GND filters

>>2915269
>http://www.alexburkephoto.com/blog/2016/8/30/gnd-filters-getting-the-perfect-exposure-in-one-shot


Wow that pic really got my neurons firing

>being alex burke
>being a total bro

pick two.

funny, this is the topic i know nothing about and, since im stepping into the fascinating world of film landscape photo, it just comes right on time, thank you.

Alex, do you still use a V700 to scan with? Have you tried getting any of your images drumscanned? Drumscanning is wicked!

File: FernCreekSunrise.jpg (440KB, 804x1024px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2915273
Perfect timing, I hope it helps you!

>>2915274
Yes and yes. A drum scan is a million times better but also wildly unaffordable to me. A guy from Germany was nice enough to test his scanner on a few of my sheets and they were wonderful. I think my v700 is wearing out as I'm seeing a horrible noisy green shadow appear in the bottom right of dense slides. A guy I just ran into said he has a couple Imacons he's looking to get rid of, I sure hope he contacts me as I might be interested.

Here's some recent Ektar

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>>2915289
I see. Might be worth getting a new scanner then. An imacon isn't really worth the price in my opinion. I'll probably get myself a V800 for proofscanning, and the images I want to print with great detail, I'll get drumscanned.

There is a service in England, which is quite affordable, the guy running it runs a landscape magazine called On Landscape. I'm perfectly sure you could get your images featured in the magazine.

The link to the site is www.drumscanning.co.uk

2000dpi scans of 4x5 is not expensive at all!

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>>2915294
I was going to see what the guy wanted for the imacon once he gets them sorted out. I'm always down for deals that I find in people's garages like the Jobo I picked up for free last winter. I know for the most part people want too much for them.

I just don't like the idea of frequently mailing film overseas, it sounds like a disaster waiting to happen and most people want $100 plus per scan for 4x5 in the states. I live in a condo and hate the idea of a huge drum scanner, so even if I find one at a deal I just don't have the room. The Jobo was already a big stretch...

Here's a recent one on Provia from a quick backpacking trip.

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>>2915269
Thanks my man, should be a good read.

>>2915300
They've appearently never lost any film, and I just sent my second tranny ever to them. I will post a detailed crop here if the thread is still up when I get the file back.

What you always could do is get the V800/850 and try wetscanning. It is supposedly really good.

>>2915269

Felt the need to thank you for the time you put to write these kind of content Alex. Much appreciated.

>>2915269
TY. Very relevant for digital especially if your sensor's on the old side ;)

Two things:

(1) You're a bro of the highest order.

(2) I can't wait to see those shots from the Winds. Those preview shots don't look like any range I've seen in the US.

>>2915294
>I'll probably get myself a V800 for proofscanning, and the images I want to print with great detail, I'll get drumscanned.
The problem with Alex is that he has too many shots for that to be feasible. I've done that same thing before---sent my best stuff off after scanning on a V600---but fucking Alex shoots such a high volume of amazing shit that he'd spend a fortune sending stuff off.

>>2915269
>tfw his throwaway picture of a camera has better color and better exposure than your best work
Fucking hell, dude. Give the rest of us a chance.

Thanks for the read Alex. For rangefinder cameras, would you ever recommend handholding a GND filter?

>>2915394
And if he posted it in a gear thread half of the posters would have a stroke at that EXIF data.

>>2915269
Nicely written and very informative with all the examples. Thanks dude.


BTW, do you ever find yourself using the movements in your camera? I know with landscapes there seldom is a need, but am curious.

>>2915427
Not Alex, but I know of at least one photo he's done with a mountain in the background and with flowers close in the foreground and with trees and grass in the midground. The mountain and the flowers are perfectly in focus and the stuff in the middle is blurred a bit. I seem to remember when he posted it it was fucking with a lot of people, so he had to explain how the movements worked to affect the focal planes.

>>2915435
Shit. I should've looked harder before I posted. Here's the shot I was thinking about:

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/56bf55504c2f85a60a9b9fe5/56bfb53220c64767f8f1288b/56c9f7814d088ee87dc290ce/1456077665602/image733.jpg?format=750w

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>>2915310
>>2915372
Thanks guys, glad you enjoy it.

>>2915386
I know! I was blown away when I entered that valley, never seen anything like it in my life. I've got a 10 day trip to Canada starting next week and then I'll hopefully develop some film before the autumn colors start.

>>2915389
Definitely, I've thought about sending shots out for drum scans but so far I've been quite happy with 48x60" prints from the v700. I think drum scans would just able to salvage a few slides that look ok on a light table but just don't come through in the shadows on the Epson.

>>2915394
>>2915408
Oh /p/ I love you.

>>2915403
You can certainly try handholding them and I've done it in a pinch myself, but with any camera just be careful that you have the filter perfectly flat with the lens surface. If you have that thing tilted even one tiny bit you may very well get ghost-like reflections coming off the filter and into the lens, and if you have a wide lens you run the risk of your glove showing up in the image. It doesn't usually take that long to put a filter holder on properly so try your best to do it.

>>2915427
Oh yeah, I almost always use a tiny bit of tilt for any scene and I try to look up and down with rise and fall as much as possible rather than pointing the camera up or down. That alone gives images a very "large format" look as verticals wont get smaller as you look upward. Think mountains and trees, etc, the depth to the image is very different. If I'm getting low to stuff like wildflowers then yeah I'll definitely use tilt.

Here's a pic related with probably too much tilt. Well, or I was just trying to expect unrealistic results and was too close to the flowers to make it all natural. Flowers are not my strong suit and photographing this valley is not easy. It gets awful harsh light and doesn't really work at midday, sunset, or sunrise as you look due south. Still, I enjoy getting out there and tons of people have requested photos of this valley.

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And here's another random new one on Ektar.

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>>2915455
Awesome shot, but that looks like sewage.

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>>2915455
Yeah, it's in northern Minnesota in very mineral rich waters. The entire region is a swampy with iron and other minerals in the soil so the water takes on a root beer color.

Here's some Portra. I experimented with underexposing it a tad (about one stop) compared to what I would normally do and as I expected it gave very rich and smooth colors especially in the earth's shadow. This was in eastern Kansas though, so the atmosphere has more moisture and the sunset colors stronger than usual along with the greenest grass I've ever seen in my life. It was a great place to hang out while on the road, didn't see anyone aside from a few ranchers out here. Only the cows gave me trouble while trying to catch some shut-eye in the van.

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Alex, would you mind posting a 100% crop from both foreground and background from one of your images? I'm interested to see which degree of sharpness a 4x5 gives.

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>>2915488
I don't really have the time to make a new crop right now, so here's one I made a while back showing the detail.

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>>2915565
That is crazy. Like, really crazy.

bump for really great knowledge.

>>2915454
>Canada
if youre going to bc i can definitely recommend some stuff you wont read about in most guides.

thanks again for sharing your knowledge. i still frequently revisit your post about scanning.

also, not that you need anyone backing you up but ive been using hitech filters for almost 8 years now and youre right, they are a fantastic value.

Wow, 4x5 is total beauty.

Would you recommend the Chamonix 4x5? I know they're chinese but they loom durable and the pricing is quite alright.

Very nice shots mate, the colours are amazing. Gotta love the Velvia.

Hey alex, whats your focusing protocol when shooting medium format? Should typical hyperfocal rules land me with best rendition and fully focused picture or is there some cool trick/calculation you have for that?

An editorial comment:
Your description of what a reverse GND is above the picture of the GNDs, it's really weird to not have the idea talked about at that point when you do talk about the others.

I would also remove the word ghetto. I get you're not super formal, but, this is still your business front.

>>2915938
>I would also remove the word ghetto

This. As an overseas reader, i find anything nigger related disgusting.

>>2915952
What did he mean by this?

>>2915565
How come the flowers in the foreground and the mountains in the background are in focus but everything in the middle is not? Actually it seems the lower part of the trees is OOF but the tops are not.

Also, maybe stupid question: would you all be able to tell if a picture was made with a film LF camera rather than a, let's say, digital FF? Assuming the latter is well processed and composed of course.

Other than that, nice images as always, jealous for the locations.

>>2916001
With camera movements you angle the plane of focus. It becomes no longer parallel with the sensor/film plane. Like normally the focal plane and sensor planes would both be | | but with movements, you can make them like | / (or even much more extreme). You're still limited by depth of field, but since the plane of what's in focus is now at an angle, it's not just the two vertical slices that you're used to seeing...kinda hard for me to describe with words, google up "photography camera movements" , "tilt shift photography" and "scheimpflug principle".

As for telling, the biggest thing is almost always the level of detail that you can achieve with an LF shot. LF also affects depth of field greatly, but the biggest thing is detail, which isn't necessarily apparent in digital versions but jumps out at you in printed media.

File: movements_1[1].png (178KB, 1291x755px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2916001

>>2916009
>>2916010
Very interesting, thanks guys.

>>2915952
Grow up cunt

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>>2915454
>I've got a 10 day trip to Canada starting next week

if you stop by The Camera Store in Calgary they usually carry the complete line of Singh-Ray filters, and you can say hi to Chris while you are there.

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>>2916223
chris, stop shilling your store.

>>2915913
man I second this
Right now I'm using a Cambo SCX, but the thing doesn't go anywhere. It's impossible to transport by foot. Fucking mess. I'd like to upgrade.

ok

>>2915269
Which toyo model is this holmes? This your only 4x5?

>>2915269
I didn't quite make it clear from the article; Do you use the hitech glass filters, or the resin ones?

The resin ones are pretty affordable, but the glass ones seem to go for 100+ again...


Really looking for a decent alternative to my terrible Cokin ones. Good resin would be fine by me (don't use them that often, so scratch resistance isn't that huge of an issue), if they actually work, that is (ie don't give off a terrible color cast).

Thanks for the article, and the thread, based Alex. Always a pleasure.

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Appreciate the knowledge dump, as always.

Ride on, based Alex, ride on!

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Excellent blog! I've been learning to use filters for a year now but the results have not yet been anything special.

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>>2920702
I don't understand the need for GNDs when you have a camera with bracketing. You can just merge the image in silico and be done with it. It's about as difficult as putting a filter on the lens and much cheaper.

>>2920901
Filters also work on cameras without bracketing (e.g. film cameras) and I like to do as much as possible while taking the photo, not after it. The scene can also change between exposures.

>>2920901
You do know that this post is about using filters on large format film cameras to capture fleeting images like sunsets, right?

>>2920905
ok

>>2920906
Yes, I was commenting on Anon's pic tho, which was apparently taken with a DSLR.

>>2920909
>bracketing
>a scene with hundred people walking around
>and a roaring fire in the center of the frame

That's more retarded than bracketing for a film shot.

>>2920910
Who are you quoting? Pretty much every recent DSLR has autobracketing.

>>2920912
Sure. I'll play along. Which pic do you think would have benefited from bracketing?

>>2920901
>>2920909
>>2920912

Bracketing means taking multiple exposures, and in a scene where things are changing and moving this will result in image ghosting.

notsureiftroll

>>2920922
Not if one half of it is sky and the time between the shots is 1 ms.

>>2920922
>notsureiftroll
I'm thinking it is. We're just too far down the rabbit hole now.

>>2919604
Not based Alex, but I use the resin ones and they work great. Considering Alex mentioned you can pick up 3 hi-tech filters for $100...I'm assuming he uses the resin ones too.

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>>2920901
>>2920909
>>2920912
>>2920925