[dkinkaid]

One of the problems with shooting print film is that sometimes whoever is doing the printing tries to "help" your pics. For example, if your negatives are too dark, they may lighten them up when they make the prints or scans. If you don't know that they're doing this, it can make it really hard to figure out whether or not you've got a problem with your camera. If it IS your camera that's over-exposing things, the good news is that it looks like it's doing it pretty consistantly. If that's the case, then this would be an instance where you might want to change the ASA setting on your camera and make it think there's faster film loaded than there really is. That way, your meter will give it a little less exposure, which will put you back down to where you really need to be. Say, if you're shooting ASA 400 film, you might set your camera to ASA 600. Or not. One of the beautiful things about having your negatives scanned to disc is that you can fix some of these things after-the-fact on the computer.

yea im gonna have to try that and see if it makes any difference at all...in all lhonesty, thats what i luv about this, all the different variables...

and as far as processing the film goes, is there a trusted store/shop that will do this without trying to "fix" things? the people working at my local walgreens are not to enthusiastic when it comes to helping their customers, so i doubt they would take an extra step, but you never know...

[JeffJS]

You got a K1000 with an M50 f1:1.4 for $24?

Talk about a Bargain!!

Looks like you need to work on your focusing technique. I'm sure someone has already mentioned exposure so I won't expand on it much but in interest of learning how to read the meter, this may help..

Zone System

[TaoMaas]

and as far as processing the film goes, is there a trusted store/shop that will do this without trying to "fix" things? the people working at my local walgreens are not to enthusiastic when it comes to helping their customers, so i doubt they would take an extra step, but you never know...

It's hit-and-miss with local processing places like Walgreens. My wife has a friend who used to work the film processor at Walgreens and it was just a job to her. She wasn't into photography, really. However, there was an in-store processing center at a suburban Wal Mart that folks in one of our local camera clubs used to rave about. They had a kid working there who took extra care with his processing/printing and could turn out beautiful prints. So, ya never know. That's not an edorsement of Wal Mart over Walgreens, btw. If you have a local camera store that has the capability of scanning negatives, you might take your negatives and CD to them and ask them to have a look. See if they think the scans on the CD are accurate or if they've been 'tweaked'. You could also try shooting a roll of slide film. That'll give you direct feedback on your exposure because there's no 'middle man'. What you see is what you get. Now...having said all this, I'm going to make a WAG (wild-azzed guess) and say that your camera is probably over-exposing a bit and you might need to compensate. I say this because, when negatives get adjusted in the printing/scanning stage, they usually get corrected, not over or under exposed. Since your scans are coming out a bit hot (over-exposed), I'd guess that you're either getting an accurate scan of an over-exposed negative or else your negatives are WAY over-exposed and the scan was as close to normal as the machine could make them. If the scans are accurate, that's no big deal. It's fairly normal to have to adjust for how a film camera's meter reads things. But if your negatives are way over-exposed, then you've got some other kind of issue going on...maybe your shutter is lagging or the apertures aren't closing down fast enough in your lenses. This could be due to the camera and lenses having sat for many years and now the grease inside just needs to be used and loosened up a bit. Who knows? One other variable might be that the film was old. If the film is out-dated, it can give you color or exposure shifts.

[dkinkaid]

Looks like you need to work on your focusing technique. I'm sure someone has already mentioned exposure so I won't expand on it much but in interest of learning how to read the meter, this may help..

Zone System

Thanks for the link very informative....

It's hit-and-miss with local processing places like Walgreens. My wife has a friend who used to work the film processor at Walgreens and it was just a job to her. She wasn't into photography, really. However, there was an in-store processing center at a suburban Wal Mart that folks in one of our local camera clubs used to rave about. They had a kid working there who took extra care with his processing/printing and could turn out beautiful prints. So, ya never know. That's not an edorsement of Wal Mart over Walgreens, btw. If you have a local camera store that has the capability of scanning negatives, you might take your negatives and CD to them and ask them to have a look. See if they think the scans on the CD are accurate or if they've been 'tweaked'. You could also try shooting a roll of slide film. That'll give you direct feedback on your exposure because there's no 'middle man'. What you see is what you get. Now...having said all this, I'm going to make a WAG (wild-azzed guess) and say that your camera is probably over-exposing a bit and you might need to compensate. I say this because, when negatives get adjusted in the printing/scanning stage, they usually get corrected, not over or under exposed. Since your scans are coming out a bit hot (over-exposed), I'd guess that you're either getting an accurate scan of an over-exposed negative or else your negatives are WAY over-exposed and the scan was as close to normal as the machine could make them. If the scans are accurate, that's no big deal. It's fairly normal to have to adjust for how a film camera's meter reads things. But if your negatives are way over-exposed, then you've got some other kind of issue going on...maybe your shutter is lagging or the apertures aren't closing down fast enough in your lenses. This could be due to the camera and lenses having sat for many years and now the grease inside just needs to be used and loosened up a bit. Who knows? One other variable might be that the film was old. If the film is out-dated, it can give you color or exposure shifts.

Today im going to shoot with changing the ASA/ISO settings. Im going to try and shoot the same picture each time, i dont own a tri-pod so may be a little difficult....
the film is 400, and the camera allows for tiny little up or down notches

between 800 and 400 i have 640 & 500, between 400 and 200 i have 320 & 250(according to the manual), so im give those a try with my 400 film and see if it makes a difference...

Also im going to search around for a dedicated shop....

thanks again, and will share my experience when im done.

[BigDave]

OK some basics here:

1. ISO- this is the rating for the sensitivity of the film. Until you know what you are doing, set the film speed on the camera for the film speed indicated on the film (and yes, ASA is the older designator for film speed until an international film speed nomenclature was established, ASA, American Standards Association, now ANSI; ISO, International Standards Organization). Yes, there is film that goes to 3200 ISO. Choose ISO 100 or 200 for outdoors, 800 is good for indoors. The meter adjusts for the light level as the ISO changes. The relationship is a simple arithmetical relationship in the ASA/ISO scale. If you are using ISO 100 film and want a film that is twice as sensitive, you go to ISO 200. This will also represent a 1 stop changed (if you used F4 on the ISO 100, you will use F5.6 on the ISO 200 OR if yo used a shutter speed of 1/60th with the ISO 100, you would use 1/125 with ISO 200). To double the speed again, you go to ISO 400 film, etc.

2. Although some of you images look washed out, they also look like you had motion blur. Be careful of your shutter speed. Stick to speeds above 1/15 or 1/30 of a second when hand holding. For moving subjects, 1/60 or 1/125 is the minimum.

3. Metering- understand that you light meter does not know what you are looking at, so it always gives an exposure for a medium gray (AKA 18% gray). If you are shooting white snow, open up one stop (e.g., f5.6 to f4 OR 1/125 to 1/60) to make the snow WHITE. Otherwise it will look grayish. Also, when shooting black, stop down one stop to keep it from looking gray.

4. KEEP AT IT!

[dkinkaid]

@BigDave thanks for the tips, very helpful info...

Here are some the shots i took yesterday, still using 400 film, I switched between 500 & 320 for the ISO settings...not sure if it made that much of a difference...i had planned on shooting the same pics and switch between the those settings but i got sidetracked...at any rate i feel like these turned out ok....

and yes i need to work on my focusing, and lighting, its amazing to me how much a difference lighting can make...

Flickr: dkinkaid's stuff tagged with switch

also i didnt pay any attention to which pictures i took at what setting...lol...so my little experiment kinda failed...i think from now on im going to stick with the correct settings, and pay more attention to light and focusing...again thanks for all the help guys...much appreciated...

[BigDave]

Until you get your feet firmly on the ground, DO NOT mess with changing ISO settings on the camera. This is not a digital system where it will adjust sensor sensitivity, it is film, which means the sensitivity of the imaging device (the film) is static and cannot be changed. Most of the images look washed out, a sign of over exposure (meaning you set the ISO to 320). The one shooting into the sun seems dark, which is partially the camera meter compensating for the bright sun and also possibly under exposed due to the camera being set at ISO 500.

Learn one step at a time!

Regards,

[eddie1960]

Learn one step at a time!

Regards,

this is the best advice i've seen so far
after shooting on and off for over 30 years i couldn't say it better.
stick to the basics, master them move on to the next thing

[dkinkaid]

Until you get your feet firmly on the ground, DO NOT mess with changing ISO settings on the camera. This is not a digital system where it will adjust sensor sensitivity, it is film, which means the sensitivity of the imaging device (the film) is static and cannot be changed. Most of the images look washed out, a sign of over exposure (meaning you set the ISO to 320). The one shooting into the sun seems dark, which is partially the camera meter compensating for the bright sun and also possibly under exposed due to the camera being set at ISO 500.

Learn one step at a time!

Regards,

it was suggested a few posts back to experiment with the ASA settings, and I agree i should be taking things step by step, which i truly am....i have another lens i havent even tried to shoot with yet...

it seems to be the running response to my pictures, that they look washed out, so far, using what i have learned here, i havent been able to get passed that...

i did just get some 200 film that im going to shoot, again using what i have learned so far...im in wisconsin and during this time of the year bright sunny days are hard to come by, and i know the lighting in my house isnt great...should i try using my flash? do you think that would solve my wash out issues? thanks again, im truly amazed at the level of help that keeps coming...

[eddie1960]

flash used correctly and exposed correctly wouldn't be washed out, however based on the exposures you've been getting it likely will be the same or worse
if you aren't sure about the cameras meter see if you can use another camera to compare the suggested exposures. also if the battery in your camera is 1.5v vs the 1.35 it was built for you can expect some over exposure (as mentioned before Wein makes the correct voltage battery)
if you are shooting some outdoor shots in a controlled way try taking the same shot using the meter for one shot then deliberately under expose one stop (move to the next fastest shutter speed is the easiest) if the second exposure looks correct then you know the meter is out by one stop and can compensate by doing this all the time

[dkinkaid]

flash used correctly and exposed correctly wouldn't be washed out, however based on the exposures you've been getting it likely will be the same or worse
if you aren't sure about the cameras meter see if you can use another camera to compare the suggested exposures. also if the battery in your camera is 1.5v vs the 1.35 it was built for you can expect some over exposure (as mentioned before Wein makes the correct voltage battery)
if you are shooting some outdoor shots in a controlled way try taking the same shot using the meter for one shot then deliberately under expose one stop (move to the next fastest shutter speed is the easiest) if the second exposure looks correct then you know the meter is out by one stop and can compensate by doing this all the time

yes the battery is 1.5v, i must have missed that info, i will def look into getting the correct voltage for the meter...

and im definitely going to take some more pictures this weekend doing what you suggested...thanks for the input

hmmm, and maybe someone can point me the correct battery on Wein's site, the replacement codes mean nothing to me. The K1000 manual says to use alkaline LR44 or silver-oxide G13, the battery im currently using is a 1.5v 357 which replaces :303-a76-ag13-epx76-lr1154-lr44-sr44sw/w according to the package....

[cats_five]

I'd suggest you start outside with no flash. Shooting inside with flash complicates things and right now I think you need it as simple as possible.

IMHO you need to start by seeing if the camera's exposure meter is accurate.

Make sure you have the right battery in the camera, load some ISO 200 film and take some shots. Take three almost identical ones in quick succession with the ISO on the camera set to 200, 100 and 400. If the camera's meter is correct the first should be OK, the second washed out and the third too dark. Make sure you know which is which!

Once you can get reliable correctly exposed outdoor shots, try moving indoors. If you are going to use a different ISO film repeat the meter testing - the meter's errors might not be linear.

[eddie1960]

i may have confused it with another model i was answering questions on (I have a KM not a K1000, the spotmatic series require the lower voltage. your meter may be off. I've used Varta brand batteries in my light meter and cameras and they seem stable and accurate

[eddie1960]

I'd suggest you start outside with no flash. Shooting inside with flash complicates things and right now I think you need it as simple as possible.

IMHO you need to start by seeing if the camera's exposure meter is accurate.

Make sure you have the right battery in the camera, load some ISO 200 film and take some shots. Take three almost identical ones in quick succession with the ISO on the camera set to 200, 100 and 400. If the camera's meter is correct the first should be OK, the second washed out and the third too dark. Make sure you know which is which!

Once you can get reliable correctly exposed outdoor shots, try moving indoors. If you are going to use a different ISO film repeat the meter testing - the meter's errors might not be linear.

BTW the order on the CD may not match the order in the negative when you are comparing in my experience ymmv

[cats_five]

IF all else fails holding the negative up to the light (carefully - by the edges - in the sleeve if possible!) and comparing it to what he took should resolve things. An over-exposed negative will be very dark, an under-exposed one very light.