I have to say at the outset that bracketing has been my modus operandi for the
past several years. In my opinion, one exposure (a set of shutter
speed/aperture) cannot possibly be right for all the parts in your frame. Since
I shoot almost exclusively slide film, I have the leisure of deciding later what
turns out to be the best or what I like best among several shots of the same
scene.
In my experience, bracketing has worked for me. Prior to bracketing I only had
one shot for a particular scene and I have two slides which got damaged in the
course of having prints made several times for resale. (Nowadays, it is possible
to produce a repaired slide from digitally removing scratch marks on the
original slides.)
Even with print films I have bracketed my exposures. In one instance I was
taking photos of the interior of the Salzburg Dom from the balcony in the back
of the cathedral. I was there because I was singing as a member of the choirs
singing a Mass. Since I was in the first row, I was able to shoot this picture
of the interior packed with people during the Mass while the priest was
preaching in German. It so happened that I had a roll of print film in my OM-4T
(I think), but took three shots at three different exposure values anyway. At
first my choice was the first of the three and I had it machine printed to 8x12
and sold to my fellow choir members. Later for my own keep, I had a another
look at the contact sheet and the negatives. I found that for a larger
enlargement, another frame was better since it was a tad sharper. (Because I
shot them without any flash, I was operating at the slow shutter speeds
handheld, but if I remember correctly I was able to lean on the balcony rail for
support.) It was possible to get a good 11x14 made with my second choice and
with this print one can clearly read the inscription above the altar painting.
Recently I had about 200 pictures of mine from our most recent choir trip this
time in Scotland scanned onto PhotoCDs. I did several shots of the nave area of
a cathedral where we were a resident choir for a week. My first choice was
based on the stained glass windows exposure. It turned out that this one was
not quite right either for the stained glass or the walls of the nave. When I
had an opportunity of having all the 200 rescanned free because the first set of
scans contained noise from a defective board in the Mac at the lab, I put in
another slide for the nave that shows more of the interior walls rather than the
first. I just got my PhotoCDs back, so I don't know my second choice works out
better.
If you don't want to waste your film, just bracket one above and below the
metered value. I bracket wider when I shoot my fine-art photographs.
Bracketing does not need to be symmetrical, either and I change the way I
bracket depending on circumstances. I think, particularly with slide film, it
does not cost too much more by shooting more and the end results are always
better. You also learn that there is always more than one possible way to take
a particular photo you are working on. I might add that even with people, I end
up regretting often not taking more than one shot. Photography is not that
scientific. There is no absolute correct way to take a photograph of a given
scene. One realizes that the moment the shutter is released the shot is taken
without one's seeing the scene. Anything can happen at that moment. Having
more than one shot really saves you.
Regarding accidents/mistakes during processing:
A professional lab where I have an account has made a mistake/a machine
breakdown a few times in the past several years. Unfortunately it always
happens when I am having my oversea trip films processed. On my first trip to
Germany and Austria (including the Salzburg stop) with our choir, I shot a roll
of film during our final farewell dinner. It was this roll which was affected
when the machine in the lab had a breakdown. I managed to get several of shots
salvaged with some color alteration, but......
Some of you remember my posting about catching trout jumping on film last. I
shot quite a number of rolls on this in Steyr. I had several rolls of print
films processed right in Steyr. I also shot six rolls (or more) on Provia 1600
shot at 1600 ISO. The woman in my lab in Baltimore who took my order of six
rolls of pushing two stops on the Provia 1600 made a mistake of not putting a
sticker (a standard practice in that lab) on a sheet of order even though she
marked the film canisters for 1600 and the written order stated pushing. The
processor (human) processed them at 400 ISO. Therefore all six rolls were
underexposed. I did not have to pay for this misprocessing. Fortunately, the
best shot of a trout jumping was on print film, although I have to admit that I
had done better. This year, I spread out my film processing order of my Scotland
photos (20+ rolls) over five days, rather than getting all processed at once.
No accidents or mistakes happened this time.
Tomoko Yamamoto
mailto:tomokoy@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.charm.net/~tomokoy/
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|