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Exposure Advice Please

Manzoori From UK - England, joined Sep 2002, 1516 posts, RR: 37
Posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 1025 times:

Folks,

I've just had two rolls of Kodak slide film developed by Kodak themselves. Of the 72 shots taken 18 have come back as 99.9% black slides with a small pinprick of light.

Careful examination of the slides reveals that these are indeed my shots of aircraft and the dots of light are the nose gear lights.

Being a relative newbie to 'Proper' photography I'm at a loss as to what might cause this. Confused I would hazard a guess and say that the images are horribly underexposed but quite why the camera elected to do that....?

Thinking about it this is a pretty consistent trend on the camera (a Nikon F-401s)... almost every film returns one or two of these 'Black' frames.

Perhaps it's time to get it serviced!

Rez

Flightlineimages DOT Com Photographer & Web Editor. RR Turbines Specialist

9 replies: All unread, jump to last

PPGMD From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 2453 posts, RR: 0
Reply 1, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 1002 times:

I think what happening is that the center meter on the camera adjusts the exposure for that light, well that light is probally alot brighter than the fusalage, and as such you get a really underexposed plane picture.

At worst, you screw up and die.

Manzoori From UK - England, joined Sep 2002, 1516 posts, RR: 37
Reply 2, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 968 times:

Thanks for the reply PPGMD.

Time to re-read the manual to find out how NOT to do that!

Cheers!

Rez

Flightlineimages DOT Com Photographer & Web Editor. RR Turbines Specialist

Craigy From United Kingdom, joined Jun 2001, 1118 posts, RR: 0
Reply 3, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 964 times:

Soundes like the shutter sticking and not opening for long enough.
Does it do this with more than one lens?

Craig.

Jasonm From Australia, joined May 2000, 238 posts, RR: 6
Reply 4, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 945 times:

Hi Rez (love the pun),

Bascially,

As far as exposure is concerned with slides, you get back exactly what you took. Unlike negative film which has a wide tolerance for under exposure and over exposure, slide film has little margin for error and your exposure's must be spot on. Good Luck.

Regards,
Jason Milligan
Melbourne, Australia

Photopilot From Cuba, joined Jul 2002, 2439 posts, RR: 20
Reply 5, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 939 times:

Try a roll where you meter off an 18% grey card, then set that exposure manually onto the camera. Or use an incident light meter. This will tell you if it is a metering, or a shutter problem.

Steve

Shawn Patrick From United States of America, joined Jan 2000, 2588 posts, RR: 18
Reply 6, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 933 times:

I'd advise taking a common sense exposure once in a while, just to make sure the equipment is working ok. Something like 1/500 at f/5.6 on a sunny day.

If this really is an exposure problem, then just check your exposure settings before you snap the picture. Obviously, 1/2000 at f/22 is going to produce a very dark image...

-Shawn

Apprenez que tout flatteur vit aux dÃ�ï¿½Ã�Â©pens de celui qui l'Ã�ï¿½Ã�Â©coute. دامفو

PPGMD From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 2453 posts, RR: 0
Reply 7, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 935 times:

I agree with Photopilot, take a gray card outside on a sunny day, meter off of it, it should be either 1/250-1/100 at F16 (Provia likes 1/250 according to the data sheet).

At worst, you screw up and die.

Glenn From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2005, 0 posts, RR: 0
Reply 8, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 931 times:

You don't need to go to the expense of buying a 18% Grey card, the actual palm of the hand is also very close to the 18% grey mark. So if you meter off the palm of your hand you should be right, taking into consideration over or under exposing depending on light or dark objects.

Cheers

Manzoori From UK - England, joined Sep 2002, 1516 posts, RR: 37
Reply 9, posted (10 years 7 months 1 week 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 923 times:

Thanks very much folks for all your hints & tips.

Sadly my camera is pretty antiquated by today's standards... no little LCD displays telling me anything about the shutter speed or aperture chosen, I just get a couple of LEDs in the viewfinder! Yellow means its focused (it rarely is), a lightning symbol means it needs a flash fill in and a red circle means.... darn I forgot! Wink/being sarcastic

Time to get a new camera... One that actually tells me stuff... My only problem is the wife already knows I've managed to get 27 shots accepted here so trying to sell the idea of a new SLR or dare I say it a DSLR might be an uphill struggle!

Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Rez

Flightlineimages DOT Com Photographer & Web Editor. RR Turbines Specialist

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