first time shooting 120 b&w: grand canyon & sedona

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

from a recent southwest driving vacation, these are my first attempt at b&w 120 film, shot using mamiya universal 6x7 back and ilford film, 100mm/3.5 lens mostly at f8.0, metered with my canon 5d. c&c welcome!
PLEASE, YOU MUST CLICK ON EACH PHOTO FOR BEST RESOLUTION AND COLOR!!!!

womble · Joined: 28 Sep 2009 Posts: 987 Location: Hertfordshire

Amazing landscape and stunning medium format detail but the images seem a little flat to me. I tried importing one to PS and giving it quite a strong curves adjustment especially at the dark end of the curve and the image had much more punch. Did you use any filters? I would have thought a "minus blue" or even a red filter would have helped a great deal here.

Hope you don't mind the comments but it seems a shame not to improve these lovely images with five minutes work!

Best wishes, Kris.

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

hey kris

thanks for the c&c, it is very welcome as i am a newbie to this format. for my first time out, i really was happy with how it turned out--i guess i was expecting black images! but i also was a little disappointed at the lack of punch as you say. i think the images look much better if you click on them--much closer to how i see them on my monitor.

i do think they were a little overexposed, and i certainly could have used a filter of some kind--red, polarizer or graduated nd. but i wanted to test out the first few rolls in a basic way to see what the camera/film/format would behave and then go on from there. i will further play around with them in PP as you suggest.
thanks again!
tony

fish4570 · Expire: 2012-03-21

Yeah, what Kris said ... Wink

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

The first, third, and fourth images all look to me like they've already received too much PP. The second one looks underexposed and flat. Not much latitude between light and dark -- or at least not as much as I'd expect with that sort of scene.

My advice? Start over, and be a bit more gentle with your PP. Try just slight bumps in contrast and brightness adjustment, or Curves might work better, then just a bit of USM.

Did you develop the film yourself, or did you have a lab do it? Same question as your slides -- did you scan them or have a service do it?

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

ok michael, i'll take your advice and start over. i was disappointed in the lack of contrast and i was probably too heavy handed. i will try just working the curves...btw, what is "USM"?

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

nice capture!
on 6x7 you have to use F19 to get the same dof as F8 on 24x36
F8 is like using F1.8 on your e-p1

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Sorry, USM = unsharp masking

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

michael: what does unsharp masking do?

poilu: is that right?? wow, i had no idea dof ran like that on medium format! is there a formula that puts mf dof in 35mm terms?

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

very interesting, thanks.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9096 Location: Houston, Texas

Himself · Expire: 2013-05-30

Did you shoot in the middle of the day?

rbelyell · Expire: 2014-01-31

thanks michael, very interesting and informative. i shall try it on aperture, which i have picked as my conversion/editing/organizing software.

himself: i shot at all different times, but the sun was truly blinding in the desert locales. sometimes you would look out over the grand canyon and you know there are multiples of color, but you can see only shades of yellow!