Went out yesterday to shoot a roll of virtual Tri-x, which basically means I turned off as much of the modern helpers like auto-focus, image stabilization, etc. and no screens allowed. I shoot jpegs and the only processing allowed is standard cropping and exposure adjustment since when I ran mini-labs I could do these things to make photos better.
This is a Maidenhair fern succumbing to winter’s grasp. I did my best to get as much of the plant parallel to the sensor as I could and used focus peaking to verify. Because modern cameras don’t have focusing aids like film cameras did, focus peaking is pretty important. Anyway…I really liked the positioning of the fern and the relative clean snow field.
Specific Feedback Requested
Just interested in your general impressions of a basically unedited photo. I’d probably clean up the snow a bit if I processed this fully since I didn’t try to remove them on the scene. But it’s against the rules so they stay.
Technical Details
Handheld w/all stabilization turned off
w/monochrome filter for the camera jpegs
Overexposed by 1 1/2 stops, but it wasn’t enough to get this right. Lesson learned.
A slight crop to 5x7 and +1 exposure, both of which I did routinely for people when making prints for them back in the 80s and 90s.
My impression of this back to basics B&W image is that it’s very clean and well composed!
The very minor leaf debris doesn’t bother me at all and it reminds me of my own film days.
And by clean I mean that the snow is well exposed from corner to corner without overexposing the leaves or the limb.
The composition with the limb coming in at the top right corner and leading the eye to the lower left corner is very pleasing IMHO.
And I like the detail in the snow around the leaves where they meet the snow.
It’s well balanced and the contrast is spot on.
Nicely done!
I assume this is for some sort of back to basics competition?
Thanks @Merv - glad it works. Flora is pretty quiet this time of year. The snow is nearly gone for now, but more is on the way.
No competition, just my rules for a weird thing I call the Digital Film Challenge. When I started in photography back in the 80s it was with, of course, film and I sometimes long for the simplicity of that medium, but not enough to actually go back to it. This gets me some of the same restrictions and limitations that can be oddly freeing. In addition to the jpeg I also have a RAW file that I can play with more if needed. Just a weirdly fun thing I dreamed up.
I can relate to that feeling, I still have a few rolls of film but I hesitate using them because they are probably too old. I believe at least 10 years so the silver halides have most likely been degraded to the point where colors would be pretty flat, excessive grain would probably be an issue as well.
I had a look at your Digital Film Challenge webpage and it looks intriguing, the images you show there are very nice as well.
The one thing I liked about film shoots was how deliberate every shot was, and that was mostly driven by not wanting to throw away prints that I wasn’t happy with.
My camera had a built-in light meter but I still used a handheld meter for averaging some scenes or subjects. I still have that meter and it still works (Weston Master II).
I think my biggest deterrent with film these days is not being able to change between ISO sensitivity or color temperature (film for outdoors or indoors). There were times when I thought about buying another identical camera (or two) just so I didn’t have that frustration.
I restored a few historical buildings in my youth, one was in Old Salem in Winston Salem, NC.
One Saturday I was working on the front of the old Apothecary using modern gas powered nail guns for the trim work when a passerby scolded me for not using the methods of that period (mid 1700s), I come down from the ladder I was on, held the nail gun out in front of me and stood silent for a brief period, then I asked the gentleman, do you think that carpenters back in the mid 1700s would have used such a thing as this gas powered nail gun if they had one? The gentleman very politely with a smile said: You’re doing a great job, I appreciate the details, carry on young man, carry on!
The moral of the story is that we can still be very deliberate with each shot but use the tools available to us if we choose to.
Me, I still prefer to be more deliberate with the shot, then do a minimal amount of work in the computer. Nothing wrong with using AI for focus stacking, BG changes, sharpening, etc.
I really appreciate what you’re going for with this approach.
Kristen,
I like this image a lot. It shows the wabi-sabi effect of nature taking over the fern. I like the composition, and the exposure of the snow while still keeping the details. Black and white suits this kind of image very well. very well done!
Sorry for the late reply on this Merv. I blame Covid. The biggest limitation to film is the inflexibility of ISO and the type it was. In the end I had three bodies and regularly used two loaded with totally different things to have a little flexibility. I never used a separate light meter, but fiddled the indicated exposure in my head like we all do. So yeah, I’m not going back. Digital lets me play, experiment and “waste” frames in order to make sure I have what I need. Mostly that involves bracketing of some kind.
I hadn’t thought of the wabi-sabi effect, Ravi, but I see it now. Maidenhair fern is pretty sensitive and one of the first to go die back in fall.
