Foggy Commute
My commute by bicycle takes me through the RSPB refuge at Fen Drayton. Along an old railway line it passes through the old gravel pits converted to a number of lakes. I have written of this place before as it is close to home and so when I am looking for a few hours away photographing I head there.
This past Spring has been unusual. It has been relatively dry though still cold, as a result the mornings have been foggy. My experience of the past several years is that Fall is the time of foggy mornings and I have kicked myself a number of times for not taking the time to use this change as a chance to take some different photos. My wake-up call came again one morning as I rode through the foggy morning and saw a number of subjects to photograph. I resolved the next time to take a camera.
A week later my chance arrived. I loaded up some Ilford HP5+ 400 speed film and a fresh spare roll and packed my Fuji GSWiii 690 camera as something relatively compact. I stopped at several places on the way. The fog was thicker than what I had seen the week before so some of the vistas were not the same. I am not accustomed to shooting in fog so the whole process was a bit of a mystery to me.
Trying to imagine what compositions would work. Part of my interest in this is trying to find subjects for my Ma project. Ma in Japanese is often referred to as negative space or blankness. I like the concept.and follow Yuu Sakai on Flickr as an inspiration. This was my intention for the morning.
From a technical standpoint I started with 400 speed film as these would all be handheld. I didn't want to carry a tripod and as I was on my way to work there was a limited time to work in. I brought my Sekonic light meter (not my spot meter). I reasoned I could get the exposure I needed with this simple meter.
I metered the scene much as one would a snow scene. My recent re-education on the zone system enabled me to think my way to the right exposure. Essentially there are two distinct metering areas in the scene. The white fog and the ground, everything else is in between. Since I want the fog to be white this meant I could not meter from this directly for the exposure as the fog would end up at 18% gray. I opted to open the aperture by two stops.
For instance I metered the fog/sky at box speed (ASA 400) at 1/60 f32. I want to open up the aperture 2 stops to move it in the white (more exposed) direction. So the exposure is set for 1/60 f16 (Zone 3). The ground was metered at f11 1/60 which is in zone 6 which still gives detail. This scene is not difficult to expose in the sense there is a very tight range of light values; something like 3 or 4 stops. This easily fits the film range. The trick is to make the white fog appear white.
Since these two area of exposure are large (sky and ground) I could use my Sekonic meter and my spot meter was not needed.
This past Spring has been unusual. It has been relatively dry though still cold, as a result the mornings have been foggy. My experience of the past several years is that Fall is the time of foggy mornings and I have kicked myself a number of times for not taking the time to use this change as a chance to take some different photos. My wake-up call came again one morning as I rode through the foggy morning and saw a number of subjects to photograph. I resolved the next time to take a camera.
A week later my chance arrived. I loaded up some Ilford HP5+ 400 speed film and a fresh spare roll and packed my Fuji GSWiii 690 camera as something relatively compact. I stopped at several places on the way. The fog was thicker than what I had seen the week before so some of the vistas were not the same. I am not accustomed to shooting in fog so the whole process was a bit of a mystery to me.
Trying to imagine what compositions would work. Part of my interest in this is trying to find subjects for my Ma project. Ma in Japanese is often referred to as negative space or blankness. I like the concept.and follow Yuu Sakai on Flickr as an inspiration. This was my intention for the morning.
From a technical standpoint I started with 400 speed film as these would all be handheld. I didn't want to carry a tripod and as I was on my way to work there was a limited time to work in. I brought my Sekonic light meter (not my spot meter). I reasoned I could get the exposure I needed with this simple meter.
I metered the scene much as one would a snow scene. My recent re-education on the zone system enabled me to think my way to the right exposure. Essentially there are two distinct metering areas in the scene. The white fog and the ground, everything else is in between. Since I want the fog to be white this meant I could not meter from this directly for the exposure as the fog would end up at 18% gray. I opted to open the aperture by two stops.
For instance I metered the fog/sky at box speed (ASA 400) at 1/60 f32. I want to open up the aperture 2 stops to move it in the white (more exposed) direction. So the exposure is set for 1/60 f16 (Zone 3). The ground was metered at f11 1/60 which is in zone 6 which still gives detail. This scene is not difficult to expose in the sense there is a very tight range of light values; something like 3 or 4 stops. This easily fits the film range. The trick is to make the white fog appear white.
Since these two area of exposure are large (sky and ground) I could use my Sekonic meter and my spot meter was not needed.
A Few Examples
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