nancy s.

YIKES!!!!

 

I think the "patient" might want to be completely under before going into this place!!!!

 

In the US? What year was it abandoned? (curious questions, not photo related!) :)

I second checking the work of George Hurrel. I have one book of his stuff and as soon as I can spare the xtra money will get more. With the images of Hurrel in front of you, you can attempt to copy the lighting.

 

Zeltsman will give you the set up.

I agree Emre.. Light is the study in progress on that film, not the film itself!

I too loved the way Schindler's List looked. Now we know why...

Check this out:

http://www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=BD0387

 

Fall Warblers can be confusing and difficult as they are changing plumage and the immature warblers are not quite into adult plumage. If you are going to do this a bit I recommend you get a good field guide. I personally use the Peterson Guides with the Audubon Guides as a back up.

OK.. here I go letting you know we all step in it.... I certainly did...

 

One time I was comissioned to do a painting of a horse. This horse was a Regional Hunter Grand Champion. To get the markings (dappled grey) right I had to take photos of the horse as I felt the ones provided were inadequate.

 

So, we groom up the horse and take him outside for photos.. he is clipped and it was about 6 degrees above zero out with a wind to suffocate the air right out of your lungs when you faced it. Oh just LOVELY.

 

I took 36 images. Yes. I was diligent.

 

We all went back in and blanketed Mr. Champion and went home to hot cocoa......

 

And in my house I opened the camera. I had not watched the rewind knob and the film was right there... unspooled....

 

Knowing full well if I revealed this to the client I would be up for public hanging after what we had just gone through.. I made the not so hot photos work out for me.... and the painting came out fine.

 

This WAS many years ago (in the 80's) but it surely taught me the first and most basic lesson... Check your film advance and check your settings!

 

You have a fine camera there. You are really lucky.. this happened now and not when someone was handing you money! I expect you will be a fine photographer one day.. just go forward and keep on smiling. In 20 years you will remember this but it likely won't affect you other than to make you better!

1st of all I would just toss the FE in the nearest trash bin... Let me know where... :)

 

Before breaking the cameraq but not too much, takes some photos with it and make sure you ahve no light leaks or other things taht will really mess up you effort. In the process you may find you do not need to wreck the lens.. it may already be porr enough to do what you want.

 

THEN if you want to mess it up go ahead. I have not heard of the hot pin treatment to the lens.

Tonight.. after walking 4 miles.. after mowing grass for an hour.. after dog

training and cleaning house and after all the work was done.. I decided to turn

on the movie channel. There, to my delight, was a black and white movie from

what looked to be the early 50's or late 40's.

 

I love old Black and White movies for the photography. This one was no

exception.

 

These guys really understood lighting and how to enhance the looks of

everyone. The key light was perfect. The fill was just right. The short lit

Rembrandt light on the actress' face was stunning and the highlights in the

back ground brought your eye right into the subject. Really good stuff.

 

There were no special effects and no digital enhancements (that I could

detect). Just perfect perfect lighting and exposure... and even tho it was

Black and White you knew her complexion to be creamy and her hair was

strawberry blond. He was dark and handsome in a rugged way.. and lit to

enhance that effect.

 

I looked at these actors and actresses and they were far from the perfect

beauties of today.. but they were real attention grabbers anyway. They had the

right expressions.. they had depth and character and (again) that perfect

lighting which enhanced the mood and their better features.

 

I really enjoyed this. I would suggest that if you really want to learn how to

light someone so they look their best, you might want to look at some old Black

and White movies.

 

Sure wish they were making 'em like this today (the films and the

actors/actresses)!

I have only been doing this with any seriousness since 2001 but my first camera was anything BUT modern.

 

Mine is a Nikon FM. This is a great camera to learn on and I have done a lot with it and do to this day. It is not the "black" one but it works and works well.

 

Took someone I know over a year to talk me into buying it and two lenses. I did and was on my way. Still like what it does for me tho the VF is nto so hot and is even worse if you where glasses! My first roll of slide film had two shots that made my best 150 slides from the last 6 years, shot with this camera and a 35-70 manual Nikon Zoom.

 

I just used it last weekend to shoot some B&W tho I also use it still for slides and the results are excellent.

FWIW the brightness RANGE is huge! You have a blown out highlight on her hair and the image then goes all the way to black shadows with no detail.

 

Remember.. what your eye can see the film cannot pick up even tho it has a greater latitude than digital. If you shot digital, you can bring up the shadow details in photo shop and then icorporate them into the image saving the highlight details as is.

 

However, since you shot film, I agree with SL comment. Do two rolls and process each differently to see what you get. You will need to shoot these rolls under similar lighting conditions to the rolls you are wondering about.

Phew.. I am glad this was about photography. I saw this and thought S.ingle W.hite M.ale when I read the title and thought my gosh I have yet to have a single one that was not a failure or did not prove to be unreliable......

 

I do agree that the older manual lenses are very good, very hardy and very reliable.

I went out west last spring and ran film both 120 and 35 mm slide (Provia), Tmax, TriX and Portra kodak 160 and 400 thru the machine for Carry On and you can tell nothing of any damage to the film, the negatives, the prints or the slides.

Adjusted before the client sees them, before they are posted.

 

Never Ever show mistakes, blinks or images that are anything less than what you would want to use to sell your work to the next person.

I planned a trip to Glacier in 1984 and arrivedin Bozemen September 8th. Never made it to glacier as it began to snow over 5,000 feet and in three days there was 5 feet of snow on the ground.

 

Last year I went but this was the last week of August. forest fires hazed the view on some days but most of the time it was pristine with one grey day that was awesome.

 

While there I got to speak with some Glacier regulars and they said that the last week of reliable weather ended about September 5th.

 

Winter comes early to the Mountains in the northern latitudes.

Oh here I go again.. the old StockoSaurus... but I don't like to work at post processing so I use a single layer nylon stocking as my soft focus filter... sometimes Iuse black and sometimes I use the color "nude" and I do this for digital or film and it works nicely for me.

 

If I am doing digital I also take images with no filter so IF I want to do the post process stuff I can.

In reading thru these posts it sounds like one thing I need to do is be better at using the software I have but it also seems I may need to upgrade that software (geeze I HATE to spend the money.. you have NO idea how much I HATE to spend money.. I hate to spend it on clothes, software, gas.. I really just do.. LOL).

 

I have CS 2 but no light room, CS 3, Bridge etc. (Like I said.. I still do shoot film). Then I would likely need to take some instruction (more money out.. sorry.. it is a gripe of mine on film too).

 

I sit in front of a computer all day.. I come home at night and on weekends I don't want to do more of that.. Many is the weeknight (this is an exception) I don't even turn this one on.

 

As to the film Vs digital debate this is not the place for that.

 

I am just wishing all this digital were easier for me. I really wish I liked working on the computer but I do not. I am pretty good at it, just don't like it.

 

I guess I am just a nancystockosaurus... (genus: Old Species: Fart)...

I think this is the issue.. I have a B&W lab in my basement.. and yes, it takes a good bit of time to produce and acceptable B&W print. I do this for pleasure and enjoy my time there. It is quiet and it is hobby time.

 

Perhaps I CAN set my camera differently for digital but if I shoot RAW I am guaranteed time at the computer. I really do NOT want to sit at the computer. I think that it is. And then, sitting there, I get into the whole perfection thing.. and then it is significant time.

 

Maybe the problem is that I do not do 100% of my living from pro photography and I have stepped back from weddings into other commercial shoots that offer me more variety and pleasure. I shoot digital for the convenience to the customer. I still have a very good pro lab do the prints when prints are required (after I have tweaked the images).

 

However, having said that, I also really hate spending time at the computer.. when I could be out making more $$ shooting another job. I also REALLY hate to sit at the computer if I do not have another job and could be out having (gasp!) FUN! :) I think it is the computer interface.. this artificial intelligence and software which is often anything BUT intuitive.. that just makes me really impatient.

 

I think, in re-evaluating my rant, (oh yeah.. that is what it is), that I just do not like working at the computer. I just hate it. I would like nothing better than to take the flash card, look at the images, cull the ones that are dups or that don't work (eyes shut etc.), burn a CD or do a FTP and be DONE with it. But noooo, can't do that.. and end up with a tweak here and there on most images.

 

I also really really do not like that image crop with digital cameras. That is really annoying to me.

 

Like I said.. I just wish it were better and mostly I wish it were better from a work flow - image capture arena.

 

I still shoot digital and I still give my customers what they ask for but every time I do I go through this rant silently as I sit in front of the %*^()&)*(_*** computer!

Usually it will tell you when you load it on the spool. As you approach the arrows for line up on the top spool, the paper winds around the take up spool and the name is there.... (like Portra NC 160 is ASA/ISO 160).

 

If the film is in the plastic sealed wrapper it is normally on the wrapper as "Portra NC 400" (ASA/ISO 400) etc.

Today I did a shoot for a museum and I was switching between a Nikon film

camera and a Fuji S2. I really like the S2 but man.. I sure wish the captures

I took were dead on correct and never needed any tweaking. If I shoot RAW I

have to fiddle and convert and fiddle a bit more to get it prefect. If I shoot

JPG then I bracket so I get one out of 3 right.. and that doesn't work well if

you are shooting candid stuff. So, I get home and I am back at the hated

computer (when I could be doing something a lot more fun).

 

Because full frame sensor cameras are sooooo expensive, I have an S2 (and it

wouldn't matter if it was an S5) the View Finder is cropped. I was shooting

B&W film with a Nikon FM which has a pretty poor view finder.. but it was just

so much more comfortable mentally AND physically to shoot than the digital

equipment.

 

Bottom line is this. I just wish digital was bettter. I wish I did not have

to convert RAW on the 'puter and image fiddle or lose information. I wish I

did not have to bracket if I am shooting Jpg so I lose as little information

beyond the compression as possible and get at least one exposure pretty close

to print ready.

 

I wish everything was full frame and felt comfortable to shoot.. not

so "pinched."

 

IOW I just wish digital capture was better. I wish I could take the photos and

not have to convert, tweak, resize, and fiddle... I could just go straight to

print and get a satisfactory product.

 

Oh I can shoot film but there are inconveniences with that for what I was doing

here (I shot some B&W silver based anyway).

 

Now the computer boyz and girlz can come up with Hi def screens, program games

and graphics beyond your wildest imagination, create math and drafting tools

which can practically launch the space shuttle... (oh yeah.. computer DO that

now).. and they cannot come up with a digital camera system with latitude, full

frame sensors and images that come out of the camera that need zero tweaks!

 

For all the money it costs, I sure do wish digital was a better product!

Front end.<div></div>

The Old ALCO RS1 # 401 in Kingston sporting a new paint job made a

movement today in Kingston, NY.<div></div>

To help answer the original question, check here:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=Light+stands&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=RootPage.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t

 

If you see something that looks good, a question regarding the quality of that particular product may give you the guidance you need.

The question was with regards to stands that would carry the Alien Bee (note "AB" in the original question) lights. He is not getting rid of the Alien bee lights, just the stands sold under that moniker.

 

Did you read the original question or are you smoking something? :)

 

In reading the first answer to the question it would seem a decent boom would work. The Alien Bees are within the weight range discussed in the first answer to the question.

The routine can become cookie cutter.. no doubt about it. So, the first thing I do when I get to a place is look at the site to see if there are an shots I can envision creatively. When I get the B&G etc. there, I then try to incorporate those ideas into my routine.

 

The REAL challenge is when you get a venue where the places for creativity are non-existant (which plastic flower covered waterfall do you do the photos next to?).. I have had that happen in metropolitan areas... so then you have to really step out of the box and try some innovation. I have shot photos right on the streets or NY, literally.. and the bystanders often make the shots.

 

It was said above that as you become routine in your approach you almost guarantee clients who will keep you in that routine. Man.. that is just so true. I used to work with a guy who could recite the shots he takes in his sleep.... Unfortunately, so could his $600 wedding clients.

 

This guy did not lack ability and technically he knew what he was doing.. but the extra effort to be creative he just could never be bothered with. He was so "focused" on the shot list....

 

If he had, he would just put in the extra creative effort he would had have been untouchable.

I am going to wade in here and suggest you try some T Max 400 in d 76 or HC 110 or Rodinol (actually I would try a roll in each).

 

T max is quite forgiving in low light situations. I have shot 400 film at ISO 800 and then developed it to 1600 with really nice results.

 

Just an idea. You might want to try it.