Personally I love off-puttingly badly listed ebay items! If I'm suspicious I'll ask the seller about the condition but usually it's a good way of getting a bargain.

I think a middle ground between JR's and mine might work better. Mine was still too light, but I think his went a bit too dark.

Do you have instant review on? Frequently I used to find I was zooming in on the last image I took when I thought I was adjusting aperture on the rear wheel!

I think the phrase relates to the effect on perspective, ie how the image shows the sizes of objects relative to each other. A telephoto will compress the space between the subject and the background, and a UWA lens will exaggerate that distance. A 50mm is supposed to offer a natural perspective although compared to what we see, it's a narrower field of view on film, let alone APSC.

I guess 35mm is a good compromise between a natural perspective and a field of view which seems natural. I think you're absolutely right though John - every person is different in terms of where they think that compromise should lie.

As I say, very quick and sloppy photoshopping here, but I have just tried to bring back a sense of the shadows which you would expect to see in this shot, and tone down the brightness and saturation on the foliage. There's a chance it might look a bit dark - I'm on my Mac and the screen is a bit bright.

Original



Reworked

What film are you using, Deryn? Some films will probably have more latitude than digital when it comes to dark/bright areas in the same scene. Ektar certainly seems to.

Here's a couple of further thoughts re the face shots - have you tried using a reflector to bounce some light into the subject's face, so you haven't got such an extreme difference between dark face / bright background? Anything white or silver will do. And a silly question perhaps - have you tried moving your model somewhere less challenging?

No I have never used a grey card. In your scenario I would probably just tilt the camera down so the sky didn't take up so much of the frame and hit exposure lock, but then again I am really really lazy. Hence why I also tend to like film that is forgiving on exposure and extremes of dynamic range!

Sorry Nigel! I was only thinking of something quick in PS. Can use one of the shots in this thread, don't worry about emailing the file.

What shoot set up do you have in mind, by the way?

The flash mounted to the camera will work in Pttl, but flashes using optical slaves or simple cheap triggers will not. For this sort of multi flash set up, I would go with manual flash. It only takes a few moments to do a test shot and adjust the flash output or camera settings.

If you had the monies, three pttl flashes capable of being triggered wirelessly by the camera (e.g. Pentax FGZ360) would work in pttl but meh, better to have manual control anyway I think. That's just my personal view though.

You can also take the camera into full manual mode (I think you just take both and shutter speed off the A setting?) and choose a higher shutter speed than the meter is telling you. But experiment. Unless you're shooting slide film, you may have more leeway than on digital.