An Attempt at Graduated Neutral Density
One Roll, One Day - July 2020
Let’s just be honest about what you’re about to see: a bunch of low contrast garbage. I’m not sure what I was thinking. Me = contrast. It’s a very simple formula. But, I didn’t quite figure out the purpose of a graduated ND filter until I got these scans.
I’m not a complete idiot - in theory I know the purpose of a graduated ND filter, and I’ve seen some amazing photos using them. And I have some more practice coming up soon. But, on a clouded sunrise using a 2-stop graduated filter, I didn’t realize I was about to create some insanely low contrast, HDR-type photos. And it makes perfect sense now.
Now I will say I don’t hate these. When it boils down to film photography, the main source of disappointment is when the result greatly varies from the expectation. If these were someone else’s photos in a location and light unknown to me, I may even love them. But I was there. I remember the light on this morning being one of the best, THE BEST, sunrises I’ve ever experienced.
I’ll learn from this and move to higher contrast sunrises or sunsets. We have ample beach days this summer escaping the reality of COVID-19.
For the film nerds, these were shot on my trusty Pentax 67, mostly using the 165 mm f/2.8 and the 55 mm f/4. I love the compression from the 165 mm in these vast landscapes. Plugged into the Pentax 67 was one of my favorite color films: Kodak Ektar 100. I’ve had amazing sunrise photos before with this film, and I won’t stop here. I was using my Lee Filter set up with the 100mm 2-stop ND filter.
Thanks for stopping by! Perhaps next month I can post results from the Nikonos V, but the first roll was not pretty. #learningcurve.
Celina is back on the wagon for July, check out her roll for One roll, One day.
Feel free to follow along on Instagram!
