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Shooting black and White M7 camera settings


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Hello All,

 

Having bought an M7 with a 50/F2 and about to collect today, I normally shoot black and white Kodak TX400.

 

Any advice on camera set up for best results?

I'm going to get hold of yellow or orange filter but wonder should I alter the ISO or generally shoot with exposure compensation or can I simply stick the camera in AUTO and go with 400 ISO and 0 Exp. Comp.?

 

Any thoughts welcome?

 

Thank you.

Victoria

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Try exposing a roll at 320, normal development time and see if you like the results. It should provide for better shadow detail without too much loss in ISO speed. Welcome to the forum and have fun with the M7.

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Hello All,

 

Having bought an M7 with a 50/F2 and about to collect today, I normally shoot black and white Kodak TX400.

 

Any advice on camera set up for best results?

I'm going to get hold of yellow or orange filter but wonder should I alter the ISO or generally shoot with exposure compensation or can I simply stick the camera in AUTO and go with 400 ISO and 0 Exp. Comp.?

 

Any thoughts welcome?

 

Thank you.

Victoria

 

As suggested above, try ISO 320 and shoot some with no filter. For filter factoring let the automation work for you, so use AUTO at first. If it does not work, then you can try exposure compensation.

 

Remember that a flat, cloudy grey sky won't darken with any filter.

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Hello All,

 

Having bought an M7 with a 50/F2 and about to collect today, I normally shoot black and white Kodak TX400.

 

Any advice on camera set up for best results?

I'm going to get hold of yellow or orange filter but wonder should I alter the ISO or generally shoot with exposure compensation or can I simply stick the camera in AUTO and go with 400 ISO and 0 Exp. Comp.?

 

Any thoughts welcome?

 

Thank you.

Victoria

 

1. "Best results" are the result of practice and persistence. Analog B&W is a pretty personal medium, with 175 years of history. It's not going to come to you overnight.

 

2. A yellow filter could be left on all the time (I do anyway), but orange has its place too. As already mentioned, the meter will take care of filter factor.

 

3. Your meter measures reflected light and not incident. Tri-X is tough and usually tolerates a lot of over-exposure so, if in doubt in high-key scenes shoot at EI 250 or even 200.

 

4. Auto is cool for some things but a camera like the M7 is meant to be a pair with its user. Go out and make pictures, make mistakes and don't forget to have fun.

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About camera automation, I offer a brutal posit: I have seen the work of thousands of photographers who use scientific metrics for exposure and development and those who follow the scientific metrics rarely make a photo worth viewing, except to others who are metricists.

 

 

 

 

Sent from my Etcha-sketch.

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About camera automation, I offer a brutal posit: I have seen the work of thousands of photographers who use scientific metrics for exposure and development and those who follow the scientific metrics rarely make a photo worth viewing, except to others who are metricists.

 

Generally I would agree with you but knowing what the camera can do for you in terms of contrast adjustment... blur... or using a selective aperture because one wishes to focus on and isolate a particular element of the photograph is all about enhancing one's photographs.

 

As a rule I personally like to leave my cameras in auto setting and will only take control if I want a particular aperture for depth of field or I start playing with the exposure compensation. It depends. I like to let my camera take care of technicalities things whilst I concentrate on my subject and framing. Different cameras give different results just as films do too. I've shot "good/expensive" slide films in my Lomo LC-A+ And I've shot expired out of date slide films in my Nikon F6 and I've had very pleasing (to me at least as well as to others) results both ways.

 

I'll do the same with my new M7 too. Why ever not? The camera is a tool and not to be put on some sort of object of worship that must not be experimented with in any way.

 

It's like the old saying; learn the rules and then play around with them and break them if necessary.

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Let me ask this: What is it about the M7/RF that makes it so different from your F6/SLR that you would ask how to shoot Tri-X?

 

Using the auto setting, the cameras have different meters so that's going to affect the way the cameras behave and in turn the nature of the photographs. :)

 

Set-up the cameras side by side on tripods with the same mm/f lenses and both on auto and take simultaneous photos and you'll get different results.

 

Your set-up advice becomes my base-line for me to then start taking well exposed photos and I'll then proceed to "play" with settings as I progress.

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1. "Best results" are the result of practice and persistence. Analog B&W is a pretty personal medium, with 175 years of history. It's not going to come to you overnight.

 

2. A yellow filter could be left on all the time (I do anyway), but orange has its place too. As already mentioned, the meter will take care of filter factor.

 

3. Your meter measures reflected light and not incident. Tri-X is tough and usually tolerates a lot of over-exposure so, if in doubt in high-key scenes shoot at EI 250 or even 200.

 

Sorry, high-key? You mean a well lit or bright situation? Snow or beach or wet situation? Dial the ISO to 250 or 200?

Am I understanding you correctly? :)

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Sorry, high-key? You mean a well lit or bright situation? Snow or beach or wet situation? Dial the ISO to 250 or 200?

Am I understanding you correctly? :)

Yes, that is what was meant, but I would express it another way. In those situations I would think in terms of deliberate over exposure (relative to the meter reading). eg. overexpose say 1 to 1.5 stops, or even more.

 

Regarding the point about the metering style. Consider the M7 system as using using a 'fat spot' meter. ie. the middle of your motif is measured, but not the surrounding area as with with centre-weighted. This, IMO, is more accurate than all the digital M lightmeters.

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Yes, that is what was meant, but I would express it another way. In those situations I would think in terms of deliberate over exposure (relative to the meter reading). eg. overexpose say 1 to 1.5 stops, or even more.

 

Regarding the point about the metering style. Consider the M7 system as using using a 'fat spot' meter. ie. the middle of your motif is measured, but not the surrounding area as with with centre-weighted. This, IMO, is more accurate than all the digital M lightmeters.

 

Thanks erl, I had to check again myself what I had written. You save the shadows and count on Tri-X to save the highlights. (Although I bet I've lost more highlights to over-development/over-agitation than to exceeding a film's exposure latitude.) About the metering, my MP is also a 'fat spot' but I like to think of them as not more accurate but 'less inaccurate' because, being reflected light meters rather than incident, they are determined to do that 18% thing no matter what they're pointed at. You've really got to learn how to use those cameras, how to see light.

 

s-a

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Using the auto setting, the cameras have different meters so that's going to affect the way the cameras behave and in turn the nature of the photographs. :)

 

Set-up the cameras side by side on tripods with the same mm/f lenses and both on auto and take simultaneous photos and you'll get different results.

 

Your set-up advice becomes my base-line for me to then start taking well exposed photos and I'll then proceed to "play" with settings as I progress.

 

Different meters? Who's running the show here, you or the camera?

 

You're over-analyzing. Go out and take pictures...

 

s-a

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About the metering, my MP is also a 'fat spot' but I like to think of them as not more accurate but 'less inaccurate' because, being reflected light meters rather than incident, they are determined to do that 18% thing no matter what they're pointed at. You've really got to learn how to use those cameras, how to see light.

 

s-a

Both incident and reflected light readings have there place. Generally I prefer reflected because it is directly related to the subject you are pointing at. Of course that 18% thing is ever present, but if you know about it you are always adjusting for it anyway. That is where, IMO, the 'fat spot' concept works really well. It only reads what you point it at! Thus 'pointing' your camera is critical, as you will realize, and then locking exposure. This, as you say, is all about seeing the light.

 

In another life I shot a lot of stage and theatrical work which is all about well lit subjects and dark corners and dead areas of black. Centre weighted or general meters will always over-expose such scenarios. It is surprising how accurate the 'fat spot' technique is in such cases. With fast moving subjects and rapidly changing lights, it is essential to have very fast as well as accurate metering.

 

OTOH, I always use incident light with my 111f. The drawback with that is that it is not always possible to subject the meter to the same light as the subject. But then 111f's are all about guessing anyway! ;)

Edited by erl
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Sorry, high-key? You mean a well lit or bright situation? Snow or beach or wet situation? Dial the ISO to 250 or 200?

Am I understanding you correctly? :)

 

It's easy, really. Forget about changing ISO settings. in a "high-key" situation (the kind you've mentioned) Just overexpose a stop or two.

 

And I agree: you're over-analyzing. Go out and shoot. Tri-X is massively forgiving. I typically shoot it in an M4 without a meter, have for 35 years. My M4 negatives look no worse than the ones I shoot in my F5 and matrix metering. In this sense, Film is much easier than digital, which blows out highlights with minimal overexposure.

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Victoria: You will find that your typical lush green English grass (*) is approximately a mid-tone. So, often, the easiest thing to do is to half-press your shutter and meter the grass that's in similar light to your subject. Then keep your shutter finger half-pressed, re-compose, focus and shoot. But if the light is uniform, you could just take a reading, set the camera manually, and then shoot away until the light changes. On brighter days, you could check the exposure for bright light and shadow, and then adjust manually.

 

If no lush green English grass is available, any other object of known reflectance works as well. An old trick is to meter your hand and open up one stop. And when all else fails, guess and shoot anyway.

 

You probably know most of this stuff already if you shot film in an F6. It's just a matter of adjusting to the fact that the M7 meter is a heavily center-weighted semi-spot meter, rather than a matrix meter that claims to think for you, even if it doesn't.

 

Enjoy!

--Peter

 

(*) Lush green English grass is quite similar to Pacific Northwest U.S. grass, and our often-overcast skies are also similar to yours. So my experience is probably similar to yours. :)

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