Polaroid in the Peaks
I was up at my parents house at the weekend and went out with my Dad to go for a photographic jaunt. I wanted to try out my new Polaroid back and type 79 film (colour 4×5) and also the new 360/500.
We went up to the Roaches, just past Leek, but the wind at the top was horrific and combined with the dense heather (tripod legs can’t get through to the ground) it was like taking a photograph on a bouncy castle. We retreated back towards lake Tittesworth and stopped at the foot of Hen Cloud just as the sun started descending. The whole of the sky was mostly overcast, dense cloud but there was a streak of clear on the horizon.
As soon as the sun struck this streak of clear we started shooting. The problem was that the band of light wasn’t lighting up the land and so we ended up using 5 stops of ND grad just to control the sun. This revealed the slight magenta colour cast of the Lee filters which was a little annoying. It also highlighted the need for a reverse grad (see the Singh Ray site for an explanation). I’ll possibly try out a singh ray 4 stop grad and 2 stop reverse grad at some point in the future.
The composition was satisfying though, but it needs a little work (dodge the top clouds, get rid of the flare spot at the bottom left).
I did take a Polaroid of this shot too. The dynamic range of the type 79 seems to be very close to Velvia (although it’s a 100asa). The colours are very yellowy though, almost like a old master – think constable effect. Working with Polaroid is mucky though (lots of ick everywhere – make sure you have a plastic bag for the crap and a safe place to put your pictures while they dry off – otherwise they’ll end up with a matt finish).
I didn’t manage to take proper large format shot (too much wind still) but did try out the 360 just to check how it focused in the field (very well).
