Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/31

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Color neg/Bright sun
From: Brougham <brougham3@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 06:39:57 -0800 (PST)

ARTHURWG@aol.com wrote:

> What's the best color negative film to use at high noon during the
> tropical dry season? So far, most of my color negative snaps under
> these conditions have had too much contrast and dark, dark shadows.

I'd try some of the pro portrait films.  The ones geared toward
wedding photographers.  If a film can get a white wedding dress next
to a black tux, it has quite a range!  Kodak Portra 160NC or Fuji NPS
160 come to mind.

(Speaking of that, I wonder if Ted's 10-month pregnant bride wore
white...  :)

> What's the best exposure strategy?

I'd say the best is Jim Brick's zone system.  I'll repost it.

Following that, eliminate the extreme shadows.  Or eliminate the
extreme highlights.  Recompose so that you don't have both in the same
frame.  Or use fill flash or a reflector to reduce the contrast
range.  If you're not metering the shadows but using averaged
readings, overexpose a little so that you can get shadow detail.
Print on lower contrast paper.

Go for B&W.  Use XP2.  It's generally a low contrast film, so shooting
it in high contrast scenes can make it print about right on normal
paper.

Best of all, though...  Follow Jim's advice that I'll post next.


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