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> Problematic Skies |
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#1
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Problematic Skies
Hi everyone,
I'm just writing to request help about skies... It seems to me that since I've started printing in my darkroom the thing that it's always missing on my pictures are the skies. I always seem to get this massive undefined whiteness (I know, I live in North England but still) even if it is a blue sky in the background of my subject. What am I doing wrong? is it the way I shoot? or print? do I need filters? It just makes my pictures empty.... thanks! |
#2
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Personally, I always leave a medium yellow filter on all the time when shooting in black & white and this has the effect of darkening a blue sky, and at the same time it makes the clouds stand out nicely - ideal for landscape photography. However, I do also use an orange filter for a more dramatic effect and for architectural photography. A red filter is the more extreme of all, and I only ever use this on the odd occasion.
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Carl. |
#3
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I also use a yellow filter with good results, and more recently, an orange one. I tried red, but my results didn't look natural. You can meter through the filter if you use the camera meter, but you have to make a correction if using a seperate meter. I prefer to achieve a printable sky at the picture taking stage as I find it very difficult to burn in sky detail when printing, especially if there are trees, etc above the horizon. Alex
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#4
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Yellow and split grade and cheat
Hi,
As above I too never leave without a yellow filter. I have them for all my lenses. The next step is to split grade your prints and burn in the sky a little. I use a card with a sort of see saw cut on it to feather the effect. Going on from that you can mask the sky and cheat another sky onto the paper from another negative. I shoot quite a lot of "skies" when out and about. |
#5
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Guille, maybe it would help if you expose the film a bit more and develop it a bit less? that has worked for me and for others I beleive.
Peter |
#6
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Or, get a Cokin graduated filter in orange or yellow, is another option.
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#7
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I agree ewith Peter, if you skies are always burnt out it's usually a sign your negatives are too contrasty.
Flashing is the best way to help bring out the sky detail/tone, along with maybe some slight burning in. Ian |
#8
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Yellowgreen and/or a polariser for me.
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To me, photography's photography. The medium upon which it's captured is of no concern as long as it can do the job demanded of it. |
#9
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Thanks,
This kind of confirms what I suspected it. Too contrasty negative but I like the rest of the image that way so maybe the filters is the way to go. how do you flash the paper? |
#10
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Put head on max ( right to the top of the column )
As if doing test strips, get a bit of paper and expose a sheet for tiny amounts of time but not the first bit of paper, keep one section masked off. Then develop, and DRY the sheet of paper. One of them will show a bit of change, use the time setting of the one before that one. I think someone else might explain that a lot better |
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