Film Photography

Yes, it’s a horrible pun but I couldn’t resist.  However this still-life is not what this post is about…

Yesterday I finally got back my test roll, and I am very pleased with the results.  My $2 Nikon performs like a champ!  Aside from the one picture that the lab screwed up, and the two that they (understandably) didn’t print the rest came out beautifully…

Sadly the same can’t be said for the photo CD that came with my enlargements.  The main problem is the resolution; the images I got are 1.6 megapixels (remember that a 35mm film camera is essentially a 10-20 megapixel camera, depending on what film you use) and the colors are screwed up (I knew I took a picture of a 24-bit palette for a reason!)  Oh well.  If I ever shoot any more film after my Kodachrome I’ll be sending it to a professional photo lab that provides “professional” photo CDs, not just the local “lab.”

Below is a somewhat hastily reconstructed picture of a sunset taken with my Nikon 5005 from the p**s poor scans on the Photo CD.  The film is Fujicolor ASA 200, camera is using programmed Auto-Exposure.  This picture looks “close” to both what I actually saw and what the actual enlargement looks like.  I will be scanning a selection of my enlargements and posting them on my online photo gallery soon.

 

Photography: Kodachrome!

You give us those nice bright
colors,

You give us the greens of
summers, 

Makes you think all the
world's a sunny day, 

Oh yeah!

Oops, sorry about that…  I just got so caught up in
the mystique of this legendary film and the old song
that I couldn’t resist!  

In case any of you didn’t know, sadly Kodachrome is
a dead product and is no longer in production.  When
I found out about that sad fact I decided that I had
to get a hold of and shoot a single roll of it, as
I will never have another chance in my life!  

Well today it arrived, along with a selection of
color correction gels (one of which I used in the
taking of the above photo).  I am rather anxious to
load and start shooting this film, as I have a
deadline (as of 12/31/10 it will be IMPOSSIBLE to
get Kodachrome film processed anywhere in the world!)
But first I want to wait for my test roll to be
developed just to make sure my $2 Nikon won’t destroy
this rare film!!!

(The above picture is taken from a test of a still-
life I am titling “The Past and Present of Film.”
The Olympus camera on the left is a stand-in for an
older 35mm.  Obviously I will be taking the final
picture before I load and shoot my first and last
roll of Kodachrome!)

Yet more photography…

Yesterday I finally finished exposing my “test roll” of film, and took it to the pharmacy today to get it developed (the film that is, NOT the camera!)  Provided this test proves that the Nikon is in good, solid working condition (despite likely having been dropped, as well as my own attempt to destroy the shutter…) I have one more thing I want to do with it before it goes into cold storage, but I will save that for another post…

Despite the extremely low purchase price ($2) I sincerely hope it’s a good camera, as even though it’s effectively 75 cents a frame to use it is also effectively a 20 megapixel camera!  With a massive list of accessory lenses available should I wish to aquire them.

Aside from having nearly completed my Nikon test I also did some timed exposure experiments with my Lumix.  My first experiment turned out beautifully (pic and link to full resolution picture is at the end of the post), however afterwards things didn’t go so well…

I decided to try capturing both the stars and a tree in one frame, using my strobe to illuminate the tree.  I removed my slave unit from the strobe so I wouldn’t lose it, but not it’s mounting…  Just as I was ready to take the picture the strobe suddenly started going off like the Fourth of July!!!  Turns out that my home-improvised slave mount finally failed, and after removing it the strobe functioned properly again in “open flash” mode.  Sadly the picture I had composed turned out horribly…  Still though, with all the random and very rapid flashing it must’ve looked like Beirut in my front yard!!!

Here is a pic of my one “good” timed exposure (the astronomical ones sadly didn’t turn out…  The Earth rotates more in one minute than you’d think).  The reddish streaks are traffic (this frame was exposed over a period of 60 seconds).  The full resolution image may be viewed here.

Photography: Art Photo #2 “The Glowing Tree”

Well I’ve had this photograph in mind for awhile: A tree set against the fading daylight lit from in front and beneath by an artificial light to make the tree appear to “glow.” And here’s the result:

(Full resolution image may be viewed here)

This picture is of a Weeping Willow located across the road from me, using my new Lumix on Programmed AE mode with my Sunpak strobe set at full power aimed at the foliage at close range. Of course this picture required me to cross US 24 FOUR times (place my strobe, return, take pictures, retrieve strobe, return), but I think it was worth it…

The Sunpak illuminating itself for this picture! I think it was set at about 1/24 power for this shot.

Photography: New Digital Camera!

After casually wanting one for the better part of five years I finally broke down and purchased a new digital camera off of eBay this week.  It arrived on Friday, and so far I am very impressed. 

Here is a picture of the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ30 next to my Sunpak Auto 522 Thyristor strobe.  It is an 8-megapixel “Bridge” camera (a camera that incorporates most of the features of an SLR but with a permanently attached lens and no complex mirror system).  It includes a lot of high-end features such as a physical zoom ring, a manual focus ring, full P-A-S-M exposure control, Optical Image Stabilization, a hot shoe (for mounting an external flash), a tilting display, an Electronic Viewfinder and a plethora of other features that I don’t care to mention here.  

Here is a view of the back of both the Lumix and the Sunpak.  Though the screen is smaller than I would like it is very sharp (the EVF is also extremely sharp, albeit slightly laggy but from what I’ve read most are).  Yes I took these pictures with my old Kodak (and obviously without the help of the Sunpak strobe).  So how does it perform?  Well how about a picture of the Kodak using the Lumix!

Here is a picture of both my Kodak Easyshare C633 6.1 megapixel pocket camera (which all of my pictures to-date have been taken with) next to a Nikon N5005 SLR that I picked up at Goodwill for $2!  This picture was taken using my new Lumix and the Sunpak strobe at about 1/15 power, aimed at the ceiling as a bounce flash.  I have yet to test the Nikon (since it uses film I want to be 100% sure it’s clean before I load it even for a test roll)

My old Kodak is not being retired, it is now my “grab and go” camera.  For anything even remotely more serious I now have a better option.  After all, my main reasons for wanting a new digital camera are the Kodak’s lack of features (I guess it’s called an Easyshare for a reason…) and it’s poor low-light performance (even with the Sunpak I have to use a flashlight as an autofocus-assist lamp!).  So far my new camera meets and/or exceeds all of my expectations.

 

Of course I decided to take a picture of both cameras next to each other, using my parents’ Lumix.  That’s all I have for now…

Photography: Art Photo #1

After viewing my American flag against the sunset I knew I wanted to take a picture of it in that setting.  I finally did so today, not only for the pleasure of doing so but to gain experiance in multi-flash photography (albeit with my Kodak pocket camera, I just purchased a high-end Panasonic “bridge” camera, and plan on re-taking this picture with it as a test if nothing else).  And here is the result:

This picture was taken kneeling before the flag, looking upwards at it with my Sunpak flash set about six feet to the side at 1/16 power at about a 45-degree angle to the right of the camera.  I am very impressed with the way I was able to both highlight the flag while at the same time giving it depth against the sunset-lit clouds. 

Photography: MacGuyver to the Rescue!

On Friday I finally received my Wein Peanut PND optical slave from Midwest Photo Exchange, and not completely to my surprise it did not fit in my strobe’s sync socket…  It turns out that SunPak strobes take an almost-standard 3/32 monoplug (which is several thousandths longer than a standard monoplug).  After purchasing a monoplug and finding out it didn’t work I tried manually tripping the flash by simply jamming a nail into the sync socket…  When the flash tripped I realized that the monoplug is simply too short.  My short-term solution:  Wrap most of the nail with label stock, and use two wires to connect the optical slave to the nail and the sync port’s sleeve.

It’s ugly, unstable and all-together sloppy, but it does work!  It reliably trips the strobe on my camera’s “main” flash, ignoring the preflash every time.  As I expected using an off-camera slave flash does improve the quality of my photos.  For demonstration purposes I decided to do some model photography.  Since I don’t have access to a proper model I decided to use my cat; Chessie.

Here is a picture of Chessie using only my camera’s internal (and very weak) flash. 

 

 

 

And a picture of Chessie using both the internal flash as a direct flash and the SunPak 522 Auto as a slave flash, bounced off the ceiling at 1/16 power.  This dual-flash picture is definately sharper, but I get the impression that my exposure compensation may be off…  After all I am only an amateur, and one inexperianced in multi-flash photograpry at that!  I will try to take more pictures tommorow, and both learn from my (inevitable) mistakes and post my best pictures then.  So until then…