Low light banyon trees

[pbromaghin]

i’m On vacation in San Diego and discovered some huge banyon trees with unbelievable root structures. Specifically, Where I want to shoot is down in a ravine under thick canopy in deep shadow. I have available to me hp5 & fp4 in 35mm and ektar in 120 with a 645 super ikonta. I’m thinking the muted colors might be really cool on ektar but my Minolta 35mm system might be under better control.

What do you think??

 

[MattKing]

Colour. And you may want a warming filter.

 

[pbromaghin]

Much delayed follow up!

Per MattKing I went with the Ektar in 6x45 Super Ikonta. When the scans came back from the lab, I stupidly forgot that Mike's Camera produces dogcrap scans, and hid the film away in a drawer as a reminder that I am the world's worst photographer. I later learned that this is a very popular location for engagement, pregnancy and baby photographers. It appears that a lot of them bring brooms or rakes to clean up the trash before they shoot (lesson 1). They also shoot the west (best) side of the ravine in the afternoon so there is no sun dappling. My morning shots had really blown out highlights in the dappling (lesson 2). In the intervening 8 months there have been some interesting apug posts about scanning technique, so I decided to try out the recommendations on this film. That is, do a straight scan with all adjustments turned off and do all the work in a quality editor (lesson 3), in my case, Photoshop Elements 15, the last one you could buy instead paying a monthly fee.

I think the results are not half bad, definitely good enough to make me want to make some adjustments and go try again.

 

[MattKing]

Looks good - and there is a fair amount of potential for "play"

 

[pbromaghin]

Holy crap! I never thought of going that far, just wanted to make it look like what I saw. Oh, that looks fun.

 

[jeffreyg]

If you like banyan trees, when it is safe to go somewhere come to Miami. They are all over, I have three in my yard. Many years ago Lucien Clergue photographed a model in our back yard.

http://www.jeffreyglasser.com/

http://www.sculptureandphotography.com/

 

[pbromaghin]

Thank you for the tip, Jeffrey. The first one I ever saw was that monster at Henry Ford's home in Ft Myers when I was in high school.

 

[pbromaghin]

Here's one I didn't post earlier, after a bit more play.