eastwestdivide Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Looking at the topic "Bowled!" sparked an idea. I'm sure we've all got some "nearly" photos that didn't work for some reason, but which turned out to be a good lesson. Here's a few of mine. Lesson 1: If you've got a camera fault (sticky shutter that got worse in cold weather), get it fixed before trying to photograph the last Deltic early on a deep and dark December morning: Lesson 2: Visualise where the train is going to be relative to a potentially distracting background: Lesson 3: Learn to judge the speed and position of the train to frame at least the front end between obstructions, and not behind them: Lesson 4: over to you... 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Ouch! This is going to hurt. Most of my lessons were learned through trying to save money on the cost of photography in the early days: these are the ones I'll admit to. 1. My first roll of film for my new SLR was GAF 500 ASA, which I thought would be ideal for moving trains. Little did I know that the speed rating was optimistic (everything under-exposed) but film was far too grainy. 2. Do not store processed films curled up in containers, they get scratched. Use proper negative filing sheets instead. 3. If you can't afford a film squeegee, don't use the foam out of a Zenit enlarger - it'll scratch the negatives. 4. Scratches on the emulsion side of a film can't be repaired (except digitally), scratches on the gelatin side can be minimised with "nose grease". 5. Bulk film loaders saved you money by cutting and loading the film yourself - great if you didn't mind scratched negatives. 6. Always check your camera bag before setting out - no good arriving "on site" to find you've only brought a 24mm wide angle with you. 7. A Canon FD 24mm f2.8 lens will bounce about a foot if dropped from a height of five feet onto a concrete floor. 8. Never use an eyepiece correction lens at Kimberley Beaconsfield shed - I've only ever broken two and both at the same place (two years apart). 9. It is impossible to load 220 film into a Paterson spiral without the use of foul language. 10. When using more than one film camera, open the back of the camera containing the finished film when changing rolls. 11. If you have to entrust irreplaceable films to the Royal Mail, take out adequate insurance and regularly check your doorstep. 12.No matter how hard you research a location, you'll always find something you missed after your return - interest value being directly proportional to distance/difficulty of return. 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
69843 Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 Check your equipment is all working, and that you have a fully charged battery in the camera, plus a spare charged up to avoid any potential problems. Check you have a card in the camera (always carry a backup 'just in case') Make sure if recording a unique event/item of stock, that the lens is clean.... 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
legomanbiffo Posted February 27, 2014 Share Posted February 27, 2014 I had two opportunities to photograph the APT-P in service. The first time at Hartshill we didn't hear it coming and it was going so fast the shot was completely missed. A couple of years later I took another shot of it at Bletchley with no film in the camera. I also dropped a Mamiya 645 from my backpack onto the pavement and miraculously the only damage was to the skylight filter which hit the ground first. I can still remember the gasps from the onlookers. In the days when you sent your slides off to Kodak to get processed I lost a complete film in the post. Glorious summer shots taken in NSE days at West Drayton. I got about three shots that day from the next film but the loss has scarred me ever since. Whatever you do in life, you have to learn all the different ways of cocking-up first. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 In the days when you sent your slides off to Kodak to get processed I lost a complete film in the post. Glorious summer shots taken in NSE days at West Drayton. I got about three shots that day from the next film but the loss has scarred me ever since. Don't get me started. I still shudder about the twenty-nine rolls (35mm and 120) that Royal Mail managed to lose, just about everything I shot in colour on a trip to Ukraine (my only visit there). Shortly after receiving a denial from the local sorting office that they never left anything on the doorstep, my neighbour retrieved another package that they had just dumped there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted February 28, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 28, 2014 I once took a roll of slide film into Boots to be processed, pointing out that it was slide film not ordinary film and receiving confirmation that the assistant understood this. Needless to say that that it processed it as ordinary film and totally ruined. I think I ended up throwing the film and photographs away, a great pity as it might have be possible to recover the photographs with modern technology. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted February 28, 2014 Share Posted February 28, 2014 (edited) My 1980s photography was, for the most part , decidedly average, compared with a lot of other peoples efforts. This was partly due to being a tight-wad and having a cheap bottom of the range and obsolete Fujica SLR, combined with using 100 ASA film. Also if I had booked a day off to take pictures, and the weather was poor, I would still go and take a few shots anyway. Anyway here is a shot that meets the criteria of the thread:- Be aware of obstructions 56053 at Trent Junction dodges from tree to tree with a loaded MGR from the Toton direction, 15/9/80 (It is a reasonable shot of the cars though!) cheers Edited March 2, 2014 by Rivercider 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 I once took a roll of slide film into Boots to be processed, pointing out that it was slide film not ordinary film and receiving confirmation that the assistant understood this. Needless to say that that it processed it as ordinary film and totally ruined. I think I ended up throwing the film and photographs away, a great pity as it might have be possible to recover the photographs with modern technology. Boots did the same to me with Ilford XP1, a black and white film that was designed to be developed in the colour print process (C41?). Of course they saw "black and white" and put it through the same process as normal black and white film. Result: mud. Here's a scan of the original print, followed by a Photoshop rescue from the negative many years later: 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jbqfc Posted March 1, 2014 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 1, 2014 make sure the camera strap is not in front of your lens 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
raymw Posted March 1, 2014 Share Posted March 1, 2014 Some years ago I had a Nikon 'bridge' camera. It took quite good images, for 5Mpixel, could enlarge quite well. But... Taking some shots of a seaplane, due to shutter lag, had to give quite a considerable lead, as in cross birds in clay pigeon shooting - let the plane fly into the frame... At the Bluebell railway, a steam loco approaching the station, I thought I could get a sequence of three shots as it approached, and some close ups from the platform. I managed one distant shot, and nothing else until the train left - the camera took an age to write to the cf card. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 Lesson no. ?? (lost count) Learn where the controls are so that the first thing you touch when you reach for the camera isn't the shutter release (perhaps more applicable to film cameras where wasted film is expensive, but still...) 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted March 1, 2014 Author Share Posted March 1, 2014 And coming into the digital era, don't leave your camera on the "auto" setting for anything that's moving, especially in not-very-good light: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForestPines Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Lesson no. ?? (lost count) Learn where the controls are so that the first thing you touch when you reach for the camera isn't the shutter release (perhaps more applicable to film cameras where wasted film is expensive, but still...) M1_0005.jpg I have to admit I think that picture would fit equally well in the Creative Photography thread! I can just imagine it being used for the cover art of a reprint of "Red For Danger". 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 2, 2014 When you take a picture of a nameplate which requires a slow shutter speed, remember to reset to a higher shutter speed before attempting to photograph a moving train (and this was yesterday ! - AGAIN!!) (fortunately as I burst shot it, I've have one in focus ... PHEW) From my film days. When you buy a 36 exposure film and you are on photo 45 - somethings go wrong, you have NOT got a load of extra shots for free ... 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold beast66606 Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 2, 2014 Remember not to take your photo at the exact millisecond that the signal returns from green to red. 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SRman Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Always know where your fingers are. (That's one of Melbourne's light rail 5-unit trams behind my brother and my finger!). 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 2, 2014 1. Test your shiny new camera before taking the once-in-a-lifetime sequence. My new Zenith E consistently overexposed the entire film I took from the front seat of a DMU in the last days of the GC between Rugby and Nottingham. Burnt out slides have no recovery mode. 2. Do not own a camera that tears film. Zenith E again. My timeless pics of a bridge renewal at Battersea in May 1969 - from a slow-moving train passing beneath - were unobtainable. 3. Do not go motor-racing on a wet day with a camera that lets water. The BOAC 1000 km race at Brands Hatch in April 1970 is regarded by many as a wet-weather classic. My Prakticamat was never the same again. 4. When taking the official photos at an office retirement "do" - about 20 chaps and chapesses retiring at one ceremony - do make sure early in the proceedings that the film is passing through the camera. 5. If you lend your camera, make sure it is in the sort of mode that will best suit the person borrowing it. I had disabled autofocus on my Nikon 501, so all my wife's pics of the 1990 British Grand Prix, taken from a prestige corporate grandstand with balcony - which she had almost to herself, nearly everyone else being in the bar watching on tv - were fuzzy. 6. Make sure the spare battery you've carefully charged is the one for the camera you intend to use. Now, let's see. EN-EL3a, EN-EL3e, EN-EL4, EN-EL9, EN-EL14, EN-EL14a, EN-EL15...... 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 When it comes to steam trains, the wind direction can be as important as where the sun is coming from: and embarrassingly, later the same day, making the same mistake: 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarryscapes Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 When shooting with focus pre set on a certain point, wait till the train has actually reached that point to fire the shutter... When coming out of the woods and into the mid day sun, always remember to reset your aperture and ISO setting. This was ISO 1600 and f2.8. Fortunately it was a Fujifilm S3 Pro DSLR, a camera with as yet unsurpassed abilities to deal with overexposure, well in digital terms anyway. (Negative film is still far better). 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 2, 2014 When coming out of the woods and into the mid day sun, always remember to reset your aperture and ISO setting. This was ISO 1600 and f2.8. Fortunately it was a Fujifilm S3 Pro DSLR, a camera with as yet unsurpassed abilities to deal with overexposure, well in digital terms anyway. (Negative film is still far better). The designers are onto us. I find Auto ISO on Nikons now works wonderfully well. I have the camera set on 100 ISO, but with Auto ISO set to 6400, and a minimum shutter speed of 1/250. It has worked so far..... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 More a fault of the camera...the incredible (even eerie) melting of a C39-8: "Nothing is real..............." Best, Pete. 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quarryscapes Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 The designers are onto us. I find Auto ISO on Nikons now works wonderfully well. I have the camera set on 100 ISO, but with Auto ISO set to 6400, and a minimum shutter speed of 1/250. It has worked so far..... Yes it works well on the successor to the S3 as well, the S5 although it maxes out at 3200. My new Sony A7R however is even better, being usable all the way up to 25,600. After too many incidents like the above it's a godsend! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Trevellan Posted March 2, 2014 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 2, 2014 If there's a mistake to be made in photography, I've almost certainly made it. Film leaders jumping off the take-up sprocket as soon as I closed the camera back, shooting moving subjects too soon, forgetting to stop down lens after focusing (Zenith B), under or over-developing film; the list is a long one. Even with more than 40 years of experience I still do daft things occasionally! At least these days I can blame it on my age... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
coachmann Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 (edited) Been there, worn the tea-shirt and done the crossword... 1) If a normally tight-fisted friend gives you a roll of 120 film wrapped in silver paper, pretend you are over the moon and throw it away! I discovered in the darkroom the film wasn't black & white.....It was all black! 2) If your shot is important, stay away from people. They'll talk you to distraction and when everyone presses their shutter to grab that unique steam special, your digital miracle will be ticking away in Self-Timer mode from yesterdays poser pics of you and the missus! Edited March 2, 2014 by coachmann 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivercider Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Aside from other errors (angle of the sun, and exposure) do not try to get 37 exposures from a 36 exposure film, or at least if you do take the first shot of something unimportant 47094 at Newton Abbot working loaded clay from Tavistock Junction to Dover for export, 5/11/81 cheers 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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