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Q. How do you shoot this?
Asked by Bob Jarman
(K=3145) on 10/31/2001
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Looking at some recent new images, I started wondering how you would light the following scenario:
The setting is an old horse stable, still operating.
In the doorway of the barn is a young child, the back wall and the outside of the door is covered with old gear of various types. The sun is late afternoon and is streaming through the cracks in the wall and door of the barn from above the rear creating wonderful beams of light and dust reflections. Obviously the exposure variances between highlights and shadows are huge, much more than film can handle.
My question is this, I tried shooting this exact scenario and met with total failure. Is there an approach that I could take that would allow me to capture more detail in the subjects without totally blowing out the sun rays? I tried a few fill flash shots, but still ended up with totally blown highlights. (perhaps I metered on the wrong area)
Sorry I cannot locate the originals I took, but how would you approach shooting a situation like this in general, or would you just enjoy it and forget trying to shoot it?
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Deleted User
(K=2231) - Comment Date 10/31/2001
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These types of shots are usually the most interesting shots to get! You "saw" the great oppurtunity and saw the great light, so its definately something worth trying to shoot!
The light rays where "probably" going to be too hot no matter what you did, unless you shot B&W and really underdeveloped, which would prob ruin the rest of the image anyway.
I think FILL is the answer.
If you used the automatic settings of your camera and flash I would guess that it wouldnt work right.. backlit contrasty scenes dont work well with automatic exposure/flash.
If you have a hand exposure meter that meters flash.. then that's the way to go.. you might need LOTS of light to make it work. You may even need a second flash INSIDE the barn to bring up the values a bit if you want to be able to see some detail inside it. Depending on the size of the barn.. maybe one flash wouldnt be enough inside the barn. The flash meter will tell you.
Go back and try it again... and keep trying until you figure it out. That's the fun of learning!
Let us know how it goes!
-Dave
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Arthur John Grossman III
(K=1214) - Comment Date 10/31/2001
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ND filter might cut down the exposure range.
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Larry J. Rhodes
(K=2441) - Comment Date 11/4/2001
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Bob,
Most negative films have, to my understanding, a five-stop range in which it can show shadow and highlight detail. A scene like this (I've tried to shoot similar things) probably has closer to an eight or nine-stop range. It would be impossible to expose for all of these values, unless, of course, you used a black and white film and under-developed accordingly, such as is done when using the "zone system". Dave's suggestion is probably the best one. Use fill flash. If there are electrical outlets nearby (most stables have them these days), use strobes...one or two should suffice, but, if you don't have these, then using an on-camera and an off-camera slave should do the trick. Of course, the use of a flash meter would be necessary, unless you're using a top-of-the-line system like Canon EOS 1 or Nikon F5 series cameras with their best flashes...all of which will cost WAY more than a couple of simple studio strobes and a decent flash meter (and which only come in 35mm, when something like this is always served best with medium or large format). If all else fails, meter for the brightest highlights to retain some detail (usually, meter for these and just open up two stops) and forget getting full detail in the shadows...the person can be properly exposed using reflectors and/or flashes. These are the only things I can think of that will allow you to get an acceptable, if not great picture from such conditions. :)
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Larry J. Rhodes
(K=2441) - Comment Date 12/4/2001
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Oh! I just read many articles on the wonders of Pyro developers. By far, the most recommended one is the PMK formulation. Apparently, if you develop your film in this stuff (this is for black and white only, but it's better to do a good picture in black and white than a bad one in color), you can take a picture with roughly a 15-stop range, provided you expose for the shadows, and you'll still be able to maintain highlight detail. It simply gives much better (much more subtle, that is) variations between the tones. I haven't been able to use this stuff yet, but I'm gonna try it soon. I'll try to take a picture of just the scenario you've described and see what happens. If it works the way they say it will, I'll be able to pull off a negative that'll give me a print of ALL the zones in the picture, from 2 to 17 (there really aren't that many in the traditional zone system, but then, we're not dealing with traditional developers in this case), with good detail. I'll let you know how it goes when I manage to do it. :)
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