Taking notes?

[Aquarium Dreams]

I'm starting to work more with cross-processing, pinhole, and b&w. I've never taken notes for photography, and I want to start. Exposure time and f-stop are obvious, but what other things should I take notes on?

 

[crotograph]

F Stop
Aperture
Shutter Speed
Film Type and Speed (ISO)
Camera Model (If you use more than one)
Lens
Filter
Camera Settings (if you chance to use any digital?)
Light Meter Reading (EV) (EI)
Push/Pull by amount of f stop

These are the minimum I use for each photo. I tend to list subject matter and location also as after some time you may not remember where in the heck you shot that cactus.

I also like to keep a spot meter reading and make a note of a films latitude vs highlight and shadow readings.

 

[Battou]

I keep seprate books for different bodies and generally stick to the same brand of film but my book keeps

Film speed
F stop
Shutter Speed
Lens (and Filter if any)
And sendout envelope No.

Additional information such as if the mirror was locked, or bellows gets crammed in as well where ever it'll fit.

Oh yeah and a pen, I keep designated pens for my log books, they are at all times clipped to the book, that way I am not with out a pen.

 

[McManniss]

Definetly start taking notes. Probably one of the best pieces of advice i can give. If you are shooting film, it will help a ton. Write down as much info as you can for a given picture such as:

Time of Day, What type of Lighting, What film, What speed you were rating it at, What Shutter Speed, What Aperature, Handheld or on Tripod, Light Meter Readings, Filters, Over/Under Exposure (Bracketing), Lighting Ratio and anything else that might pertain to the photo.

It will definetly help you when it comes time for processing. If you shoot tests, you can determine what the look of the film and process will look like as the end result.

 

[ThomThomsk]

Not much to say that hasn't already been said:

I obviously write down the f/stop and shutter speed, but I also record quite a lot of detail about how I metered every exposure, certainly until I get used to a type of film. For example, yesterday I was using Fuji Provia for the first time, and I don't know what to expect.

So, for one particular exposure I noted that a tree trunk (which was pretty much mid-grey) was EV 10 and 2 thirds on the spotmeter, and that at f/22 that should give a shutter speed between a quarter and a half a second. When I come to review the notes when I get the slides back, this will help me to remember why I shot every scene on the roll at both a quarter and a half, and see which gives the better result.

Shooting b&w negative film I make notes of where I metered the darkest shadows and what the EV was, so later I have all the information I need to remember why I chose the particular shutter speed and aperture. Exposure isn't so critical with negative film, but writing it all down anyway is a habit that seems to have stuck.

Finally, I mentioned that I review the notes when I get the slides back (or when I develop the film, in the case of B&w negs). This is where you learn something, and sometimes I make further notes at this stage about what worked and what didn't.

 

[Buckster]

Great info. Back in the day, I used notebook to record film type, shutter, aperture at a minimum, and other things if I thought they might be important to me in some way.

Now that I'm getting back into film with medium format, I was wondering what folks are using for logging info these days, did a search of the forum, and ended up on this thread (thus this post and it's revival).

Seeing the responses above has given me ideas on some other information that would really be helpful, if not critical as I review later, so I'll definitely be incorporating it.

Anyway, here's my question to all you film photographers who make it a habit to take notes:

What do you use? Do you just use a regular notebook, do you pre-print pages that let you fill in the blanks, do you buy some kind of photographer's log book that makes it easier on you, do you talk into a recorder and have your personal assistant type it up later (lol)?

What do you find works best for you?