brother gave me a few years ago. It’s a pretty fancy pants camera, from Zero Image.

Queen Anne Library, Seattle WA. An overcast day, exposure was for about six seconds.

Historic Queen Anne Ave, Seattle WA. Exposure for about 8 seconds.

Parsons Garden, in Seattle WA. Exposure of about 10 seconds.

Washington Park, exposure for about 3 seconds.

Washington Park, exposure for about 3 seconds.

The film I was shooting with expired around 2006, and wasn’t stored very well. I had gone completely digital, but never could throw away the film, it just kept moving with me. Earlier this year, I decided I wanted to return to shooting film. For a variety of reasons, I wasn’t enjoying myself with photography and I felt a part of it was that I wasn’t shooting the way I wanted to. It’s nothing against digital, but I’ve never gotten the same feeling shooting with it as I did with film. I also missed how film forced me to prepare and be more present when I was shooting. Again, not digitals fault, but I can easily be persuaded into a lazy work habit. Film punishes you more if you aren’t focused on what you’re doing more, and I love that.

So, I decided to start my adventure back into film by shooting expired film. Smart? Maybe not, but  seemed fun (plus, I can never seem to throw that film away, so might as well use it up!). If I’m not mistaken, expired b&w film tends to produce a denser image, so getting the right exposure can be tricky. As you can see with some of the examples, I was pretty underexposed with the shots, and I think even considering the handicap of the film these would of still been underexposed with regular film.

My challenge with the exposure partly came from the metering I used, and my bad guessing. I no longer have a light meter, so I took a chance on a free meter app for fancy pants phones. The metering app I used is called Pocket Light Meter, and for a free app I think it’s metering is actually pretty good, I just need to get the hang of its look and I can make the little bit of adjustments from its reading in my head. The real problem with using the meter, my pinhole is basically an F/235 (Holy Toledo!), and my only options for the meter were to set it at f/228 or f/256. So, I metered most the shots at f/228, then tried to add a second or two to that. Looks like I need to up the time more significantly than I thought, but hey, that’s why we do test.

Another issue I had, was I wasn’t being aware enough of the focal length of the pinhole. For the first few rolls I didn’t even know what the focal length was, which is very poor work on my part. After looking at the specs of the camera, found out the focal length is 40mm. So, on some shots I need to get much much closer (although for most the shots this was fine).

Another simple mistake, and sometimes accidentally cool mistake, I kept making was overlapping the frames. This gives a slight double exposure on some of the shots, which you can see in the above gallery. In some of my more recent rolls I’ve gotten the hang of consistently stopping the film advancement in the same spot each time. This is both an easy problem to fix and an easy one to keep coming up. You can easily “zone out” when manually advancing the film and forgot what you’re doing, the lesson film constantly teaches, stay focused!

So, these are some of my “failures” with my pinhole so far, but from every mistake comes knowledge. In part three of the pinhole post, I’ll share the images that I felt worked out, some on purpose and some on accident.

 

 

 

 

 

Pinhole Camera Test Results Part 1

One of my first “test” shots with my pinhole camera, the shoots with 120 film. Shot with expired film (exp. 2006), I used Ilford 125 b&w film. The exposure was for only 3 seconds, maybe could of added a second or two of exposure.

 

Finally got around to getting some “test” rolls I shot with my pinhole camera developed. The camera I used is from a company called Zero Image. The cameras they sell are really interesting, they’re hand made and can shoot 35mm, 120, and 4×5. The one I have is for 120 film and can be adjusted to shoot frames of 6×4.5, 6×6, 6×7, and 6×9.

I really enjoy playing with the camera, but I have to work on my exposures a little more, since most my shots were very underexposed. Considering the film I shot with expired in 2006, and wasn’t stored well since that time, I do think this shot came out ok. I haven’t edited this image (except to take out some dust spots), so you’re getting the view of how it came out. I’ll put together a longer post on probably Friday, sharing what went right and what went wrong (and sharing images that represent both sides of that) while playing around with both the pinhole and expired film. For now, I thought I’d share one I really liked.

Enjoy.