commercial shoot on the water

[Tim Carroll]

Was a still photographer for years and always used a Polaroid 195 to test light set ups in the studio. Tried it a few years ago on my first B&W 16mm film and it did a pretty good job, especially since I was able to shoot 100 ASA Polaroid stock to get an idea how the Plus X Kodak was going to look. Biggest drawback is the fixed (very) wide angle lens on the camera. Many times you got much more in the frame than you wanted and what you wanted to see was pretty tiny.

 

Now have a Nikon D100, bought it when they were discontinued. Works with the bevy of Nikon lenses I collected over the years. Does nice work. Biggest drawback is the ISO 200 limit on the low end. You can work around it with exposure compensation, but would be nice to go down to ISO 100 or ISO 50. Gives a less experienced DP extra confidence before committing to film.

 

As far as what David was saying about wanting to use it for photography work. I still prefer an old Leica rangefinder for anything bigger than snapshots. The D100 is great for pics of the family, to send to relatives over the internet, and for snapshots. Even works great for images that will only appear online at 72 dpi. But it can't compare to what you can get with good glass and patience in the darkroom.

 

 

-Tim

[Brant Collins]

David, is the final commercial done? How did it turn out in the end, were you happy with it?

[David Mullen ASC]

The telecine went fine. It will supposedly air during the Oscar telecast. Look for a boat in silhouette on a lake.

[Dickson Sorensen]

has anyone ever used a polaroid camera with manual aperture (like the 600 SE) for such purposes? or medium/large format polaroid backs? theoretically they would be very indicative of exposure range and ratios, though both are pretty pricey (the 600 SE is old, rare and sought after, and med/large format cameras/lenses are obviously costy).

 

i've never used this method, but i've heard of it being done. anyone tried this and found it useful?

 

I used a polaroid back on a Hasselblad for exposure though I must say that just like reading a spot meter you have to understand what the information you are getting means. First of all the Polaroid film doesn't have the latitude of camera negative. Secondly the film is temperature sensitive and you must carefully controll the time of development. The paper is a mess. I found it useful mainly for getting information in hard to meter situations for instance combining tungsten lighting with Unilux Strobe lighting. I also used it for glass matts but who does that anymore?

[Craig Agee]

Don't own one yet. Am wondering if I'd be satisfied with a Nikon D70, which is affordable, or if I should splurge on something with more megapixels for my own still work.

 

sorry this is an old thread but i couldnt resist,david have you looked at the d50? it is alot cheaper than a d70 and practically the same camera,6.1mp is plenty for an 8x10 print...the d50 has a 1/500 flash synch which is the ONLY dslr at that price that does,with the right glass it is a VERY capable camera for even professional still work,i wouldnt waste money on megapixels unless your intention is to blow up massive prints

[jcadge]

David,

Another thought on the D200 and the D70. I shoot stock for Getty images and their

standards are pretty high in terms of acceptance. Last December they announced

that they are accepting images shot on the D200, a 10.2 megapixel camera yielding a 26MB file. I shoot with both the D2X ($4,500.00) and now the D200 and find the

D200 much lighter to carry around when shooting personnel travel photography.

By shooting both the NEF (raw setting) and the basic jpeg at the same time you'll have

Jpegs to view quickly on set for your lighting concerns as well as having a large file which you can later blow up pretty big for a photo show, or submit to a stock house such as Getty.

 

Jeff Cadge

[Delorme Jean-Marie]

D70 is fine and having a 50mm 1.4F can be a good idea for interiors to match primo 1.9 or zeiss 1.4 so you don't need to do acrobatic conversions in adition to take stills during your setups

verry good topic david about the proper f stop in exterior day when it's about exposing hot spots and shadows

i always wonder where to position a hot spot +3 +4 +5?

[Tim Carroll]

Just got back from a two-day commercial shoot out on a lake. Two Arri-435 cameras, one on sticks, the other on a 30' Technocrane with a Libra head. Primo lenses. 5201 stock. Shot on a camera boat platform.

 

My biggest concern was if the weather was too clear, because we were shooting a boat on a lake in dead backlight as the sun was setting. With a calm surface and a super clear day, the sun reflected off of the water like a big mirror, creating tremendous flare and glare until it finally set. I used the 50D stock partly because I wanted to be able to shoot most of the day with no filters to reduce the chance of flare, although until the sun was setting, I had to use either an ND.6 or a Pola. But even when I pulled the filter, I was shooting nearly at an f/16 at sunset looking into the light. The hard part was figuring out the exposure because the range was tremendous. Even underexposing the shadows by five stops for a silhouette effect, the light on the water was off the meter scale, it was so bright. We probably got the nicest shots right after sunset in magic hour in silhouette on the water. You can see the problem of the bright water in some of these photos.

 

David,

 

They showed the spot twice (at least) on the Academy Awards, very nice work. Was not blown out, looked very good. Congrats.

 

-Tim