- Joined
- Nov 29, 2020
- Messages
- 14
I am seeking some help here in working out what I did wrong the other day. I wanted to work on spot metering with a roll of FP4 medium format at 100. Images were around an aqueduct on an overcast morning, placing the darkest part of the shadows under the arches at Zone 3 (just barely enough texture for the brickwork). The highlights were between Zone 8 and 9 so quite a wide spread, but they were not dominant in the image, the overcast was such that I expected the highlights to be bright (it was a test) and I wanted the texture in the brickwork shadows. I developed in Ilfotec HC at 8 mn.
Of the 10 images, only the last 3 (of trees with no highlights) were exposed properly, dense with the Zone 3 being exactly as I was expecting. However, the first 7 images were massively under-exposed, very thin negatives, with some unworkable and others being a splodge of muddy darks when scanned. I believe that:
1) the main problem was how I metered the scenes and/or the dynamic range was too wide?; or
2) less probably, insufficient development time, but that would then have impacted the properly exposed negatives. I would be able to adjust for this with sheet film.
I took quite a few notes as it was something of a test, but despite spending some time reading up on this, I am still slightly unsure of the main culprit apart from myself of course (ahem, especially if I misread the meter and exposed at 1/2 instead of 2 seconds, although I don't think that I would have done this for all 7).
I should be grateful for some orientation or education (a slap upside the head might help, but please be gentle); the more I read, the more potential culprits appear, but I strongly suspect that I have not quite understood something very basic. If it helps, I can post some pictures of the negatives.
Thanks in advance,
Christophe
Of the 10 images, only the last 3 (of trees with no highlights) were exposed properly, dense with the Zone 3 being exactly as I was expecting. However, the first 7 images were massively under-exposed, very thin negatives, with some unworkable and others being a splodge of muddy darks when scanned. I believe that:
1) the main problem was how I metered the scenes and/or the dynamic range was too wide?; or
2) less probably, insufficient development time, but that would then have impacted the properly exposed negatives. I would be able to adjust for this with sheet film.
I took quite a few notes as it was something of a test, but despite spending some time reading up on this, I am still slightly unsure of the main culprit apart from myself of course (ahem, especially if I misread the meter and exposed at 1/2 instead of 2 seconds, although I don't think that I would have done this for all 7).
I should be grateful for some orientation or education (a slap upside the head might help, but please be gentle); the more I read, the more potential culprits appear, but I strongly suspect that I have not quite understood something very basic. If it helps, I can post some pictures of the negatives.
Thanks in advance,
Christophe