My son's first shots with his OM40

OlyMan · Dec 7, 2017

Following my previous threads concerning choosing and buying my 15 year old son's first MF film camera, I thought I'd show you the results of his first test roll that he's uploaded to his Flickr account:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157384976@N05/sets/72157690670159545/with/38898164881/

All shots were taken in Program exposure mode, though with some shots he made use of the aperture ring to control the DOF

Sirius Glass · Dec 7, 2017

Great start. Now is the time to become the film guru.

faberryman · Dec 7, 2017

It looks like you got just the right camera for him. I know he is going to be in your Zuiko lens bag soon!

shutterfinger · Dec 7, 2017

The camera works well and the compositions aren't bad so lets see what he can do.
Put the camera in Manual and go shoot a roll or two then when he's comfortable/confident in that mode go to Aperture Priority for convenience.

Craig75 · Dec 7, 2017

Nice spot of the danger sign.

OlyMan · Dec 7, 2017

He's quite pleased with the results but a little bit disappointed with the saturation and colors. But the light up here in Northern England is pretty shocking during December->February: the sun is really low, and the options are either (a) really harsh light with deep strong shadows (on the rare occasions in winter when when we actually get cloudless skies) or (b) the kind of dull washed-out dreariness you see on these photos on the cloudy days.

Sirius Glass · Dec 7, 2017

Teach him Sunny 16 for the rest of the world and Sunny 11 for the British Isles and teach him to set the camera on manual.

MattKing · Dec 7, 2017

OlyMan said:
He's quite pleased with the results but a little bit disappointed with the saturation and colors.

Some of this might be due to the scans.
And you could probably turn that into a teaching opportunity - seek out good light, and those colour opportunities (Christmas decorations?) that are colourful.
The thing that I noticed right away was how well he has taken to manual focus. Tell him "bravo" from me.

OlyMan · Dec 7, 2017

MattKing said:
The thing that I noticed right away was how well he has taken to manual focus. Tell him "bravo" from me.

Yeah I was expecting a few blurry shots but to be honest even on the remaining 4-5 shots that he's decided not to upload, there aren't any real duffers.

Craig75 · Dec 7, 2017

OlyMan said:
He's quite pleased with the results but a little bit disappointed with the saturation and colors. But the light up here in Northern England is pretty shocking during December->February: the sun is really low, and the options are either (a) really harsh light with deep strong shadows (on the rare occasions in winter when when we actually get cloudless skies) or (b) the kind of dull washed-out dreariness you see on these photos on the cloudy days.

yup its tough work out there at the minute!

polariser not help?

OlyMan · Dec 7, 2017

Craig75 said:
polariser not help?

Would help with the colors probably but up here would definitely drop pretty much every shot into tripod territory. Of course another option instead of a tripod would be 400ISO film

BMbikerider · Dec 7, 2017

Well I have seen a whole lot worse with a person new to pho0tography. It is a very good start.

Craig75 · Dec 7, 2017

Sirius Glass said:
Teach him Sunny 16 for the rest of the world and Sunny 11 for the British Isles and teach him to set the camera on manual.

its a bit too tricky for sunny 11 at the minute - we have fog rolling in, lots of broken cloud where it can be half way bright one minute then dark again the next and one freak day when bizarrely it was 1/15th f2.8 iso 400 at midday for an hour or so and all street lights were on. Bit too tricky to be learning manual in dead of a temperamental British winter!

OlyMan · Dec 7, 2017

Here's the lad at work, captured with my 35RC:

Dead Link Removed

RalphLambrecht · Dec 7, 2017

OlyMan said:
Following my previous threads concerning choosing and buying my 15 year old son's first MF film camera, I thought I'd show you the results of his first test roll that he's uploaded to his Flickr account:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157384976@N05/sets/72157690670159545/with/38898164881/

All shots were taken in Program exposure mode, though with some shots he made use of the aperture ring to control the DOF

looks like he's on his way. what a good start! bravo

shutterfinger · Dec 7, 2017

Craig75 said:
its a bit too tricky for sunny 11 at the minute - we have fog rolling in, lots of broken cloud where it can be half way bright one minute then dark again the next and one freak day when bizarrely it was 1/15th f2.8 iso 400 at midday for an hour or so and all street lights were on. Bit too tricky to be learning manual in dead of a temperamental British winter!

Get one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...pod.TRS0&_nkw=manfrotto+3216+monopod&_sacat=0 or the UK equivalent of a Manfrotto 3216 monopod, no head needed. It will tame those dim days to 1/2 second shutter speed.

DWThomas · Dec 7, 2017

Looks as though he's off to a good beginning! Funny, that first shot of a trail and a bench looks like something taken on a trail right near me -- but since it appears the Atlantic Ocean is between us, I guess it wasn't!

Pioneer · Dec 7, 2017

OlyMan said:
Following my previous threads concerning choosing and buying my 15 year old son's first MF film camera, I thought I'd show you the results of his first test roll that he's uploaded to his Flickr account:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157384976@N05/sets/72157690670159545/with/38898164881/

All shots were taken in Program exposure mode, though with some shots he made use of the aperture ring to control the DOF

Very nice. Looks as if he has a good eye.

Cholentpot · Dec 7, 2017

Shots all in focus and properly exposed? That's a win.

Color is going to be dull because colors this time of year are dull...get him a tripod and have fun with some long exposures at night. Those look amazing on film.

rgeorge911 · Dec 7, 2017

Great fun seeing this! He has an artist’s eye!

OlyMan · Dec 8, 2017

DWThomas said:
Looks as though he's off to a good beginning! Funny, that first shot of a trail and a bench looks like something taken on a trail right near me -- but since it appears the Atlantic Ocean is between us, I guess it wasn't!

LOL! Yeah I guess it proves there's only a finite number of photo opportunities with a bench sat on a grassy trail before at least two of them start to look alike.

OlyMan · Dec 8, 2017

Cholentpot said:
Shots all in focus and properly exposed? That's a win.

Color is going to be dull because colors this time of year are dull...get him a tripod and have fun with some long exposures at night. Those look amazing on film.

Yeah I've been thinking of teaching him how to do long-exposure night shots, such as headlight trails from a busy twisty road. Bit clichéd but nearly always looks good. And the benefit of having a DSLR in the house is it makes such an excellent practice-tool for such techniques because the results are instant, so less wasted shots on the real camera.

Cholentpot · Dec 8, 2017

OlyMan said:
Yeah I've been thinking of teaching him how to do long-exposure night shots, such as headlight trails from a busy twisty road. Bit clichéd but nearly always looks good. And the benefit of having a DSLR in the house is it makes such an excellent practice-tool for such techniques because the results are instant, so less wasted shots on the real camera.

Don't worry about cliche. Getting those headlights on film is really cool, has a very different look than digital. In my opinion any bright light looks cooler on film, it sorta glows. It's far more flat looking on digital. Film makes it look laser like? Light sabery? Can't really explain it.

OlyMan · Dec 8, 2017

Cholentpot said:
Don't worry about cliche. Getting those headlights on film is really cool, has a very different look than digital. In my opinion any bright light looks cooler on film, it sorta glows. It's far more flat looking on digital. Film makes it look laser like? Light sabery? Can't really explain it.

I know exactly what you mean.

cooltouch · Dec 8, 2017

Hehe, the "real" camera. I like that. Well, he's off to a solid good start. Personally I don't find his pics lacking in color, despite the overcast conditions. You can always teach him the magic of bumping up saturation in your image processing software, too.

My son's first shots with his OM40

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