Occasionally Focused

By tsuken

An Adjunct

"Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are our learning likewise is"

- William Shakespeare, "Love's Labours Lost"


Experimenting today. I was pointed towards the Zone System, regarding B&W photography in particular. I read a bit this morning, and decided to see if I could put into practice at all, what little I think I've grasped so far.

Beside the helipad (well, field with an H in it; it's where I blipped a stroppy Lapwing before) there are a number of large white tanks. With the bright sun, and their whiteness, I thought I'd have some good contrasts with which to work, so I toddled up there, camera in hand, and took a couple of shots before I had to head back for our clinical review meeting

The first I took is at the bottom of this diptych; with the camera in aperture priority mode (as usual), I simply set the aperture to f/8, aimed at the front tank, and clicked the shutter. You'll note that the tanks look light grey rather than white, and the grass in shadow is almost flat black; it's very hard to make out the grass at all.

What I then did was aim at the grass near my feet, which I thought was fairly midrange in terms of luminance, and made as to take a photo. I took note of the shutter speed, switched to manual, and adjusted the shutter speed to that, and took the photo. I wasnt expecting such a clear difference really - though I suppose I should have, with the shutter open for twice as long.... Certainly the tanks are white, and while the shadowed grass is dark, it is possible to make out features. So I think it turned out alright for a first crack.

I'm certainly looking forward to learning more, and actually getting it more sorted.

Lumix DMC-G10 : f/8 : 1/640" : 20mm : ISO 100 (automatic exposure, for the tanks)

f/8 : 1/320" : 18mm : ISO 100 (manual exposure, aiming to get grass in about zone 5)

Large version here.

Uploaded with Blipfoto iPhone app.

Comments
Sign in or get an account to comment.