Re: PHOTO: I've got the blues
From: Chris Darlington <chris.darlington@sympatico.ca>
Christopher,
Hello , The problem is not the film stock that you're using , the
inaccurate colors are caused by improper exposure . Basically what
happens then you take a reflected meter reading through the lens on a
dark flower or anything that is dark , the camera meter assumes , as it
is programmed to give general exposures , that a a wide aperture will be
necessary to to give what the camera thinks is correct exposure , thus ,
seriously overexposing your slide. The trick is to measure the light
source and not the light reflecting from the flower.
There are two things you can do . You can use a hand held incident
meter ( the kind with the little white plastic bubble on it ) and point
it at the sun , This will give you correct exposure .
If you do not own one of these costly light meters , then go to a good
photo shop and purchase a Kodak 18% gray card , and measure the
reflected light through the lens directly from this card placed beside
the iris . This will also give you perfect exposure for slides.
All of this requires you to have a manual operation camera. Exposing
slides is VERY tricky , an incorrect exposure can't be rescued from a
slide where as color negative film is far less forgiving. Shoot a roll
of negative film as well just to make sure.
One last thing , if the sun is particularly harsh , find something to
diffuse with , I once got my sister to stand on a picnic table with a
white bed sheet to soften the effect of the subject matter.
Good Luck
Christopher Darlington
Montreal Canada
PS, Kodachrome is the best film on the planet , the problem is that ASA
64 is slow and the ASA 200 was too grainy last time I checked.
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