Month: December 2007

Color Film

December 22, 2007 / Rick / 0 Comments

My Pentax 645 came with a 220 film back. At the time I didn’t know the difference between 120 film and 220 film so I really didn’t care. Well, when it came time to buy film, I realized there is a difference. The biggest difference between 220 film and 120 film is the number of exposures – 220 gives 30 exposures where 120 gives 15 exposures. What I found is that 220 film is becoming exceedingly difficult to find. My only option in black and white was Kodak Tri-X 320, and honestly I’m not really a fan of Tri-X film.

Off to eBay I go and finally (after getting sniped on 2 other auctions) I got a 120 film back for the reasonable price of $33.00. The seller also threw in 4 rolls of Fuji Reala 100 film. Well, what was I to do? I immediately shot up the 4 rolls of film and had them processed by a third party (I don’t know how to process color quite yet). Here are some of the results.

Ok, I admit it – I’ve always had cameras that automagically read the ISO of the film canister and I’ve never worked with medium format before. I was shooting Tri-X 320 before I got the film back and film and, you guessed it, I forgot to set the ISO on the camera. This was the result of the film being pushed but not developed as if it were pushed. This shot of my Christmas tree definitely sucks.

This shot was from the same pushed roll. The image itself came out good, but the colors were off. The evidence is the fact that these flowers were red, not pink. I guess the reason the bricks didn’t come out funky has something to do with the fact the sun was shining directly on them. This picture, however flawed from its original intent, came out very powerful (at least in my opinion).

After realizing my mistake and setting the proper ISO on my camera, I shot the last 2 rolls of film. This one was properly exposed, but for some reason very washed out. I’m not sure what happened because the images before and after both came out fine. If this had come out, I think it would have been pretty kick ass.

Now these 2 above are my success stories. In both instances the exposure came out perfect and the colors, after a little tweaking in Aperture, were dead on. I’ve found that my cat is actually a very difficult subject to focus because of her color… but this time I was able to get her and some of her fur detail. The poinsettia is my favorite of the 2 rolls that were shot properly as the detail was something I wasn’t expecting.

So, 60 pictures were taken and only 4 usable came out of it. I would say it was a pretty good day. I did find out one thing, though – I have a lot to learn when it comes to color photography in film. Digital pictures are easy to manipulate, but film is a whole different beast. I’ve been told that we will be working with color film next semester. This should definitely prove to be interesting.

As always, comments are welcome and encouraged so I can get better.

Final Exam Results

December 12, 2007 / Rick / 0 Comments

I got my final exam portfolio back today. I am proud to say that I received an A+ on it, I guess that means a 100. I hope it wasn’t on bell curve because that would mean that my classmates photos really sucked (and I know there were some pretty good photos my classmates took). My overall grade in the class was an A, which keeps my GPA in the high 3’s (woohoo!). I’m signed up for Photography II next semester along with a retake of Anatomy and General Psychology. Wish me luck for those in the next semester.

Christmas is upon us. In the previous years I haven’t taken much notice of things going on around me, but this year, since the happenings of December 2006, I’m taking better notice. I’ve been taking a lot of photos this Christmas and I thought I would share of few of them with you.

These 2 are part of my house decorations. They are located on the hearth in my living room. Some would consider the placement of the Nativity and a Santa Claus so close may be blasphemy. I beg to differ. While the birth of Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas, Santa Claus embodies the spirit of Christmas. That spirit being The Father giving the world his Son to save us from our sins.

These were taken at a client’s Christmas party this past weekend. I have a lot of candids, but here I wanted to post my artsy shots. Capturing that flame was a pain, though, as for some reason the fire kept throwing off my focus (even on manual).

These are part of privately funded public displays around Houston. The first one is a part of 3 very big nutcracker soldiers in the parking lot of an upscale strip mall near the Galleria. The picture of Santa is part of a much larger display on the front lawn of the AON building, which is located about 2 blocks from where the nutcracker picture was taken. The ‘much larger display’ was rather difficult to capture.

I’ve been messing with the shooting styles lately on my DSLR. It has gotten rid of the slight orange tint that’s been plaguing my pictures, but now some of the colors are being washed out. I find myself having to do a lot of color correction lately.

At any rate, give me comments because that’s how I grow.

Final Exam Update

December 7, 2007 / Rick / 0 Comments

I turned in my final today, but with one picture being discarded in favor of another. The photo of the General Sam Houston statue silhouette had to be discarded. The reason for this was the print that was made showed a problem with the negative. When making a print, I was getting what looked like black dust to the left of the statue. This didn’t show up in the scan (more than likely due to the software that helps remove dust from the pictures). When I examined the negative on the light table I found some specks on the left side and the top of the negative. I asked my teacher about it and, after looking closely at the emulsion side of the negative, determined that a substance was on the negative and was causing the bad prints. I tried to clean the negative, but it was a no go. This really sucks because I loved the picture.

The picture I decided to go with is the medium format globe picture below. It still fits the theme and I am confident the teacher will see the same thing.

As always, comments are welcome.

Why am I Not in Bed?

December 2, 2007 / Rick / 1 Comment

No matter what, usually when I get new pictures I just can’t wait to get them “developed”. Whether it’s digital or on film, new pictures do get me excited. The birth of new creation is always fun. I guess that’s why I can’t wait. As it is, though, it’s 1:30 am here.

Tonight my wife and I did a little Christmas shopping. Well, she did a little Christmas shopping. I bought a couple of CD’s and decided to take some pictures of the Christmas decorations in The Galleria with my DSLR. We were going to take some pictures earlier today of the southern end of Montrose Boulevard in Houston, but like a dumbass I forgot my tripod and grabbed the wrong lens. I grabbed my super wide angle instead of my medium zoom. It’s ok, though… we went down to South Montrose anyway and visited The Menil Collection Museum to see some contemporary art. Perhaps next weekend we will go to the Houston Center for Photography Center (reminds me of the American Dodgeball Association of America from “Dodgeball”).

Anyway, I got some good pictures with the DSLR. My biggest concern with them, however, is the amount of color fixing I had to do with them. When I use the “Standard” style setting, the pictures have a reddish tint to them. Today I tried the “Neutral” setting. The reddish tint was gone, but the colors were a little more washed out. I had to do a lot of saturation level tweaking (on individual primary colors) to get it right. I guess I need to experiment a little more (perhaps white balance?).

At any rate, here are a few of the pictures I took earlier this evening:

The Galleria places a very large tree in the center of the ice-skating rink every Christmas. I don’t know it’s real or fake. I just wish the decorations were a little more colorful.

These last three are a few of the rather large ornaments that flank the tree. These are suspended from the ceiling of Galleria I, where the ice skating rink is located.

I know that when it comes to photography the person behind the viewfinder counts more than the piece of glass on the front of the body. However, a good lens helps the picture that much more. I took my super wide on this outing, which was not my intention. The super wide has an aperture range of f/2.8 – 4. My medium zoom has a fixed aperture of f/2.8. The variable aperture on the super wide didn’t help my depth-of-field. On several pictures I got a depth-of-field much deeper than desired due to the fact the maximum aperture closed due to zooming.

I have to go back tomorrow (or is it tonight?) to pick up 2007’s special ornament. I think this time I’m going to take the medium zoom along with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. Hopefully I can get some better depth-of-field.

As always, I need comments. The comments help me grow as a photographer.