Three (former) trees along I-280 near Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park CA. This is the first image I ever took using the zone system. This image was taken July 1, 1995.
Originally printed on Kodak PolyContrast III RC-F, this is a scan of the negative - tweaked in PS only to aproximate the print (levels, dust removal, sharpen due to scanning, and one slight dodge of the trunk like the print)
Very nice. On my screen, the top left corner is slightly darker. I don't don't like sky toooo dark. I like it just like it is. I like the use of lots of empty space.
I think I actually know these trees. I think I used to ride my bike by it all the time. It right by Foothill right?
When I originally test printed this image I went all over the place with the sky. I made very dark versions, and lighter versions. This to me ended up being the closest to what I had hoped to achieve. This level of sky seemed to separate the tree best. Lighter and it was too muddy for my taste. Darker and the whole thing just looked too dark.
This was shot in afternoon sun, and the sky does darken a bit on the left - I didn't do any correction of that. I'm pretty sure it isn't vignetting, because as I recall I didn't do much in the way of movements with the camera. Maybe at most a slight tilt, but it was a long time ago.
If you are driving south on I-280, these trees are on the right hand side of the road, atop a knoll, just before the Sand Hill Road exit. They are very visible from the highway, and easily accessible from the frontage road off the exit. It was about a 1 minute walk from my car to the point where I finally placed the tripod.
Nice shot,
I particularly like the highlights on tree as they progress upward to the tip. How did you meter the subject, can you elaborate. I always find that a bit more informative rather than the exposure settings themselves. Interesting to see that it was printed on polycontrast, I use polymaxII RC (F).
While I took copious notes of the day, I didn't retain the actual shadow and highlight luminance values. I was using (and it was my first day using) the Zone Systemizer exposure and development calculator. In my summary notes of the day I noted the use of it for the first time. However, at the time I recorded the actual exposure and development requirement for the negative on the holder in pencil, and it has long since been erased. For the life of me I don't know why I used to take such notes but not record these important numbers for later review. I do know that one of the negatives I took called for N-1 development according to the calculator, and two others called for Normal development. My notes are not accurate enough to indicate which this one was with certainty, but I'm pretty sure this one got Normal development.
If you have not used the Zone Systemizer calculator, it is a circular slide rule type device on which you set the shadow exposure and the highlight exposure as luminance values (I had to put a luminance conversion sticker on my light meter). You then rotate a card to align a "shadow" line and "highlight" line. This results in an indication of the kind of development that is appropriate. You also set the film speed. The result of all this is a set of appropriate exposures and the development recommendation.
I think in practice you can do this just as easily in your head if you understand the zone system. But regardless, it worked in this case.
The image is nicely printed. I think that moving to the right enough so that the righthand tree does not intrude on the the middle tree would have improved the photo; However, it may not have been possible to do so because of the terrain.