poll: how many shooters can honestly expose slide film to 1/3 of a stop

[johnnyolsen]

yeah, my mom could shoot it with bracketing. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[SamBeasley]

To within 1/3 of a stop? Not me, apparently... on my last shoot, I blew out the highlights by probably about 1/2 of a stop. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] White swimsuit, nice and fairly detail-less. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I dunno how I'd do that even if I wanted to, though... all my film cameras only step in 1/2 stops. Well technically my F4 only steps in full stops, I believe... You just hafta guess for the in-betweens. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Sam

[glennusdin]

its great practice to do once in a bit. But the best way to do it is polaroids like crazy until you get it right.

[hicspix]

yep.

[jtsmith]

No drama here

See you soon....

[dynamike]

That's what I thought. So, my answer is yes.

[StephenCMW]

Yes, after hundres of thousands of exposures on E6 in 35mm, 6x6, and 4x5 formats, I can nail a 1/3 stop. But some images look better at +-1/3 or a 1/2, so I bracket on some images for highlights or shadows as needed.

Kodak E100SW

[John_Chennavasin]

Definitely not with Canon's TTL flash [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[Fish]

<CENTER>
Girls on Film
(Then scanned, Photoshopped, resized, jpeg'd for the internet, and viewed on a non-calibrated monitor....Perfect!)</CENTER>

Sure, absolutely. If you mean when I pushed the shutter button did I follow the correct procedures. Beyond that it gets a lot more complicated and if the final result is within a third of a stop it may be more good luck than anything.

Actually anyone can if they are shooting a gray card full frame in a carefully prepared studio lit with properly functioning Speedotron or Profoto strobes using a calibrated camera and light meter, if the film has been selected from a brick of 100 rolls which has been properly refrigerated and from which two rolls have been shot and processed to determine their exposure characteristics, and if the film will then be processed in a lab which has maintained their chemicals and bath temperatures within very tight standards and you are familiar with how those standards relate to your film and exposures.

Do we do this? Did we do this? Yeah, sometimes, pro studios can be pretty anal places. How many actually know (or care) that bricks of film can easily vary a 1/3 of a stop because of the different chemicals used to prepare each run of film? Labs are another source of problems, lets face it, processing film is a chemical reaction, each roll processed subtly changes the those reactions. How many people shoot test rolls and have their lab process those rolls every couple of weeks to make sure the lab is up to snuff? Hey, professionals are very careful about who processes their film, but a third of a stop? That's pretty tight, but a good lab should be able to hold it.

And cameras and light meters! Whoa Nellie! I remember when most pros shot Nikon (I'm very, very old) and no serious shooter would take a picture before they sent their brand new camera (not yet out of the box) to a couple of places in New York or Chicago to have the shutter and meter carefully calibrated.

On to real life, some people posted photos with their response (as you did with your original post). No gray cards shot in a studio. What part of the photo is "properly exposed to 1/3 of a stop"? The highlights? The blacks or shadow areas? Film (unlike the human eye) is not linier, you take your pick. Different films (Fuji vs. Kodak, et al) have different non linier characteristics.

You know, given all the variables it's a wonder anything worked at all. Ahhh, the good old days.....bracket and clip, and when all else failed, blame the lab.

Fish
--
John Fisher
Couture Model Management
900 West Avenue, Suite 423
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