mel jacobson on sun 19 mar 00
one of the things i like about my old nikon is
that it is not automatic.
that is why i suggest looking for used equipment
for taking slides of pots.
a used camera, macro lens, light meter, tripod.
some lights, clamps or brooder...(fleetfarm in minnesota)
or from loews, tractor suppy etc. piece of formica (grey)
and then send off the slides to a good professional processor
or kodak.
it is good to note that many automatic, in camera light
meters are not totally accurate...and once they are
out of sync, well cannot be repaired. i really do not trust them
at all. new, a couple of years..ok, but after that....well i don't
trust them.
nothing like a hand held light meter. used, 75 bucks. last forever
and they can be taken in and calibrated.
check around your town for a good, high quality camera store.
check with professional camera people, they will know the names
and places...trust them, they have good info.
shooting outdoors is very difficult...use the north side of your
house if you do, and wait for that perfect hazy, high sun day.
try to shoot on a day that does not have sun in and out.
i agree that setting up indoors is best. control the environment.
and turn off fluorescent lights when you shoot..they can cause
a real greening of your slides. in fact, i turn off most all lights
in the room when shooting...just use the floods.
take your time, frame your shots...get things level, and shoot
three slides when you have it right.
be in control of your craft...makes your life better.
mel/mn
it is nice to know what people are going
to be wearing in the clayart room.
how about the guy with the rose in his teeth.
can't wait for that gig.
minnetonka, minnesota, u.s.a
http://www.pclink.com/melpots (website)
Paul Lewing on mon 20 mar 00
mel jacobson wrote:
>
> it is good to note that many automatic, in camera light
> meters are not totally accurate...and once they are
> out of sync, well cannot be repaired. i really do not trust them
> at all. new, a couple of years..ok, but after that....well i don't
> trust them.
>
> nothing like a hand held light meter. used, 75 bucks. last forever
> and they can be taken in and calibrated.
Right again, mel! In fact, I would go one step further. Not only
should you get a hand-held meter, you should also get a photo-grey card.
They're really cheap. It's a piece of cardboard that is a perfect 18%
grey color. You hold it up in front of your work, and take the light
meter reading off it rather than off the work.
I just got back a roll of slides that is very typical of my bracketed
exposures. First I shot by the in-camera meter, then the hand-held
meter (which is always one f-stop wider open than the camera), then by
the hand-held meter off the grey card (which is always one more f-stop
open), then one stop more open than that. Almost always the camera
reading is too dark, the meter is OK, the meter off the card is just
right, and the last one is too light. In fact, it works that way so
consistently that I'm going to stop bracketing so widely on studio
shots.
However, the hand-held meter has another advantage. It lets you see
easily if you have the same amount of light all over. On my tile
installation shots, I try not to have more than one f-stop variation
anywhere over the whole surface. If you're trying to get that
fade-to-black effect, you can take a reading off the work and one off
the background. If you have 3 f-stops difference, you know it will be
black.
Paul Lewing,
hoping Russell has some room left for slides in his affair. I just dug
out some of mine from the early '70's, as REAL GOOD examples of how NOT
to do it.
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