Gold Medal Park [explored] - HackerSecret.com - The Most Authoritative Site in the World on the Hacking Tools and Techniques, Penetration Testing and CyberSecurity

Gold Medal Park [explored]

Image by A Brand New Minneapolis
Prints | tumblr | Capture Minnesota | 500px | Facebook

The large format adventure continues.

When I woke up yesterday morning and looked out the window and saw all of the puffy cumulus clouds racing across the sky, I knew I had to get out into the windy city and shoot. For me, the recipe for an interesting urban landscape is:

– 1 part clouds, preferably cumulus or cumulonimbus (thunder heads); not too heavy
– 1 part wind, though not too strong (a gust knocked over my camera yesterday)
– 2 parts interesting light (can’t get enough good light)
– A dash of patience/luck
– 2 or 3 filters, here, a red filter to separate the blue sky and the clouds (darkens the blue) and a graduated neutral density to further darken the sky and bring the exposure of the sky down a bit; a larger problem with digital’s narrower dynamic range; not so much for film, luckily
– 1 part interesting subject

Gosh, I can’t believe I just made a "recipe" for a good photograph. What a hack. Anyway, I’m trying a new film for my 4×5 work. I was using Ilford HP5+, which is nice, but a bit too grainy and expensive for me. 99% of my large format work will be on a tripod, so why not use a slower film. Note, the HP5’s grain was not horrible, at this size, you’d have to be pushing Tri-x in Rodinal to get noticeable grain, but I wanted as little grain as possible. To get that, I’d have to shoot a new emulsion like Acros or Delta or TMax, which are all out of my price range. Enter: Arista EDU Ultra, Freestyle Photo’s house brand film, a rebranded Foma from the Czech Republic. It’s an old emulsion, so it’s going to be grainier than the above-mentioned films, but hopefully less-so than HP5. It’s also less than half the price of HP5 or almost any other film. Plus, I can develop it using 10ml of Rodinal, which makes my developer go a long ways, especially if I’m only developing 2-4 sheets per time. 250ml of XTOL goes pretty quickly with frequent tray developing, even if it is cheap. The bottom line is that I get to shoot a classic emulsion for way less than per sheet. Not bad. I’ve heard that this film curls a lot, but in 4×5", the film is physically too big to curl, unlike 120 or, heaven forbid, 35mm. I just laid the sheet on the scanner, didn’t even put a piece of glass over it!

So I’m really digging the film and the fact that I can use my old Nikon 52mm diameter filters with the adapter I cobbled together. This includes a Cokin graduated ND filter which suits the slow photography I’m doing better than 35mm snaps with the big contraption strapped to the front of the lens. Here’s my new slow photography workflow:
– Hem and haw about where to go shoot for the day (10min. to the entire day if I’m really indecisive)
– Go to location
– Find the shot (this is the most important step)
– Set up tripod
– Affix camera, level
– Open up the lens
– Put old oxford cloth button down shirt on over ground glass
– frame and focus and employ movements (I tilted and did a front lift here)
– meter (incident meter; the scene was front lit, so I figured that would be ok. I’m not fancy enough to do zone with a spot, though I carry a digital camera as a spot meter or to double check exposure)
– choose initial exposure and aperture
– decide to use filters or not
– adjust exposure for filters (why it’s good to carry a small notebook for calculations and to write down exposure comps for filters, etc.)
– adjust exposure for reciprocity failure for longer exposures
– install filters onto adapter ring, place on lens along with hood, if necessary
– close lens, test shutter, put on cable release
– cock lens
– pull out film, install
– double check lens to make sure it’s closed
– pull out dark slide
– look at scene (no people or cars or other distracting elements, if possible)
– press shutter
– put in dark slide
– tear down or make another exposure

It’s a pretty deliberate process, but it means that a higher percentage of my shots become keepers because I’m so invested in each exposure.

All analog all day.

Are you looking for products for hacking, cybersecurity, and penetration testing? Do you need to cleanse your smartphone, PC, or website from viruses and malware? Do you need to track down a person or recover urgent information? Do you need to regain control of an account, email, or password that has been stolen from you? Interested in purchasing pre-configured devices to easily and quickly experiment with hacking techniques? Do you have specific requirements in software or hardware? We can assist you!

Contact us immediately for immediate assistance: provide us with details via email or WhatsApp about the type of support you need, and we will respond you promptly!