Shawn Baker wrote about the Pentax 105 WR > I am so far ambivalent about its image quality and exposure. Any > tricks--what are you doing with yours that is giving you good exposure > control? What films do you use. Avoid full telephoto? Turn off auto > focus? I typically try to meter off of something half way between dark and light (what photographers at least used to refer to as 18% gray) and then aim the camera for good composition before releasing the shutter. I use this technique if my subject is, itself or surrounded by, overly bright or dark which would cause the meter to misjudge the exposure. If the scene were overly light and exposure not corrected the picture would be under exposed and yield muddy highlights and no shadow detail. If overly dark, the result would be gray blacks and blown out highlights. Thus if shooting someone coming in with a lot of white sunlight (especially back lit) surf filling the picture, with out correction it would be underexposed. So, I might first point the camera at a more nutural landscape, lock in the exposure (with the Pentax 105 WR do that by partway depressing the shutter release button) recompose the picture and shoot. With manual exposure cameras it is much easier. For my snapshot pictures I keep the camera loaded usually with 400 ASA color negative film be it summer or winter. I find the PHD (Push Here Dummy) cameras difficult to hold steady so I like the higher speed film to allow for a faster shutter speed. Sometimes if I expect to be able to brace myself (very common professional shooting technique) I will use ASA 100 or 200 color neg or I used to love Kodachrome 64 ASA slide film. That stuff was excellent. I don't know where it is being processed these days though. If your camera will take it, you might want to try an ultra fast film for those times when paddling in big waves where your are bound to be shaking the camera out of boat movement or fear :) such as a 1600 or 3200 ASA black and white film but be prepared for very graining images. I used to shoot triathlons and with the big lenses like 300 and 400mm and fast action I liked using 1,600 to good effect. You can see some of that on my web site if you click on the URL below, go to people and then athletes. If I am not sure of exposure, I personally choose to overexpose. When paddling I will often point the camera at the tree line if close and then at my subject. Lastly, I rarely have the 105 WR set at max telephoto. Hope this helps. Hey, a plug for me... if anybody is hiring, the company I was with for several years (I was a trainer and customization specialists) went bankrupt many months ago and I am looking for something new... :) I knew the IT field looked to good to be true :) Bob Chicago .......................................................... Robert Brubaker http://home.earthlink.net/~rbrub .......................................................... *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Thu Jan 09 2003 - 11:35:40 PST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:31:02 PDT