How "You" Judge Exposure

[mrca]

@mrca I'll admit I've thought seriously about 4x5, but the truth is I have several rolls of 35mm film in the fridge that have been there several years. The convience of digital just outweighs the extra effort. Plus I've read several articles comparing resolution of digital vs 4x5 which pretty much puts the two on equal footing once you pass 30MP on printing large prints. With Luts, Presets and Profiles in LR and PS it's relativrly easy to replicate a "film look", that only the most careful observation might discover. Considering the fact that printing a film negative by a commercial lab requires digitizing and is then printed in the same manner as a digital image, I just don't see the advantage of film. Now if you print your own on an enlarger then yes.

Smoke, I have a mastin preset, close but no cigar. Even with the great dynamic range of a d850, it doesn't capture the detail in the sky that I get with portra. The guys on a youtube channel F stopppers sponsored by a plug in company ridiculed a lady for shooting 25 grand worth of film for weddings the year before. So they set out to prove it could be done with digital. After an hour, they gave up. They just couldn't match the skin tones nor the grain structure. I just watched Once upon a time in Hollywood and forgot Tarantino shoots all his movies on film. At one point I stopped the movie and had to get up and look at the skin tones ln tates leg, that wasn't makeup. Then I remembered doing the same thing with girl with a pearl earring 10 years ago. They both used the same kodak movie film stock which is now available in 35 mm film cassettes. Will require one additional step to remove an extra layer on the non emulsion side when I develop, but the skin tones, incredible. Different than portra, but omg. Acutually, 45 mp matches medium format. 4x5 dusts 35 mm digital not only in resolution, but both mf and 4x5 has a huge negative compared to 35mm with skin tones over a much larger area. 35 mm is 864 square mm. 67 is 4,200. Now, I don't shoot mf for resolution but do like making large enlargements, I shoot is also for the grain in proportion to the negative size. The grain is random sizes and is more obvious in light tones and graduates into shadows and highlights. When grain is applied digitally it is an even size of grains and even over the entire image. It might be natural to think film for street where there is no time to adjust exposure would not work. Actually, hp5 had 5 stops of over exposure that will give a near identical exposure to one at proper exposure. Try over exposing even a d850 5 stops, I did, you get a near pure white image. Film is actually easier. But it is an expense, sending to my lab, total per roll $30 and on a 10 shot 67 roll that' 3 bucks a click. Developing my self, 80 cents a click but 35 mm is only 20 per click. I guess it's like folks who like vinyl records, they embrace the imperfections. I am bored with sterile, ultra sharp digital image. It looks...digital. But I shot film for over 40 years. Now most folks on the street wont be able to tell the difference and it's up to a photographer to educate their clients if they dont know the difference. But now, with all the 20/30 something jumping into film, my lab turnaround went from one week to 3 weeks and I am waiting for some film to get off of backorder.

 

[mrca]

Yes, 4x5 is worse than waist level finders on MF. Upside down reversed and I think inside out too. It drives me crazy. I bought an eye level viewfinder for it. But it darkens the view on the ground glass which is really bad on wide-angle lenses.

What I do, is use my digital camera to line up the shot even before taking out the 4x5. I zoom to determine which lens I need for the 4x5. Then I drop something the ground to mark where I'm standing. Then I get my camera and tripod and open it on the marked spot on the ground. I set up the camera aiming at the subject as I originally determined on the digital camera, more or less. Then I fine-tune the edges and focus.

So all the aesthetics were taken care of with the digital camera. I only need to frame, set the exposure and focus the 4x5 and shoot. I also can take off the eye level finer and use my loupe to focus and make fine adjustments at that time. It's annoying frankly. I might give it up and go back to MF to save my sanity.

Alan, I just got the Viewfinder Preview for my iphone. You log your formats and lenses and can scroll through he lenses and see what the viewfinder will show without having to take out the camera. It goes up to 8x10. Also has film emulation that is pretty close but it lets you preview tonal contrast in a b&w image. Also has a built in spot meter that is really accurate and works as manual or shutter/aperture priority. It also has a histogram. You can then take a shot of what is shows and use the log to enter camera settings/filters etc. $3.99. Almost as priceless as massive dev chart app that stores times in chemistry and beeps to let you know to agitate and when to stop.

 

[AlanKlein]

Alan, I just got the Viewfinder Preview for my iphone. You log your formats and lenses and can scroll through he lenses and see what the viewfinder will show without having to take out the camera. It goes up to 8x10. Also has film emulation that is pretty close but it lets you preview tonal contrast in a b&w image. Also has a built in spot meter that is really accurate and works as manual or shutter/aperture priority. It also has a histogram. You can then take a shot of what is shows and use the log to enter camera settings/filters etc. $3.99. Almost as priceless as massive dev chart app that stores times in chemistry and beeps to let you know to agitate and when to stop.

Is it available for Android phones? If it's the one I'm thinking, it may not be.

 

[smoke665]

@mrca Again, I'm not so sure that you aren't giving up any advantage of the 4x5 "if" you convert it to digital. First of all if you're using one of the more economical commercial labs you're taking that beautiful negative and converting/compressing it to a JPEG. I looked at "The Darkroom", one of the labs I'm familiar with, even if you do a super scan on a medium format 645 you'll only end up with a 48MP file. The D850 you mentioned earlier has almost 46.7MP. Illford lists the DR of HP5 at 11-12 stops, (i think that's right), my K1MII is rated at 14.6 stops at ISO 100 and your D850 is roughly the same at base ISO. Given that the ability to print large is a function of resolution, I don't see where you've gained with film. Now granted scanning at 3200 - 4000 would increase that 4x5 file size by close to double, but then you're buying your own scanner or paying substantially more if you can find a lab. If I were to go to 4x5 I think I'd be going all the way from film to print on paper, bypassing the whole digital world entirely.

 

[mrca]

Is it available for Android phones? If it's the one I'm thinking, it may not be.

Unfortunately, I think not. I believe there are similar apps for Android but more expensive. I can have the phone in my pocket, use it as a reflective meter, visualize the framing and tones, take the shot and use it as a log for camera settings so I can check the results. The histogram is pretty darn accurate too so can see if I am blocking up shadows. I have a small 2" square ancient gossen that works great incident, but not so much spot. Can minimize the spot by plugging in a 300 mm lens and the square is on a smaller area.