Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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 - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html