Re: [Leica] offtopic: harsh light filters

["Charles E. Albertson" <chucko@ricochet.net>]

I'm just back from a trip there myself (a couple of days in Sydney, then a
week or so in western New South Wales and central Queensland). I don't
ordinarily shoot much color, but the light there is usually so clear and
sharp that it seems criminal to pass up shooting some chromes (Sydney was
an exception this time, as bush fires north of the city made for hazy
conditions). The trick is to get up early and shoot until about 10:00 a.m.
After that, the light starts to flatten out until early evening, when it
can get interesting again. Also, it was hitting 40C during the middle of
the day, which doesn't really encourage you to stand around and wait for
the light to do something interesting. If you're shooting during mid-day
there, you're going to get harsh, contrasty photos. One thing that I do to
reduce that effect is to shoot Kodachrome 25 -- there's plenty of light,
and that film at least gives you a chance of a decent picture in contrasty
situations. Fill-in flash will work in mid-day light to illuminate faces,
with that film and a Leica M, though I didn't use it myself. You might also
try having a few of your prints custom-printed, to see if was really just
the light in Australia, or an autoexposure printer going off the scale.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.


At 02:52 PM 4/14/1998 +0800, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>a friend just got back from australia: syndney and gold coast to be exact.
>he spend about 1 week in both the cities. he took his M6 35 and 50
>summicrons and his Canon EOS system.
>
>last nite I had the chance to see his shots using Kodak print film (Gold100
>to be exact). We were both disappointed in 90% of his shots esp. under
>midday sun. The shots were really harsh, lighting was aweful, lack of
>contrast, lack in brilliance, etc.. He said that the sun down there was
>really really harsh. 
>
>My question: does enchancing filter, or Neutral density filters help under
>these difficult conditions? how do we enchance the colors, contrast, etc?
>
>Would appreciate some comments,
>
>Ferdinand
>