JUST snow

[ryan_buckley]

<p>Say I were to photograph snow...and just simply a field of snow. Let's assume I had a client who wanted such an image. Let's also note that I do not want to exagerate the scene but do wish to bring out the most aesthetic tonal range and texture. Which films and developers would shine in this scenario.<br>

I was originally planning on placing a contrast chart, metering from a grey card, shooting the chart, then bracketing the exposures for a series of five negatives spanning 1/2 stops.<br>

With this technique though, I don't want to test different developers or films but was hoping rather that the more experienced chemical developer users would have some insightful hands-on knowledge with what combination yields superb tonal range in the Zone VII - IX.<br>

Not all these images will be pure snow. Some will have tracks, footprints, wood and other items, but the main feature I would say is the highlights and shadows on the subject of snow itself.<br>

I really appreciate, in advance, anyones practiced knowledge on the topic.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>Ryan, Two Winters ago I started using Fuji Acros and developing in Rodinal using stand development times of 2-3 hours. A couple of dilutions work well for me, shooting Acros at ISO 100 (some people rate it at 50).<br>

1. The best combo is 1 part Rodinal to 200 parts Water, then mix in XTol 1:4 in that mixture. So you'd have 800 ml of the Rodinal at 1:200, and 200ml of regular XTol. Then do a water soak for 5 minutes with agitation every minute to ensure even coverage, 5 minutes of agitation with 7-8 inversions (10sec.) every 30 seconds, then let stand for 2 hours.</p>

<p>2. A nearly-as-effective, but definitely easier technique, is to mix the Rodinal 1:300 and replace the stand development above for 3 hours instead of 2.</p>

<p>Here's a couple of images I shot last Winter. "Snow Curb" was a straight exposure of Sunny 16 rule, and the next one is stopped down an additional stop (sunny 22?<g>). See which one has the values you're trying to achieve for those Zones.</p>

[leicaglow]

<p>This is Snow Curb...</p><div></div>

[leicaglow]

<p>Okay, here's the f/22 image... [Title should be Tree Shadows On Snow]. Must be bed time.</p><div></div>

[ian_tindale]

<p>Just snow: (impression left by person lying down in the snow) - I metered the same as the rest of the day using an incident light reading. The only unusual measure was to decide that there's no true black - nowhere near in fact - and not really a true white (even the sky wasn't a white) so it was a matter of deciding where to artificially place my 'shadow' and 'highlight' well outside of this range, to position this little bit of tone in more or less the correct place as I remember it.</p>

[ryan_buckley]

<p>Michael,</p>

<p>Those both look great. I think the bottom image is a bit too contrasty, but obviously because of the underexposure. I like the range of tones in the first image, and the bottom seems a bit blown out in the extreme highs.</p>

<p>Is your choice of Rodinal due to how it handles highlights? I've never done developing with it before but I can tell from the process that it's quite gradual and can see the curve being quite unique. What is the addition of xtol doing in the process? This all seems quite logical and I would be very interested in knowing how to came to this developing method. </p>

<p>and Ian, I like the abstraction your image creates but it doesn't quite have the range I'm looking for or the scientific consistency I'm looking for. I would be interested in seeing more though if you have other examples.</p>