cant seem to get it down (lots of photos)

[den9]

i recently switched to a film camera from digital and just cant seem to get sharpness at all. tell me what you think.

this was shot with a 17-40mm f/4 and 64iso tungsten slide film

first off, the color sucks, this should be bright red

this camera doesnt focus at night so i manual focus and i think thats the cause, this pictures are pityful, atleast in terms or sharpness

this one i like, its kind of hard to read the sign

this one seems unsharp

i like some of these photos, but im getting discouraged.

critique is appreciated along with helpful hints.

i didnt edit any of these

 

[Josh66]

There are parts of each photo that are sharp, so I think you're just missing the focus.

The color being off on the first one is due to using tungsten balanced film.

 

[den9]

its hard as hell to focus a camera in the dark through a tiny view finder.

how about number 2, it looks like the doors are focused, but not the county sign. how would i make this whould image in focus? i used f/8 or f/11 in this photo

 

[Josh66]

I would hardly consider the viewfinder on a 1N 'tiny'. I use a 1N RS, which I believe has the same viewfinder. It's plenty 'big' to me, especially compared to a digital camera.

how about number 2, it looks like the doors are focused, but not the county sign. how would i make this whould image in focus? i used f/8 or f/11 in this photo

That's kinda what I'm seeing too. Maybe a little behind the doors though, along the wall somewhere...

You may need to adjust the diopter.

It's under the rubber cup around the viewfinder on your camera. Slide that off, and there should be a small dial there.

Put the camera on a tripod, auto-focus on something, turn AF off, then adjust the diopter until it looks the sharpest in the viewfinder.

 

[den9]

yes the view finding is huge, but its still hard to get perfect when its dark out, just me though. i hope im not getting bad eye sight.

 

[Josh66]

Yeah, night sucks for trying to focus, lol. Not much you can do about that...

The diopter could just be off, it might not necessarily be your eyes.

One thing I like about the 1 series bodies is that the diopter adjustment dial is hidden under the eyecup - so once you set it, it's hard for it to move accidentally.

That's the first thing I would check.


Also, unless you have more lenses that aren't in your signature, a max aperture of f/4 is only going to make focusing at night harder... A faster lens will be easier to focus. The extra stop or two will give you a brighter viewfinder image.

 

[den9]

hmm thanks for the tip, never thought of focusing with the aperture wide open. i just checked and my diopter is good.

sometimes i use a bright flashlight to help focus

other than the focus, do you think the composition is good?

 

[Josh66]

Composition looks fine to me on all of them. #2 looks pretty cool to me, even with the minor focus issues...

 

[den9]

this is my second roll of t64, it seems with long exposures it gets really grainy, and almost a reciprocity failure it seems like, its easier to spot on the full size images.

 

[Josh66]

Is it the Fuji T64?

Check out the data sheet:
FUJICHROME T64 | Fujifilm Global
(PDF at the bottom of the page.)

They say it doesn't need reciprocity correction until 4 minutes (where it needs +1/3 stops).

 

[pdq5oh]

You'll find exposure is much more critical with chrome films. You might try bracketing your focus to get what you want. Long exposures with chrome film will cause color shift. So using smaller apertures to compensate for focus error will have some undesirable side-effects.

 

[den9]

interesting, i was turned on to t64 from a star trails tutorial, they said it was good because it gave the sky a more blueish tint rather than orange. never mentioned anything about failure, and the pictures in the video seemed very good.

its funny they discontinued fuji t64 earlier this year, now its back not even a year later.