Erik DeBill
New member
My adapter board for using Linhof lens boards on the Cambo arrived, along with my long awaited lot of film holders. The only thing that's still not here is the order that includes the backordered Tachihara. That means it's time to start taking serious pictures
Since I'm working until after sundown these days, I haven't had the chance to go take pictures in the daylight. Luckily I have a flash.
Not something I'd normally consider outstanding, but I'm feeling triumphant anyway
I used my 580EX at full power shooting into an umbrella at camera right. I did test shots with my 20d while Rowan and Silkie were out of the room, so I could work out the exposure. Apparently my umbrella eats light - I couldn't get smaller than f11, so depth of field was pretty shallow. I need to go read the equations in the back of The Camera to get a better understanding of the relationship between format, aperture, focal length and depth of field.
I wanted Silkie and Rowan's faces to be in focus, so I tried swinging the front element to compensate (there was a fish tank in the way of moving the camera itself). Unfortunately, between when I composed and focused the picture and actually took it, Rowan shifted position so her head was closer to the camera. Her back shoulder is SHARP
She also managed to get half her head cut off in 3 out of 4 frames.
I've concluded that a) I shouldn't frame things as tightly in large format - there's plenty of resolution so cropping doesn't hurt much and b) always double-check focus over the whole frame just before making the exposure.
Processing was uneventful using an HP Combi Plan T tank and XTOL diluted 1:1. The only excitement was when I didn't think and diluted the developer with cold water and had to rig an impromptu water bath to get it up to a reasonable temperature. (Never keep your jugs of water in the garage) It was much easier to cleanly wash the TMAX negatives than it was the Polaroids. I never managed to get one of the Polaroids 100% clean - residue always showed up when they dried.
Unlike Polaroid type 55 negatives, these TMAX 400 negatives fit perfectly in the negative carrier for my scanner. Much much nicer to work with. I spent most of last night learning about the scanner.
First, VueScan will do multiple passes. That looks great at lower resolutions, but at higher resolutions (e.g. 1200 dpi and higher) you start noticing that the two scans won't line up properly. I freaked out about that for a little while, then found in their documentation that some scanners just can't line things up again perfectly. Apparently the HP Scanjet 4950 is one of those.
Second, with only 2 gig of RAM, I MUST NOT run both VueScan and Lightzone simultaneously. They both want 1-1.5G and the system will start thrashing horribly. It's faster to just shut one down and reopen it later.
Third, how in the world do you people manage dust? I could spend a couple hours removing the dust spots from my scan. Some of it looks like it was on the negative when it was exposed, some looks like it was there for the scanning. I just did a bunch of vacuuming and cleaning of the bathroom where I'm loading my film. Maybe that will help.
Hopefully I can get some outdoor shots tomorrow.
Since I'm working until after sundown these days, I haven't had the chance to go take pictures in the daylight. Luckily I have a flash.
Not something I'd normally consider outstanding, but I'm feeling triumphant anyway
I used my 580EX at full power shooting into an umbrella at camera right. I did test shots with my 20d while Rowan and Silkie were out of the room, so I could work out the exposure. Apparently my umbrella eats light - I couldn't get smaller than f11, so depth of field was pretty shallow. I need to go read the equations in the back of The Camera to get a better understanding of the relationship between format, aperture, focal length and depth of field.
I wanted Silkie and Rowan's faces to be in focus, so I tried swinging the front element to compensate (there was a fish tank in the way of moving the camera itself). Unfortunately, between when I composed and focused the picture and actually took it, Rowan shifted position so her head was closer to the camera. Her back shoulder is SHARP
She also managed to get half her head cut off in 3 out of 4 frames.
I've concluded that a) I shouldn't frame things as tightly in large format - there's plenty of resolution so cropping doesn't hurt much and b) always double-check focus over the whole frame just before making the exposure.
Processing was uneventful using an HP Combi Plan T tank and XTOL diluted 1:1. The only excitement was when I didn't think and diluted the developer with cold water and had to rig an impromptu water bath to get it up to a reasonable temperature. (Never keep your jugs of water in the garage) It was much easier to cleanly wash the TMAX negatives than it was the Polaroids. I never managed to get one of the Polaroids 100% clean - residue always showed up when they dried.
Unlike Polaroid type 55 negatives, these TMAX 400 negatives fit perfectly in the negative carrier for my scanner. Much much nicer to work with. I spent most of last night learning about the scanner.
First, VueScan will do multiple passes. That looks great at lower resolutions, but at higher resolutions (e.g. 1200 dpi and higher) you start noticing that the two scans won't line up properly. I freaked out about that for a little while, then found in their documentation that some scanners just can't line things up again perfectly. Apparently the HP Scanjet 4950 is one of those.
Second, with only 2 gig of RAM, I MUST NOT run both VueScan and Lightzone simultaneously. They both want 1-1.5G and the system will start thrashing horribly. It's faster to just shut one down and reopen it later.
Third, how in the world do you people manage dust? I could spend a couple hours removing the dust spots from my scan. Some of it looks like it was on the negative when it was exposed, some looks like it was there for the scanning. I just did a bunch of vacuuming and cleaning of the bathroom where I'm loading my film. Maybe that will help.
Hopefully I can get some outdoor shots tomorrow.