Kamera: Minolta 9000 AF – mai|pen|quynh

I'm learning how to expose - Station 2: light meter

maipenquynh on 28. October 2024

Station 1: Sunny 16

Station 1 on my way to learning how to expose is, in retrospect, understanding the Sunny 16 rule. This whole thing about exposure was never thought in stages and stations – I thought Sunny 16 and that's it. How I ended up here anyways:

After I learnt about the Sunny 16 rule, I worked with it for quite a while. But I became a bit lazier (or more willing to experiment, depending on the perspective). I photographed more according to my gut feeling and less with the rule itself, applying it not as clean as before.

However, the results and yield of the last few films with the more-or-less Sunny 16 rule/with my gut feeling were disillusioning and I was dissatisfied. My gut feeling was not yet ready and the wealth of experience was not great enough.

I was stuck and needed to change something. Therefore, ...

Station 2: Light meter

For other photographers, it is probably the most obvious choice, but I resisted for a while until the decision was made: I will use a light meter. Instead of estimating the light myself, I had it measured and got the result spit out. The device was quickly found: I got an app on my mobile phone. (Why? I didn't get along with the internal light meter on my camera).

And then?

How do I use the light meter?

I had heard a lot about how and on what to expose. There were all kinds of ways to do. Do I want to expose on the shadow or rather on the object? On box speed or +/-1? Many questions and the answers did hide from me. There was nothing left to me than: trial and error. Trying out the methods and see how much I like the results.

My first approach was to expose on the object at box speed. Then I got distracted by Madeira: the zone system according to Ansel Adams. I had heard about it often but never understood it. On holiday I had the time and motivation to watch various videos about it and at some point I actually understood it more or less. Subsequently, so I measured up to three spots - one bright, one dark spot and my subject - to decide what to set the settings to, eventually. And I think I did pretty well with this method. The first results can be found in my series about Madeira .

How is it going?

Since then I've been using the light meter app. But here, too, I became sloppy and don't do the measurements as clean as I did in the beginning on Madeira. But it works.

Overall, I'm quite slow when it comes to taking photos: take the measurement(s), decide, adjust, take the photo. And very important, as I take analogue photos: note down the settings used and also what was measured. For analyses if I ever want to do one.

My goal is to become a bit quicker. I don't know how to achieve that. Maybe it's a question of time and numbers of films I've shot, leading to wealth of experience and my gut feeling becoming more trustworthy.

Camera + lens: Minolta 9000 AF + Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.4
Film: AGFAPHOTO APX100
Development + scan: ON FILM LAB

Madeira 2024 #3 | On film: A curtain and learning exposure

maipenquynh on 15. August 2024

(Click on the image to see it as a whole)

This picture tells two stories:

One story is reminiscent of the sickbed we had set up. We had managed to get something gastrointestinal-related and were therefore confined to bed for a few days. We had no strength for more. Drinking and broth soup was everything that was feasible.

The other story, and this is my personal beautiful story, is having a lot of time. Between periods of tiredness and slumber, I felt like getting involved in the subject of exposure. At that point, I had already decided for some time - several weeks, maybe months - to dive into the topic exposure, or rather how I measure it and set it "the right way". While my first experience was the Sunny 16 rule , I decided to move away from the rule of thumb and towards the light meter. At the very beginning I was lost; honestly speaking, I have never really bothered with metering methods. And that day, lying in bed, I thought I'd use the time to try out the zone system. I had read about it several times but never understood it. YouTube was the medium of choice and after two or three videos I roughly understood the concept.

And the curtain? In my memory, this is the first picture where I had understood the zone system. My personal achievement...

… stop stop!

I have to correct myself. After comparing various time stamps (video history, dates of the images), this image of the curtain was not the first picture where I had understood and applied the zone system. That was a few days earlier and a few pictures before that.

The truth: I learnt to understand the zone system back in my healthy days, just before the gastrointestinal fuss came over me. During the sick days, I really only napped and rested. Even if my memory was playing tricks on me, one thing was good and really happened: The curtain picture was the first picture after being ill that I took using the zone system.

One other thing I am very sure about beside all these half-true memories: I learnt and understood the zone system in this very room, with these curtains. This is true.

Camera + lens: Minolta Dynax 7000i + Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.4
Film: Kodak Gold 200
Development + scan: ON FILM LAB

Madeira 2024 #2 | On film: São Lourenço

maipenquynh on 13. August 2024

(Click on the image to see it as a whole)

São Lourenço was the first adventure we embarked on. São Lourenço is one of THE hikes in Madeira that has been recommended over and over again. In contrast to Japan, I personally did very rudimentary preparations only for my holiday in Madeira. I went along without any argument, after all I had no counter-suggestion.

I remember that there was a fee at the "entrance" which benefited the nature conservation. As we are in the 21st century, obviously you could ONLY pay this fee online. The best thing about it: my internet was on E all the time, no 3G or LTE at all. That's how internet works. At some point we managed it - the solution was a classic one: walk a few metres further on and the internet connection was better again.

The hike was a path over rough and rough and not as straight forward as you might think when you see the pictures of the terrain. You walk along winding paths that you can't guess from the pictures. The landscape was quite barren, yet very green. A strange contradiction, isn't it? We searched in vain for shade here. Sometimes we walked away from the path and up to one of the peaks. The cliffs were amazing! I lay down on my stomach to look down. I didn't take any photos even though the view was amazing. The fear of accidentally dropping the camera was too great.

The pictures were taken on the way back (same as the way there). I captured the view back to the end of the island and the summit that we had reached and climbed shortly before as I rested on a large stone. The hike had made me very tired. What I found particularly amusing about this view was this "hole" through which you can see through to the other side of the sea.

Camera + lens: Minolta Dynax 7000i + Minolta AF 50 mm f/1.4
Film: Kodak Gold 200
Development + scan: ON FILM LAB