Hi folks,
In part of a letter to me, Rich wrote, "The extreme contrast between Mt.
Rainier's snowy top and the dark green forest below is the part that drives
me nuts. ".
Hope you don't mind me quoting this, Rich.
This got me thinking, as I face the same problem in some topics as well;
specifically Monterey pine in New Zealand has a VERY dark foliage, and
some native forest also is on the dark side of contrast with other parts of a
landscape. So I got to thinking what could be done to deal with this in
camera. I've never thought through this topic before.
Of course, digitally, no problem. Just dial in reduced contrast and much of
the problem is solved - or use histogram tool.
So what did I come up with?
1. Use the least contrasty film you know about.
2. Use the least contrasty Zuikos. I went through Gary's site and noted the
least contrasty Zuikos. They are, from his comments:
24mm f/2.8 SC
35mm f/2.8 SC
35~70mm f/3.6 @ 70mm
35~70mm f/4 autofocus
50mm f/1.8 SC
75~150mm f/4 SC on OM1
85mm f/2 SC
100mm f/2.8 SC @ f/22
100~200 f/5 @f/5
135mm f/3.5 SC
200mm f/4 SC
200mm f/5 SC
3. When selecting what to shoot, avoid contrast in the shot. If you want to
photograph bright mountain, have just 10%** or less dark tree. If you want
to photograph dark tree, have 100r less bright mountain (** whatever
percentage you find works). Be sure to give dark tree more time to
compensate.
4. Try to photograph when there is bright cloud (especially from the side) to
illuminate under the trees so as to lighten the shadows.
5. If really desperate, use the trick that the Bowens Illumitrans uses to
overcome heightened contrast when copying slides. This is to direct some of
the light directly from the source of illumination to the film without going
through the subject. To do this in camera you would need to double-expose
the negative at about 100f the light level for the intended topic - just
straight white light. Don't know how you would do this; maybe out-of-focus
white clouds or a sheet of white perspex over the front of the lens with the
ASA setting at 10x what your film is. ASA 100 film at 1600; ASA 64 film at
800.
Has anybody (here) deliberately used any of these ideas to minimise
contrast?
Brian
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