Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/06/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 09:26 +0100 02/06/99, R.P.A.C.Savenije@AVV.RWS.minvenw.nl wrote: >Finally it is going to happen close to me! >A total solar eclipse. I just happen to be near Cornwall and >the Scilly Islands. As I understood from lots of people, >it is an awesome experience. Moving shadows, flowers are closing, >howling dogs, night animals appearing and others going asleep. >Maybe even more impressive is the eclips itself. Especially >the moment around the total eclipse causes for lots of special >effects. > --> Good Morning Richard, While you are happy to "go through the experience", just about all astrologers I'm in contact with fear this "Big One" just about as if it was the ultimate bad omen. I guess we'll have to wait and see; even Nostradamus has quite a lot of stuff for 1999. Where photography is concerned, to give you a rough idea of how dark things can get: street lights turn on ...! Birds settle down, yes, but I'd never been told of flowers calling it a day. To give you an idea of how dark, it's as dark as about that midpoint between sunset and night, so a tripod is mandatory, and a fast lens, fast film. It's quite difficult to get "just right", so much so that specialized photographers make a mint on such stock photography. The other people near you are dark enough that 1/30 th sec. at f/1.4 with ISO 400 is NOT enough. It gets to be about as dark as movie theatres, just at that point where we loose all color except some blues and where peripheral vision becomes useful again. Shooting an eclipse, as such, requires bracketing, mostly, as you try to get the solar disk, hopefully, while not bleaching out the corona. I guess LEICA freaks would say you need a "long toed" film. [ LOL ! ] Personally, I'd tend to use a color negative film I'm familiar with, which I could use at f/5.6 at infinite setting, 1/30th sec or faster, tripod and cable release mandatory. [ P.S. : The special application LEICA APO-Telyt-R 180mm comes to mind for its specific long range optical qualities... ] I'd tend to choose one which has excellent halo characteristics and that probably spells Kodak Royal Gold 100 or Pro 100. Possibly the newer AGFA Optima II 100 or Fuji Superia CS Reala 100, as alternates. In the ISO 400 range, I'd favor AGFA Optima II for it's known enlargement characteristics that rival most ISO 100 emulsions. I simply don't think of photography as black and white, but a high acutance film could get to be most interesting here for its higher delienation capabilities. Since this spells photochemistry to get optimum results, I'll leave that to others on the list. I'd really avoid diapo film for such an application, where dynamic range is at the worst for slide film, but it could make sense to use the newer Ektachrome 'E'. Infrared Ektachrome comes to mind as an experiment, too. Lens wise, I would think the longest you have available to fill at least 2/3 of the frame is a good common sense idea. Some of the better eclipse related photography I've seen involved clouds but I'm quite sure it was digital imagery done right or very high quality darkroom work involving multiple negatives. If you are a more advanced photographer, a multiple shots sequence on one frame makes sense: I've seen it in some magazines before and thought highly of the effect and quite beautiful results. BUT it MAY well have been digital manipulation of numerous images properly balanced then brought together in one composite... I'd also tend to have two or more cameras to try and make up for potential errors and different "solutions". Or be part of a "pool" of photographers who agree to share their shots and the fun of it all. In the end, all told, if I may, you may be so overwhelmed by the impressive cosmic sense and uniqueness of the experience as to let go of photography and "soak in" the experience, which is very likely to remain with you a long time as a prized moment, especially as you happen to be at (or very near) Stonehenge, where this particular eclipse will be "right above". As I said, astrologers and occult lore "enthusiasts" seem to be afraid, quite literally, of this particular eclipse and the fated "Grand Cross" a week later. If they are right, some quite portentous events are likely to happen in synergy, in various segments of human affairs in the following days, weeks and months. My personal better "eclipse event" happened at 17:30, or so, in the Summer, on a rather clear and hot day, windless, when 14, and I can indeed say it IS and REMAINS quite an experience 36 years later. [ ! ] At full eclipse, the birds are silenced, in a sort of awe perhaps, and it's a wonderful feeling when they begin to chirp again as the eclipse gives way, street light go off, people relieved, no less. That one lasted for about 20 minutes to half an hour near the USA border in Quebec. It would seem there has not been an eclipse above Stonehenge for thousands of years... [ ? ] So above, like below. Best regards, Richard and all, Andre Jean Quintal - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Of course, everybody knows pigs rule this World." Miss Piggy, in a private interview leading to her authorized life story.