Recording Film exposure.

[Keith Tapscott.]

When reading through some old photo magazines, I have seen some pictures where the photographer mentions the film, f/stop and shutter speed used such as Ektachrome 64, 1/125th at f/11 or similar for example.

Does anyone here ever record their exposures with whatever film types you are using?
Personally I don't, but perhaps some here do.

 

[Ian Leake]

Yes for large format, because it helps me learn from my mistakes. Not as rigorously as I record printing information, though. I don't record anything with 35mm unless I'm in the studio, in which case I record the basics of lighting, etc, for a whole set rather than frame by frame.

 

[Chuck_P]

To me, knowing simply that a particular exposure on a particular negative was, say, 1/15 sec at f/22 is not, by iteself, all that informative. Unless of coarse, the negative is obviously grossly over or under exposed, then you can clearly see something went wrong. As a ZS practitioner with large format, the exposure that I give needs some context................noting the particular area of the subject that was used to make the shadow placement on which the exposure is based can be very helpful, as Ian alluded to above. My notes indicate the "placement" of the meter's EV reading of a given shadow area i.e., EV 12 placed on zone II, then from that the appropriate f/stop and shutter combination is easily decided. There may be reciprocity and/or bellows extension to factor into the exposure that is given. Later when looking at the negative it can become very informative when looking at that shadow area to determine either it's goodness or it's badness, so to speak. That's half of it..............it's not part of your OP, but the other half is to arrive at how the negative is to be developed based on the exposure placement you want to give.......that's probably another thread. But it suffices to say that recording exposure notes can be vital to understanding what went wrong and what went right, especially when some time has passed between the exposure and when you develop the negative, sometimes it's not right away.

 

[Nitroplait]

I never knew anyone back in the day who were keeping track of every single 35mm exposure unless they were testing.
I always suspected many of those magazine published numbers may have been estimated after the fact.

 

[Kino]

Yes, since starting Large Format in earnest (or as earnest as I can be). I am still learning to slow the heck down and record everything I can about the exposure because I take two identical exposures, process one and hold the other for possible development improvements.

It's a pretty common technique among Large Format shooters, but when shooting roll film, I do not tend to be as fastidious, which I wind up regretting!

 

[jk0592]

I record exposures in medium format, because the rather slow picture taking process makes it possible. A small notebook and pen are easy to carry in a pocket.

 

[koraks]

Does anyone here ever record their exposures with whatever film types you are using?

I don't.
Some cameras do this automatically for you, or can be set to do it. Nikon F6 comes to mind, but there are others as well.

 

[jimjm]

I do record exposures with large format because I may need to adjust development for individual sheets, or I may be testing with different developers. I always carry a notepad when shooting LF, but it's also easy to use the notes or voice recorder apps on my phone.
For night photography, I usually shoot MF and I record the exposures since there may be adjustments for reciprocity and other factors. It's good to have the notes for future reference - I just write them on the back of the contact sheets.

 

[DWThomas]

I sometimes do, especially when I first returned to film shooting. I've slacked off a bit these days but still generally record the info for medium format and pinhole work. Also, a pocket voice recorder or smart phone avoids juggling notebook, pen and camera simultaneously in the field which can be handy. Transcribing into a spreadsheet or other file on a film by film basis at my leisure results in a catalog of sorts.

For the electrocuted bit stuff, EXIF suffices, although I do archive files in a chronological directory named for the project at hand.

 

[xkaes]

For free-wheeling, hand-held, roll film, candid photography, taking notes is basically impossible, but at the other extreme, for sheet film photography it's basically essential.

 

[grahamp]

With large format it is not just the exposure, and possible development adjustments. It is also what sort of movements were in use. And if I am doing something involved like masking 4x10 on 8x10, things can get really complicated. Diagrams often come into play, and a note of what I was _trying_ to do, and how. Comparing intention with result is often informative.

I know the light fairly well where I live, so knowing the film I can usually get the exposure I used to within a stop for normal scenes. It's the deviations that can catch me out and really bear noting.

If you are making notes, don't forget the location/event/model etc. It's what most viewers will want to know. Only other photographers really care about the exposure combination, however useful it might be for you!

 

[Taylor Nankervis]

It is something I took up toward the end of the 70s ... and still do it!

A good ol' notebook (about 40..., the present iteration B5 waterproof), a pen (waterproof ink, and it can be used upside down should I find myself in such a position e.g. yoga), and a conscionable, entrenched policy of the value of recording exposure details to specifically, facilitate checking of critical exposures and vetting for printing, where some slides may require an additionial print-step tweak. As an historical record, particularly with Kodachrome (25, 64 and 200) the notes are an intriguing flip down memory lane.

Apps for iPhone and Android to exist, plentifully (I do not know of any photographers using these as often as they use metering apps).

 

[xkaes]

I discovered a long time ago that print/copy shops will print up POST-IT NOTES of your own design -- for very little money. You decide what you want to include on the POST-IT NOTE (subject, date, exposure, filtration, etc.) and what size you want. You can also choose different colored paper for different purposes. I fill each one out after an exposure -- and slap it on the film holder. Then it follows the negative/slide into storage.

 

[AnselMortensen]

I'm disappointed.
I thought this thread was about something else.

 

[MattKing]

When I was in high school, among all my academic subjects I also learned how to use a print shop with a process camera and a couple of different offset presses - plus a bunch of related equipment.
I created a project for myself. I designed a card stock card, custom printed and sized to provide me lists of frame numbers, f/stops and shutter speeds. The card was sized and punched to clip to the back of the lower case for my OM-1.
I printed up a few hundred and used them one per roll for quite a long time. They also gave me a place to make a few notes such as subject, date, EI, etc.
It was useful and informative, but the approach evolved.
What I do now doesn't involve recording the f/stop and shutter speed. Instead, I work more with the process - how/where I metered, how I adjusted the settings from the recommendation, what the character of the light was like - things like that. Mostly I do that by memory, but sometimes I make detailed notes - it depends a lot on how challenging the situation is.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

Does anyone here ever record their exposures with whatever film types you are using?
Personally I don't, but perhaps some here do.

Yes - with 135 film and Exif Notes phone app that saves lens/camera info including filters, time and location info too - later to be imported into scans for fully tagged file fun.
A bit masochistic and not EVERY frame gets recorded - just 1st in series will suffice.

So my EXIF info published on Flickr is accurate.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

When reading through some old photo magazines, I have seen some pictures where the photographer mentions the film, f/stop and shutter speed used such as Ektachrome 64, 1/125th at f/11 or similar for example.

Does anyone here ever record their exposures with whatever film types you are using?
Personally I don't, but perhaps some here do.

I always do;made myself a card similar to what AA was using. Today with digital and Exif data,the no longer is a need. After recording the data mnually for years, Iswitched to take a dictaphone with me and just recorded it that way;was less disturbing during the shoot but required doing it manually when I got home. In any case, it's well worth it to support a learning effort or later pinpoint equipment failures.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Thank you all so far for the replies.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Various logbooks for different formats and purposes.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?q=log%20book&sts=ma

 

[Michel Hardy-Vallée]

Back in the days, it was quite common to publish exposure data in magazines, and I've even seen it in photobooks.

I think it has something to do with the "this is how YOU can do it" ethos of amateur magazines. By showing that you used f/2 or f/11 you helped the newbies understand how you got that cool bokeh, and by showing you were at 1/10 and sharp, you flexed.

This being said, notice that the Photrio galleries allows you to publish exposure data, so we're still honouring that practice here.

 

[Sirius Glass]

When reading through some old photo magazines, I have seen some pictures where the photographer mentions the film, f/stop and shutter speed used such as Ektachrome 64, 1/125th at f/11 or similar for example.

Does anyone here ever record their exposures with whatever film types you are using?
Personally I don't, but perhaps some here do.

I do not as a rule write down that information. On rare occasion I might record it if it was an usual exposure.

 

[Keith Tapscott.]

Back in the days, it was quite common to publish exposure data in magazines, and I've even seen it in photobooks.

This being said, notice that the Photrio galleries allows you to publish exposure data, so we're still honouring that practice here.

Good point. I hadn't considered the gallery section.

 

[Ivo Stunga]

And Flickr shows EXIF too - I don't like those fields being empty and will probably continue taking notes until it stops being fun

 

[koraks]

And Flickr shows EXIF too - I don't like those fields being empty and whilst it's fun

So does PBase. Anyone remember that? It was the bees knees before Flickr stole the show. I still like to browse PBase sometimes; it's like a big, photographic time capsule.

 

[Romanko]

Don't tell others but I use a DSLR as a light meter. As a bonus I have a record of ISO, shutter speed and f-number as well as a digital image that I sometimes use as a reference when inverting tricky negatives. (I am aware that this is cheating and should be discouraged).