Yeshica D settings

Hello everyone

So I just made a purchase of a Yashica D as my first plunge into film photography - thought why not medium format?!

The purchase is for my novice girlfriend. She loves antiques and I thought this would be a good way for her to get excited about the hobby. Also means better photos of me

On my own, I can figure things out. But for her I need a good reference setting which she can use out of the box and adjust as she goes along.

She will be shooting mainly portraits (loves bokeh look).

For this I got an Ilford C41 400 film (because she has shaky hands).

What setting do you recommend as a starting point?

Because I'm trying to get her into the hobby, I need a starting point which largely works.

I was thinking:
ISO 400 (based on film)
F3.5 (for bokeh)
Shutter 1/750

What do you think?

Thanks for your help!!

Duchinj

The D is a great camera, there are 2 versions, one with a 3 element taking lens, the other with a 4 element tessar type. Both a have 3 element 2.8 viewing lens. Unlike the Yashica Matt bodies with the crank, the knob wound Ds are easy to double expose so she will be need to be careful and advance the film after each shoot. Without a mirror slapping up and down it is easy to hand hold, shoot at 1/60 and even a 1/30 is quite possible. As 6X6 format it also easy to use a monopod. She can start with Tmax or Delta 400 for black and white or Porta 400 for color, once she is use to the camera she can move down a ISO 100. By the way the shutter tops out at 1/500. For good bokeh set the aperture wide open then use a light meter to set the shutter speed to match. If possible find a lens hood that fits, the lens are single coated and prone to flare. I glued a series 6, filter holder to my D, careful not to get any glue in the shutter, it will take a filter and a lens hood.

Welcome to our group. First, buy a light meter. While you are waiting for it to show up, read the owners manual and familiarize yourselves with the camera. Here's a link to the manual. BTW, I've owned several Yashica D's none of them were even remotely capable of 1/750 sec.
http://www.cameramanuals.org/yashica_pdf/yashica_d.pdf

The Yahica TLRs are fully manual cameras and a degree of shooting experience is useful before tackling it. It can be used as a P&S (which seems to be what the OP's girlfriend is best able to do) but without a little care and attention to her shooting, she will most likely be very disappointed with her results. Exposure is not a simple matter altho' there are a few basic rules to make things a little easier for novices.

Shooting 120 film is a welcome escape from the digital detritus we are flooded with, but it requires disciplineand a new approach to one's image making.Critical thinking before pressing the shutter button is important. Film is expensive and every image must be made to count.

Most of Paul Howell's advice is excellent, but starting off with ISO 400 film at f/3.5 (the Yashica D's widest aperture) will result in wildly overexposed negatives in most light situations. In daylight you would not be able to use f/3.5 at all in fact as the camera shutter speeds will not be high enough.

The Sweet Sixteen rule is a basic technique that can work okay in MOST shooting situations. Briefly explained, it means you take the ISO film speed (with XP2 this will be ISO 400, so 1/500) and set the lens at f/16 for sunlit shots. On cloudy days, open up one stop (so f/11) and in extreme shade or early/late in the day when light levels are low, try f/8. Even then you won't get guaranteed good or even acceptable results. Go with an exposure meter, this will save you a fortune in wasted film!

Using the lens wide open may produce reasonable 'bokeh' but will also give you almost no depth of field, meaning your GF will have to be extremely careful in focusing or most of her images will be unsharp.

For portraits I would recommend f/5.6 as the optimal setting. Shutter speeds will vary, in fact with Ilford XP2 they will be all over the place.

120 roll film properly exposed and processed (another point you did not mention in your post, who will be processing her films?) can produce truly superb results but is much more fiddly (= difficult) to use correctly than the smaller 35mm format.

You and/or your GF should do a little basic reading before setting out to shoot. There are many excellent how-to books on basic photography on the market. Your local public llibrary will surely have at least one on its shelves.

To return to an earlier point I've made, who will be processing her films? 120 roll film processing isn't cheap and you should source a good lab. Again, not cheap but then nothing about medium format really is anyway.

I hope these points will assist you and your GF in getting good images. I had a D in the 1960s and 70s and I shot many thousands of B&W images with it. Now and then I print some of my old negatives and I'm always amazed at the beautiful mid tones and the fine detail in them.

I have a Yashica D, great camera. Really love it. The easiest mistake to make with it is accidental double exposure. You have to always remember to wind the film after taking a shot (you won’t. I promise).

A light meter app for a smartphone is probably the simplest way to do metering in the beginning. Keep things very simple. There are only three variables- film ISO, aperture, and shutter speed.



Wonderful camera. Both of you should enjoy it.

Trying to get someone interested in photography can be an insurmountable task.

Duchini said:

The purchase is for my novice girlfriend. She loves antiques and I thought this would be a good way for her to get excited about the hobby. Also means better photos of me

What do you think?

Thanks for your help!!

Duchinj

Click to expand...

Trying to get someone interested in photography can be an insurmountable task. Has your girl friend shown any interest in photography or do YOU wish she became interested in the craft? My two attempts have ended with polite indifference. You really should have asked her before buying a camera.

I was in a camera store about a month after Christmas. The elderly gentlemen in front of me was asking that clerk how to use his new very expensive auto everything camera. Evidently his family had purchased it for him. I had the distinct impression that the camera would forever sit on the closet shelf never to be used.

Welcome to Apug!

As Gerald above I wonder too about your approach.
You do not tell whether you are experienced in photography. But you say that you are a novice to film photography.and that your first film camera you bought not for yourself but for your friend. That reminds me a of the classic father why buys the miniature railways set for his child, but actually to play himself with it.

1. For portraiture, you might not want to use 400 speed film--in good sunlight it will require small f/ stops, which will reduce the bokeh, giving a sharper background. Film with 100 speed will probably be better for portraiture, permitting the f/stop to be open by 2 stops compared to 400 speed film.

2. There is no 1/750 shutter speed on these cameras. The fastest shutter speed on this type of camera is typically 1/500, or 1/400.

Duchini said:

Hello everyone

So I just made a purchase of a Yashica D as my first plunge into film photography - thought why not medium format?!

The purchase is for my novice girlfriend. She loves antiques and I thought this would be a good way for her to get excited about the hobby. Also means better photos of me

On my own, I can figure things out. But for her I need a good reference setting which she can use out of the box and adjust as she goes along.

She will be shooting mainly portraits (loves bokeh look).

For this I got an Ilford C41 400 film (because she has shaky hands).

What setting do you recommend as a starting point?

Because I'm trying to get her into the hobby, I need a starting point which largely works.

I was thinking:
ISO 400 (based on film)
F3.5 (for bokeh)
Shutter 1/750

What do you think?

Thanks for your help!!

Duchinj

Click to expand...

"I was thinking:
ISO 400 (based on film)
F3.5 (for bokeh)
Shutter 1/750"
What exposure information were you basing this on?
Portraits, typically, are focussed on the eyes. You say you want a large aperture for "bokeh" - a portrait is just that, the background is not supposed to be a point of attention - meaning "bokeh" has no place except to render the background unremarkable. To reduce blur due to camera motion, and to maintain the eyes in focus at large apertures with shallow depth of focus, you will need a tripod.
Is your GF using digital? Is she aware that there is no automatic focus -exposure-image stabilisation-anything else? And there is no delete function; each exposure will cost $$?
Has she expressed interest in portrait photography?

If you're looking for a wide aperture to reduce depth of field for portraits (and you're working outside) ISO 100 film in shade would probably come to f4 @ 1/400 sec exposure time. 400 film is too sensitive. Your shutter tops out at marked 1/500 and is probably actually 1/250- 1/400 if you measured it.

Thank you everyone for your great responses!

So it's clear an ISO 100 is a better film for portraits on the D. I will also use a light meter app to help.

I will also print a lens hood using my 3D printer

If you guys want a lens hood just DM me your address (if UK based) and I will print post you one as a thank you

There's a few other accessories you can print as well so let me know.

She is the excitable type and so she will most likely start digging her teeth into it; I just need to make it a bit easy to begin with.

I have found a lab which will process our first few rolls. We can then build up to home processing of the films.

To clarify I am experienced in digital manual photography (current gear is Canon 60d and Fuji x100).

It looks like the camera is going to get here before the weekend. I'll take it with me on a business trip to India over next week so I'll be able to trial a few rolls on the streets there.

Hopefully the lab will process the film in time before I have to gift the camera and I can give feedback / examples of the photos and what settings I had used.

I'm loving this forum.

For what it's worth I'd suggest an ISO100 film to start with in that camera. Assuming she's going to start taking pictures outside.
Indoors or in subdued light the 400 has the advantage but if she's go to use standard room lighting the results with color film will be very yellow.
It's the result of daylight film under tungsten light.
The diagram from Dan is good for 400 speed film, not so much for 100.
Here's a table from a typical 100 film: https://www.google.com/search?q=sim...7AkIkgE&biw=1478&bih=826#imgrc=IlE-CbM8pGEKBM:

A small error on my part, of the 2 lens found on the Yashica D the 4 element Yashinon has the same lens at fixed 2.8 for the taking lens. The other version came with 3 element Yashinar 3.5 for both lens. I remember that a guy I knew wanted to swap the taking lens with the viewing lens so he could have a 2.8 taking lens. Don't know if he ever tired. If you have the 3 element Yashinar lens it will not be very sharp wide open, rather good at F 8 to 11. If you 3 d print a lens hood see if you print one that can fitted with at least one series 6 filter. Series 6 filters can be found on Ebay, for color a UV antiglare comes in handy, for B&W light green for portrait to lighten skin tones with European skin tones, light yellow to light orange to bring out the clouds in landscapes. It is very hard if not impossible to use a polarizer with a TLR.

John Koehrer said:

For what it's worth I'd suggest an ISO100 film to start with in that camera. Assuming she's going to start taking pictures outside.
Indoors or in subdued light the 400 has the advantage but if she's go to use standard room lighting the results with color film will be very yellow.
It's the result of daylight film under tungsten light.
The diagram from Dan is good for 400 speed film, not so much for 100.
Here's a table from a typical 100 film: https://www.google.com/search?q=sim...7AkIkgE&biw=1478&bih=826#imgrc=IlE-CbM8pGEKBM:

Click to expand...

I use ISO 400 for indoor natural light and outdoor better depth of field.

If you want a C41 film, there's Portra 160 as a middle option.

Someone suggested a lens hood. Excellent idea! Since the Yashica D uses a Series 1 bayonet mount as does my YashicaMat the OP might check this site filterfind.net Tim found a hood to fit my YashicaMat; he generally has an assortment of filters, although they aren't especially cheap. Looking at the site just now Tim also has Bayonet 1 to Series adapters, this would be the cheapest way, although not as elegant.

OP is going 3D print a hood, I have seen others 3 D print hoods, like to see the final product.

Get a shutter release cable for the Yashica D camera!
It will make shakey hands far less of a problem, and there will be less need to use faster films to counter shake.

And experimenting on a stable camera bearing.