Need some advice---picture taking @ beach

[E-orLover]

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if you guys could help me out. I hope I can explain what I am trying to do so that you understand (I am really bad at this). I am going on a field trip with my son tomorrow. We will be going down to the beach during low tide to look at all the “sea creatures”. I am in photography (B & W film) class. I am using a Canon AE-1. I have been using the bracketing technique, yet my pictures are still turning out either to dark or to light. This is somewhat fixable in the dark room, but I would rather not go through the “extra” step. I really want to figure out what I’m doing wrong. I have read over the textbook. I think I just confuse the shutter and aperture (as with everything I am working on this). With the last roll of film (400 T-max), I took both the film camera and my digital (Nikon D80) and would take a picture with the digital and made notes on the f-stop and shutter speed and tried those on the film camera (it didn’t turn out so well). I know there are differences between the two; someone informed me that the digital could have switched the ISO on me, but hey, it was worth a shot.
So here is my question (guessing here). When I am at the beach tomorrow and am trying to take a picture of things (like a starfish) on the wet sand, I’m assuming it will tell the camera that it is dark (because of the wet sand), yet it will be light outside (probably overcast, Seattle). What aperture and shutter speeds would you recommend?

Thank you in advance for your help and suggestions. Hopefully I can join you awesome photographers soon and post my pictures.

 

[Groucho]

Using both the film and digital is a good idea. My wife has one of those Canons and while I've never used it, I know it's all-manual like my K1000 is. Something like a starfish on a beach is tough because the dynamic range is very large - very bright sand, very dark (relatively) starfish. (Though if the sand is wet, that might not be such a problem.) The b/w film should have a larger dynamic range than the digital camera, though, so that should help - but it will probably still be tough to get detail in both.

If I were shooting that with my K1000 (which has a built-in "needle" light meter, I'm not sure how the AE-1 works in this regard), I'd probably point the camera at the sand, then the starfish, and pick an aperture that was somewhere inbetween the two. With your digital, you could also find out exactly how much difference there is - put it in spot metering, go into Manual exposure mode, and set it so it's getting a good reading off one. Then point to the other, and the meter will probably show you how much different it is (like -2.5 stops, whatever.)

Taking the photo at dusk, when there are shadows going almost sideways across the beach, will probably help a lot - this can help emphasize texture in the photo, which will help with the dynamic range problem and probably give a more interesting photo, especially in b/w.

Good luck!

 

[dr_zero]

Maybe the use of a filter might help you some to add some contrast to the picture. To make the sand not as bright without losing the light if that makes sense. I have a green and orange I used to play around with when I was shooting B&W film. Or another thought would be a polarizer.

Here is a link that might help

http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/tipps/sw_fotografie_e.htm

and one about shutter and aperture
http://www.photonhead.com/beginners/shutterandaperture.php

 

[Hunnypaw]

Maybe the use of a filter might help you some to add some contrast to the picture. To make the sand not as bright without losing the light if that makes sense. I have a green and orange I used to play around with when I was shooting B&W film. Or another thought would be a polarizer.

Here is a link that might help

http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/tipps/sw_fotografie_e.htm

and one about shutter and aperture
http://www.photonhead.com/beginners/shutterandaperture.php

I like Circular Polarizers (CP filter) that you thread onto the lens. They are great if you want to cut down on water reflection or reflection off shiny metal and such.

CPs will drop the light down a bit too, so you might lose 1/2 stop or so. depends on the filter.

 

[E-orLover]

Thank you for all the advice. I was able to read the first two before I left and the third when I got back. I took a whole roll (24-exp.), and after the field trip was over, I went to the school to develop the film. I forgot all my paper at home so that was all I could do. All 24 negitives are dark. Which means that there was to much light, right? I believe I used 60 & 125 or 125 & 500. The f/stops were 8, 5.6, 4, 2.8 (I really hope these are the right f/stops). I also used my macro lens. So, if I were to return tomorrow would I keep the shutter speed the same and use a higher f/stop?
Todays tide was -3.9 tomorrow will be -4.2 another perfect day to go explore what is usually covered up by water.

We saw lots of cool things: several different sizes, shapes and colors of starfish (the sunflower one was very interesting). My son loved seeing all the crabs, eels, sea urchins (sp?), and the his favorite one was the geoduck (only the neck was sticking out of the sand), he tried to pull it out of course that wasn't going to happen.

 

[DueyDooDah]

As we are having typical Seattle weather, I assume today we will have overcast skys.

I would meter the subject (e.g.,, starfish, goeduck, etc.) with the digital, look at the readings that provide a good exposure and transfer those readings to the film box. Before you meter, ensure you set ISO on the digital to the same rating of your film. If you can't, ensure you compensate for the difference in f-stops. When you shoot, bracket your shots.

Get in close to the subject to take your reading then move to the spot you intend to take the photo. Remember you don't have to meter from the place you take the shot from. You just have to meter the object (or another object with the same lighting) you intend to shoot. Ensure you don't cast a shadow on the subject during the reading, although in Seattle, I've never seen a shadow. You may get some blown highlights on the sand, but I doubt it with the skys the way they are.