Trip to Roundhay
After the aborted trip out yesterday, I was determined to get a couple of color frames shot so drove over to Roundhay park and walked over to the lake to take a picture. Sitting on my stool with the large format in front of me reminded me of fishing in some ways, and the comparison is not that far off when you think about it. I got the chance to actually spend some time on the shot and took my exposure readings using the spot meter (one for highlights, one for shadows and one for a guessed midtone). I then checked the difference between the highlight and my midtone and worked out what stop grad I would need. Also from this I could work out what areas would end up too dark. After taking the shot, I took the same shot with my 5D and checked the results. I have a feeling the frame will be too dark but we can check later.
After this I walked back and stopped in the middle of a field to take a shot of a line of trees with sunset lit clouds above them. The white in the clouds is really bright (about a stop more than the blue of the sky) and I think I might have cooked the shot again. Surprisingly, I could quite happily see the shot on the back of the ground glass without the dark cloth (even more so when using the loupe). This was sufficient to frame and check the focus.
The ballhead I’m using works particularly well with a heavier camera on it. It’s a Really Right Stuff BH55 and has a very functional tension control that you can set to not allow the camera to ‘flop’ but still allow you to move the camera around to frame. The ‘lock’ is particularly strong also.
The pictures I’ve attached are the ones that were taken with my 5D at the same settings as the camera (but only done after I’d worked everything out so I can see my mistakes quickly!). I’ve not been too concerned with composition and subject in these photographs, I’m mostly trying to learn the camera (although thats not much excuse for crap photography).
