Well I went back again and believe I got it right this time. I’ve been taking pictures of this old barn for weeks now — different time of day, different cameras, different lenses and different films. I went out on my bike this past Monday about an hour an a half before sunset. I took a half a dozen pics…
This image is the best of the lot. The air was crisp and clear and the lighting was perfect. There’s more contrast here than in my previous evening shots of this subject and the light isn’t as harsh as the high contrast lighting in my late morning shots — a happy medium. The angle of the light picks out the details and I prefer this composition over all my previous efforts. Enlarge the image to get the full effect.
I used my Nikon N8008s with a 35mm AF lens and yellow filter. The film was Fuji Neopan 400 rated at ISO 640 (for development with Diafine). High shutter speeds (up to 1/8000 sec) allow me to use this film in bright light without having to close the lens all the way. I think I used f/8 for this shot.
I’ve been testing ACROS and Neopan 400 because I got a terrific deal on 10 rolls of each film and I’m looking for a replacement for my Ilford FP4+ (too expensive). ACROS is nice stuff but I’m leaning toward the Neopan 400. I enjoy available light photography and ISO 640 is fast enough if I use a fast lens. And I can shoot the same film outdoors in sunlight.
Drop on by The Weekend in Black and White, especially if you are a monochrome maniac. There’s lots links to some great monochrome photography. And some of the monochrome maniacs still use film like I do.
PS — If you look carefully you’ll see two black specks to the left of the silo. They are birds. I noticed them when I was cleaning up a few spots on my digital scans. They’re too far away to ID but they are either hawks or crows.
PPS — Seems Blogger is having more problems with comments coming from WordPress blogs (like this one). I keep getting a strange error bX-ywtyjz. I’m not the only one either. I can’t post comments to your blog using my WordPress ID so I’ll use my unused Blogger ID instead. Blogger’s commenting routines are terrible and now they are worse than ever. I’m glad I dumped Blogger for WordPress. There’s no contest.