I went into the city on the harbour (Sydney) on St. Patrick's Day. A sunny Autumn day, colourful, fun and packed with people happy to be photographed.

I had my M6 TTL 35 & 50, + Fuji Realla(neg) 100.

Now there were people in the sun, shade & in between - and my fingers a blur with lots of stop and speed changes. With 100 the apertures were getting down making DOF critical at times. I was in aerobic brain mode!

Would 400 have allowed me to use fairly constant aperture - therefore hyperfocal (which I have charted), with only the speed to adjust for good results?

If so, an M7 using hyperfocals with aperture priority would have given me the ultimate - wait for it - point and shoot!

Seriously, I was thinking of an M4 or M6 as a second body one day but an M7 as a back-up? How good is that?

How would others have handled the above conditions (assuming the use of M gear & no Guinnes!)?

-- Tim Gee (twg@optushome.com.au), March 25, 2002

Answers

IMO, the big problem with Realla -- and I know a lot of folks here love it, so this is IMO -- is it is a fairly high contrast film. So, when shooting in the lighting you described, your film was working against you. This is one of the reasons I prefer Portra 160NC as my all-around daytime color neg film. It has normal contrast -- soft by Realla standards -- and can handle the sun/shade dilemma just fine. (Note: the Portra 160VC is contrastier and has similar, but not as severe, problems to Realla IMO.) Furthermore, when I'm shooting in those situations, I take one careful reading and stick with it UNLESS the lighting changes significantly. Like when I shoot a full-sun or full-shade shot, which I will then of course change the exposure for.

Cheers,

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 25, 2002.

IMO, the big problem with Realla -- and I know a lot of folks here love it, so this is IMO -- is it is a fairly high contrast film.

Interesting... that's the first time I see someone refer to Reala as high-contrast film. The *only* film I can think of with lower contrast is indeed Portra NC. I find it too plain for my taste (there's a joke that "NC" stands for "no color" :-) Besides that Reala has much finer grain and its exposure latitude was never a problem for me. It is much more difficult to find a lab that would print on a paper that would match Reala's latitude.

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), March 25, 2002.

i'm not sure if i could have done differently...although if the exposure difference between the sunny and shaded locations is about 1 stop, i'd stick with the "sunny" exposure and just concentrate on focusing...since you are using Reala...obviously this can't be applied to slides...

--

oh, and i don't think Reala is a high contrast film, either.

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

although if the exposure difference between the sunny and shaded locations is about 1 stop

That depends on the shade. Last summer I was shooting at Maryland Renaissance Fair -- it fas "sunny 16" in the sun, but in the shade was so dark I shot 90/3.5 wide open at 1/30 (with ISO 100 film). My approach is to meter in the sun, in the shade and somewhere in between and then just adjust shutter speed or aperture accordingly.

-- Alexander Grekhov (grekhov@wgukraine.com), March 25, 2002.

How would others have handled the above conditions (assuming the use of M gear & no Guinnes!)?

I reject your assumptions! I'd go somewhere that served proper beer.

-- Mike Dixon (mike@mikedixonphotography.com), March 25, 2002.

oh damn. i mean i'd stick with the "shade" exposure because of the overexposure tolerance.

Alexander, the difference between the exposures you were talking about is definitely more than 1 stop...so in such cases, my advice certainly won't apply.

-- Dexter Legaspi (dalegaspi@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

Alexander and Dexter: The *only* film I can think of with lower contrast is indeed Portra NC.

Hmmmm....... I guess I'd agree that Reala is perhaps lower contrast than other FUJI consumer films, and certainly lower in contrast than Kodak Gold, but I think you'll find Vericolor, the Portra VC's, NPC, S, H and even Z lower in contrast than Reala. Cheers,

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), March 25, 2002.

I think what Tim is talking about is film speed. I don't belive the film type/contrast is the issue here.

Although I am not too clear abot what your point is Tim. I feel that 100 ISO, especially Reala (my favourite) is a great speed to use, even in fairly low light, especially with the M6. The only problem I have with the M6 is when I want to shoot at f/1.4 to f/2.8 in bright light and I can't because I need a faster speed than 1/1000 sec.

And using ISO 400 would just make it worse. In terms of finding an exposure to use, I would've chosen a standard aperture like f/5.6 to f/11 with your 35mm and find a couple of shutter speeds, depending on the light in a couple of different scenes and switched between the two, or three if needed. This way there isn't too much messing around. And with negative film, you have the ability to go over or under a stop, or even two!

Hope this helps. How is the weather in Sydney lately? I'll be there on Saturday to buy a Billigham from Foto Riesel.

-- Kristian (leicashot@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

I would have used Fuji Superia 200 and an M3 with hand held light meter. As I did on St. Pats Here is a link that can be clicked to see the photograph.



-- Doug Ford (dford@san.rr.com), March 25, 2002.

Thanks to all for the above. It's interesting and helpful. I did ramble a bit so... The question is really about technique.

I know there is latitude with negs but I'd rather get it correct from the start so that it would would work with slides too. Do some of you pros. consider using hyperfocal with set aperture plus a few speed changes for exposure compensation good practice in the circumstances?

Kristian the weather in Sydney has been perfect but is clouding over a bit today. Foto Riesel, Billinghams sounds like a pleasant morning.

Mike D. They must sell Fosters Larger nearby if you prefer "proper beer"!

Doug, love that leprechaun eating pigeon! Cheers

-- Tim Gee (twg@optushome.com.au), March 25, 2002.