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cliveh
9th February 2011, 09:16 PM
In my earlier years of photographic practice, I would take multiple shots to bracket for correct exposure. However, this eventually changed into same exposure, but multiple shots for small changes in composition. Do any FADU members empathise with this modus operandi?

MartyNL
9th February 2011, 10:55 PM
Yes, especially with 35mm and rollfilm. I don't see much point in playing with exposure if you can't adjust development times accordingly. Therefore I tend to take full advantage of the portability of these formats and play with composition instead.

Richard Gould
10th February 2011, 09:03 AM
With 35mm I would always take 3 shots to allow for the possibility of getting problems with a negative, with 645 I took 2, but with 6/6 only ever 1, 12 shots per film I want to try and make every shot count,Richard

Larry
11th February 2011, 12:18 AM
I always take 2 shots of the same subject whether it be 35mm or 120 roll film for both my 6x4.5 and 6x6 Bronica's.

Funny thing is with both my Nikon F5 & F90x I always shoot single frame from a tripod and hardly ever use the motodrive, seems a waste of a feature. Perhaps it is because all my subjects are static and not moving!

photomi7ch
11th February 2011, 07:31 PM
I have never bracketed apart for a small period of time when I started using film again after a break. I do sometimes recompose shots of the same subject.

cliveh
11th February 2011, 08:10 PM
Perhaps the relevance of the following quote is more relevant to this discussion. In particular the relevance to perspective, as zoom lenses seem to have destroyed how the general public understand this concept.

Our eye must constantly measure, evaluate. We alter our perspective by a slight bending of the knees; we convey the chance meeting of lines by a simple shifting of our heads a thousandth of an inch…. We compose almost at the same time we press the shutter, and in placing the camera closer or farther from the subject, we shape the details – taming or being tamed by them. - Henri Cartier-Bresson - on composition. "American Photo", September/October 1997, page: 76

PavelDerka
11th February 2011, 08:35 PM
I tend to be slack but do believe in using multiple filters for the same shot. I get ten shots and think of a roll as one or two different compositions. That makes it easy to file as well.

So if I have an interesting shot I tend to bracket one shot, but rarely for exposure, but rather three different F/stops. So that is three frames gone of ten. Then a green filter, followed by medium orange and onto another angle or photo oportunity. At least that is what I strive for as I'm getting a feel for both the lenses (five so far for the RZ) the three films I've settled on and my judgement on how colors react to film. The last one is the one I need to work on a lot!

But when I'm not in training myself mode, when I have something I really like ... it changes to just a decision about all of the above - but then I tend to use different backs to be able to do a crude N, N+,N-.

On the thought of bracketing the viewpoint - I don't do that very much. I tend to know from the viewfinder most of the time and also it is a case that often I am constrained to my angle/position by outside factors. If I had movements ... well, then I could be more free in where I put my tripod with respect the the best framing and move objects around with shift. When I shot more digital I had all the Nikon TS lenses and really appreciated the movements .... small as they were.

I'll let you know in a year or so how this all works out for me and how or if it changes. But I don't bemoan going through film. I look at it as every frame potentially giving me fifty times the cost of the frame in experience. :)

Trevor Crone
11th February 2011, 09:06 PM
As I don't like choices I very rarely take more than one shot of a single scene. For every chosen view there could be untold variations. I go for one and that is it, the decision has been made and I rarely feel the need to take more of the same view making just slight adjustments, be it change of view-point, lens, etc.

With regard to bracketing of exposures, when using sheet film I take just the one, unless the lighting is of a difficult nature or reciprocity failure is heavily involved.

cliveh
11th February 2011, 09:32 PM
As I don't like choices I very rarely take more than one shot of a single scene. For every chosen view there could be untold variations. I go for one and that is it, the decision has been made and I rarely feel the need to take more of the same view making just slight adjustments, be it change of view-point, lens, etc.

With regard to bracketing of exposures, when using sheet film I take just the one, unless the lighting is of a difficult nature or reciprocity failure is heavily involved.

Trevor, have you ever read Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel, translated from German by R. F. C. Hull? If you can’t find a copy I will be pleased to post you a photocopy, as I think you would appreciate it.

Trevor Crone
11th February 2011, 10:03 PM
Trevor, have you ever read Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel, translated from German by R. F. C. Hull? If you can’t find a copy I will be pleased to post you a photocopy, as I think you would appreciate it.

Clive, I've been meaning to read that particular book for sometime. Minor White also recommended it to his students.

If I can't locate a copy I will take you up on your very kind offer.

I have read Laplace, "A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities", heavy going but some interesting sections. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophical-Essay-Probabilities-Classic-Reprint/dp/1440049475/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297461582&sr=1-3

Neil Smith
12th February 2011, 09:32 PM
Trevor, have you ever read Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel, translated from German by R. F. C. Hull? If you can’t find a copy I will be pleased to post you a photocopy, as I think you would appreciate it.

I have just ordered a copy of this and it is on the way to me, should be here next week.

Neil

cliveh
12th February 2011, 09:46 PM
I have just ordered a copy of this and it is on the way to me, should be here next week.

Neil

Neil, I hope you enjoy it. This book would be beyond the comprehension of most of my students, as they think that when they have done something once, that’s it.

Trevor Crone
12th February 2011, 10:23 PM
Also finally got round to ordering a copy from Amazon. I was surprised to see it still in print.

cliveh
12th February 2011, 10:43 PM
Trevor, I have also ordered Laplace, "A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities".

Trevor Crone
12th February 2011, 10:48 PM
Trevor, I have also ordered Laplace, "A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities".

If you suffer from insomnia this will do the trick;)

Steven Taylor
13th February 2011, 12:38 PM
Good thread.

In my day job I tend to find myself chasing moving targets (no pun or reference to archery intended) so I don't really have the option of bracketing for exposure. My approach then is much closer to that described by HCB in the quote. I see the shot, intuitively compose it and record it before it is lost. Then I might move around or watch and wait for a change of expression, gesture etc. and shoot around the original event. That is all using the D stuff so I'm on Aperture priority, spot metering and auto focus with the spot on flesh tone just below my principal subject's nearest eye, usually wide open prime lens as well. It was very similar when I shot on film but a bit more difficult because I didn't have auto focus and I couldn't move the spot.

So all of that almost certainly has a powerful influence on what I do with my personal, landscape work on film cameras. I have tried to be like Minor White. I have used large and ultra large format cameras with the object of slowing the process. I used a hand held spot meter and exposed single sheets noting dev instructions. I found that way of working too restrictive for me. Apart from the shear weight of the equipment involved I found I was thinking too much and the images that resulted were a little clinical. I like the intuitive way of working that I can with 35mm. I do like the detail in the prints from from my bigger negs but the process of walking with a hand held Olympus feels so much more like me.

So, I have a static subject, a hand held camera and an internal event that makes me want to lift the camera to my eye. Then I bracket, for exposure, sometimes with a colored filter (I always shoot on B&W film) and I will adjust the composition a little or wait for a change of light. I usually get two or three usable images from a 36.

When I was studying, Paul Hill often mentioned "Zen and the Art of Archery", allowing an internal smile to just become visible, I will order it after I have written this.

Thanks for the thread Clive, it got me thinking.
Steven

Roger Cole
18th February 2011, 05:38 AM
In 35mm I'll often try a few variations. In 4x5 of course it's much slower and more expensive per shot so I'm less likely to shoot multiple compositions of the same subject, but I have done so on occasion.