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Photo

Thank goodness for digital.


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5 replies to this topic

#1
OTRTexan

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Have you ever been itching to shoot a particular subject, and every chance you get doesn't work out for one reason or another? I've been wanting to photograph a bald eagle ever since I got out here on the road. Purchasing the Tamron 150-600 was based on this subject. I've seen dozens of them the past 6 months. Most of them I simply had no place to stop. The two I improvised a place, wouldn't let me get close enough.

Well, today as I was driving around Denver on the loop, I spotted an eagle in its nest, directly across from an elevated off ramp. It was a fantastic vantage point, but I saw it too late. I did about a 10 mile loop in hopes that it would still be there, and it was. I parked directly across, and at eye level, set up and started shooting as it sat in its nest, with settings accordingly. Within minutes, it's partner came winging in with food. I got some shots, but with a slow shutter speed, they are soft. After shooting from there for a bit, I decided to get closer. Over an hour later, I completely filled up a 64gb card, probably 750 shots of the pair. I overshot the heck out of them. It's the middle of my work day, so I haven't had a chance to even look yet.

I can't imagine doing this with film, thus the title...

Thank goodness for digital. .

#2
TBonz

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I think about the film vs. digital pretty much every time I shoot sports.  I would do it either way but I love the freedom of being able to shoot more images than I would be able to on film.  I'm not talking about "spray and pray" but about being able to shoot some extra images of a player that I know doesn't play very often or shooting some images I might not take the chance on with the cost of film.  Most probably won't get seen, but it is nice to have the option of taking those extra shots and knowing that I am not going to blow the budget!



#3
Ron

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I remember having to "ration" my film stock.You could only carry so much film in your bag... sometimes I debated whether to carry that extra lens, or more film. Also, do I want to take more slide film or should I also carry some color negative stock? Tri-X always went but I sometimes debated whether to take more or less of it. 

 

And, in shooting... if the light looked wrong, maybe I wouldn't press that shutter button. Ditto for low light, low shutter speed occasions when I didn't have a tripod handy. A hat tip here to Auto ISO which can be a life saver. Lastly, it's really amazing how many "bad" images actually don't look so bad once you get them into Lightroom or Photoshop and can tweak them a bit. 

 

--Ron



#4
morticiaskeeper

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I suppose I do take more shots now with digital, but it didn't seem like it!

I used to take a lot of Motorsport and would regularly come back from a weekend wit h20 rolls of FP4 or Ektachrome. I would then spend the next 3 evenings knelt of the bath, with the shower head removed from the hose, processing it all. A lot of the time, I was also pushing, so needed a calculator to work out the times & temps.

Then I would climb back into the cupboard under the stairs to reload the cartridges for the next weekend!

#5
nbanjogal

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Heck yes, thank goodness for digital. No weeping over wasted money when you delete hundreds of images! I was a bit more careful in the days of film (and I am planning to shoot a roll of film in May as part of an annual project), but I still ended up with quite a few negatives and prints that were unusable.



#6
Merco_61

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I remember days when shooting products for catalogues when we went through three bricks a day of E64T or CT19, and then feeding the film through the automated developing tanks and replenishing the soup to get consistent colours. The working day ended with making contact prints on Cibachrome  P30 material for reference and putting the slides in protective sleeves for review on the light table the next morning. The Leaf digital back made this type of work *much* easier and cheaper after the hardware was paid off.

Today, a D810 does a much better job than either the 35 mm film camera or the early MF digital back. In fact, it is about equal to a good, slow medium format slide and can with careful processing even equal the high-dynamic colour neg films in 120.