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  #1  
Old 20th March 2012, 03:16 PM
tonytrot tonytrot is offline
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Question bluebells

Hi there,please can some-one give me advice one how to photograph,wild bluebells, in their natural enviroment.on colour neg,and black and white film? many thanks tony.
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  #2  
Old 20th March 2012, 09:00 PM
big paul big paul is offline
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when I was photograping flowers in my garden I got a big piece of white carbould and folded it so it had 3 sides and stood it around the flower so the light reflectid from 3 sides and it also worked as a wind brake .
if you want them really wild say somthing nasty about there mother
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Old 20th March 2012, 11:51 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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I would have thought that any colour neg film will show the bluebells' colour just fine. In B&W the trick is to get enough contrast between the blue of the bells and the green of the stalks and the usual green of the background.

However as most B&W films show blue to be lighter than the eye sees it and green to be quite a lot darker then this will occur without any filtration.

All theory of course as I haven't tried flowers in B&W as my main subject. I'd stick to colour for flowers but that's just me

Mike
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Old 21st March 2012, 07:59 AM
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Bluebells are really tricky. They reflect a very particular wavelength that films cannot capture (usually rendering it as a shade of purple / violet or redish / pinkish). In the heyday of transparency films, this was something that all of the major manufacturers sought to solve but did not succeed. The nearest was Agfa with an 81a filter when the light was rich in blue light (to compensate for the - unseen to the eye - high level of magenta that the 'blue' of the bluebells reflects).

For black & white a magenta filter helps to separate the flowers from the background more than a blue filter.

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David
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Old 21st March 2012, 09:35 AM
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I found Velvia 50 about the best but David is right, they are very difficult.
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  #6  
Old 21st March 2012, 11:26 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike O'Pray View Post
I would have thought that any colour neg film will show the bluebells' colour just fine.
Actually, colour negative film makes them look more purple than they really are. That alternative imaging technology which uses electricity is said to not suffer from this.


Steve.
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Old 21st March 2012, 01:05 PM
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Bluesbells often (but not always) form under the canopy of beech woods. Down there out of direct sunlight you are likely to have a lot of reflected skylight which is cyan / blue and if the tree leaves have come out a lot of green mixed with blue/cyan making it more cyan than blue.
So basically there will be a cooling effect which is why you probably get your purple/mauve. I'd suggest experimenting with an 81a or a 81b which is a bit counter intuitive. i.e. warm up the scene which you think should have cold tones.
did someone say that already...
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Old 21st March 2012, 01:06 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Smith View Post
Actually, colour negative film makes them look more purple than they really are. That alternative imaging technology which uses electricity is said to not suffer from this.


Steve.
would that be the one that uses the electromagnetic spectrum.
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  #9  
Old 21st March 2012, 04:07 PM
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For black and white you might try a cooling filter such as an 82a or 82C or for even greater effect you could try an 80A, 80B or 80D.

When you apply the filter factor for these the blues will stay roughly the same brightness but everything else should darken relative to the bluebells.
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  #10  
Old 27th March 2012, 10:24 AM
tonytrot tonytrot is offline
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Thanks guys,i think experimentation is the cards! Tony
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