Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/19

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Subject: [Leica] Farmers' Market (Agfa film)
From: "Oliver Bryk" <oliverbryk@attbi.com>
Date: Mon, 19 May 2003 15:20:08 -0700

Rob wrote:
"Oliver,
I noticed that you were shooting under a white sail cloth for most of your
images but it still seemed that the contrast should have been higher. The
light
fog and Optima seems to be the answer. Our location is 27.4deg S and very
little pollution, so we have a quite contrasty light. I think I'll try some
Optima or Vista if I can find a supplier. I have long felt that most film is
made for low contrast situations such as Europe with its basically white
skies
and we who live in areas such as Queensland have to put up with high
contrast
results from these films.
I shoot portraits and high contrast is not really desirable in most cases.
Would
you suggest that Vista is the way to go to minimise contrast in portraits?
How
is the skin tone?"

Rob, you are correct; most of the farmers' stands have some kind of awning
to protect them and their produce from the sun.
I am reluctant to offer specific film recommendations for portrait
photography since I don't do that except for candids. I will e-mail you a
few images so that you can judge for yourself. I suggest you look at Agfa's
site http://www.agfa.com/prophoto/ and review the technical data sheets. You
might be interested to know that I originally selected Optima 100 as my
standard color landscape film well over ten years ago after making identical
exposures with several different films in my Hasselblad (separate film
backs) on the Colorado Plateau in the Arizona-Utah border region (37 deg N).
It is  what we call "high desert": elevation about 4,000 feet, very bright
and contrasty, really blue skies, white clouds, red rocks. I don't know
whether Agfa formulates their films for specific markets; I was told at
Kodak Australasia during a business visit some years ago that Kodak does.
Kind regards, Oliver 


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