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Feb. 1, 2001 - Bill Cooper
59:36
Reciprocity (Photo)
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Time Text
...
You're listening once again to the Hour of the Time.
Good evening, folks.
You're listening once again to the Hour of the Time.
I'm William Cooper, and it's Thursday night.
You know what that means.
Photography night.
But before we get started on that, there's a couple of things I need to tell everybody in the White Mountains area.
That FBI agent Steve Fillerup has been replaced by two agents.
Not just one, but two.
And here are their names.
Here are their names.
Jay, spelled J-A-Y.
Rominger, or Rominger.
R-O-M-I-N-G-E-R.
That's J. Rominger and Doug Hanson, spelled D-O-U-G, last name Hanson, H-A-N-S-E-N.
Write those down.
Remember, you don't ever have to talk to these guys, no matter who you are, no matter what they think you've done, and no matter how intimidating they may get.
You don't have to say a word to them, ever.
And my advice is don't.
Remember that judge told me that most people who are in prison volunteered to go?
They couldn't keep their mouth shut.
So, uh, remember that, folks.
J. Rominger, or Rominger, and Doug Hanson.
They're the, uh, two new Nazi, jack-booted, Gestapo, traitor thugs up here in the White Mountains.
who have come to harangue, harass, and oppress us.
So, now you know their names.
What else?
I had something else I wanted.
Oh, yeah.
At the end of last night's broadcast, I asked a few questions.
I just wondered if anybody can answer them.
Remember what they were?
Where did the traveler crash-land his ship at?
Actually, I don't think he landed at all.
I think he crashed.
Where'd he crash his ship at?
What was the Black Beast?
And where did he make his recording?
How many of you know the answer to that?
Number's 520-333-4578.
We'll give you a chance to answer those questions, and then if nobody can, we'll move on.
And if somebody can, we'll see what they are.
520-333-4578 is the number.
Who can answer those questions from last night's broadcast about the traveler from somewhere else in the universe, or the solar system, or wherever he came from?
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Good evening, Bill.
This is Ed, Connecticut.
Hi, Ed.
The reception isn't too good here this evening.
Could you repeat the question?
Yeah.
Where did the traveler crash at?
Do you know the answer to that?
What was the black beast?
That could be a bear.
Where did he make his recording at?
He made his recording in a building he walked into when he was looking for somebody who was still around.
Okay.
Thanks.
Let's go on and see if anybody else has any answers.
Thanks for calling.
520-333-4578 is the number.
Who's got the answers, folks?
It was close on one, I think.
520-333-4578.
Who's got the answer to those questions?
Where did the traveler crash his ship at?
What was the black beast?
And where did he make his recording?
Remember, the whole broadcast was him making a recording to leave for someone who might still be alive or might come along in the future and find it.
520-333-4578 is the number.
Well, it doesn't look like too many people got any ideas.
Because the phone's not ringing.
We had one call.
He was close on one of his answers.
Anybody else got any ideas?
Where did the traveler crash his ship?
What was the black beast?
And where did he make his recording?
5-2-0-3-3-3-4-5-7-8 is the number.
Hello?
Anybody out there?
Well, I guess nobody's got the... Well, here's somebody.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hi, Bill.
Hi.
This is Troy.
Hi, Troy.
Are you still taking answers?
Yeah.
Yeah, I... From what it sounded like, it sounded like he crashed up there near you and he made the recording in your studio.
What was the Black Beast?
Probably one of your dogs, either Crusher or Sugar Bear.
Well, you're right on all three.
Thank you.
Crashed into my mountain.
The Black Beast was Crusher, and guarding the place, no matter if there was anybody here or not, he still stuck true to his training and his job, and he made his recording in my studio, right here at 101.1 FM.
By the way, I got some email today.
Somebody sent me an email and said, you did a really good job reading that poem last night.
Well, folks, it wasn't a poem.
Actually, I was winging it.
And it was a rerun from an original broadcast I did, I think, last year.
And actually, it was in December of 99 is when I did it.
December of 99.
And I winged it.
It's all ad-lib, on the air, live, in December of 1999, and I just re-ran it last night because I thought you'd get a kick out of it.
And it, uh, I think it's apropos.
Some of you may not think so, that's okay.
But, uh, I wasn't reading anything.
I literally wrote it while I was talking in my head.
The whole thing.
Every bit of it.
Written, produced, directed, and performed by William Cooper.
Okay, it's photography night, folks.
And tonight I thought that we've covered a lot, lots and lots of stuff.
And some of it was a little complicated.
So tonight I think we'll open the phones and we'll let you ask whatever questions you may have on the material that we've already covered.
And if we don't get too many questions, then I'll go into something else because that means that you obviously understand it.
If nobody calls with any questions or any comments.
And we'll go on from there.
First I want to remind you that we have these fantastic little cameras for sale in the hot shop.
The lens on this camera is really the best lens that Canon ever made.
And it was made to compete with the Leica lenses.
And specifically the Leica CL camera.
The only difference between the Leica CL and the Canon Canonet QL17G3 is you can't change the lens on the Canon.
You've got that lens.
But it's the best lens that Canon ever made.
And when you see the photographs that you take with it, you'll know why I say that.
As far as features go, it actually has more and better features than the Leica CL ever had.
In fact, better than most Leicas ever had, to tell you the truth.
But that's neither here nor there.
The lens and the solid quality of that camera is something that you've got to have it in your hands and feel it and work with it to be able to understand what I just told you because it reeks of quality.
It's one of those things that when you feel it, when you hold it in your hand, you know you're holding something that's Really good, and worth a lot, and works really well.
And it does.
So they're in the hot shop on the internet.
If you don't like to spend a credit card on the internet, if you don't like to shop on the internet, you can send the money directly here, and we'll fix you up with one of those cameras.
By the way, each one of them comes with whatever extras we have, and that's usually the flash that's made to go with it.
That's the Canalite D.
And uh, you don't have to learn how to work with a flash or anything.
When you focus the camera, it automatically sets the right settings for the flash and takes perfect pictures.
And I mean, absolutely perfect pictures.
Um, usually comes with a skylight filter and the lens cap.
And if we have a case around, we'll send that to just to help protect it and shipping.
But I got to tell you, those cases that are like 28 years old are usually falling apart.
The cameras are metal.
You know, the cameras will last forever if you don't drop them or bang them with a hammer or smash the lens or scratch the lens or anything like that.
They will literally last forever.
And as long as there's a good camera technician to adjust them and maintain them, they literally will not disappear.
It's unfortunate that they did away with that mercury battery because Many people, when they couldn't replace their batteries, thought that the camera was no good anymore and threw them away or sold them at garage sales for like 25 cents or 50 cents or for paperweights because you couldn't take, they thought you couldn't take pictures with them.
But that's not true.
You see, the only thing that the battery powers in this camera is the meter and the automatic function.
So if the battery goes dead, you can still operate this camera in the manual mode, shutter speeds and apertures.
And, uh, if the battery, if the, if the, uh, the meter ever dies and, and you take it to several different points, they tell you they can't fix it, which I've never seen yet.
But if that ever happens, all you have to do is get you a little handheld meter and, uh, you can get those, they're a dime a dozen everywhere.
Get you an old handheld meter and, uh, just meter your Your shots on your handheld meter and use the camera in the manual mode.
They're fantastic cameras folks and I'll tell you what the lens is worth its weight in gold and we're selling them right now for $199.95 for well that's what we're selling for $199.95 and we had offered the black ones but then I found out that the black ones are going for so much money that I can't afford to buy them and you can't afford to buy them so we're not selling the black ones.
The only difference between the two is the color.
There's no other difference.
So you don't need a black one anyway unless you're a collector and you're willing to spend the bucks to get one and then have it fixed up on top of paying all that money.
But I don't think anybody in this audience wants to do that.
So we're going to open the phones now.
5-2-0-3-3-3-4-5-7-8.
By the way, if you want to purchase the camera by sending the money here, remember, we can only take cash or blank money orders.
And you gotta add, I think it's $5, add $5 for shipping.
So, it would be $104.99 for the camera plus shipping.
If you send it here, and if you do, it's hot.
for the camera plus shipping.
If you send it here, and if you do, it's hot, H-O-T-T, and care of 101.
That's hot!
H-O-T-T.
In care of 101.1 FM, PO Box 940, Eager, spelled E-A-G-A-R, Arizona 85925.
85925. That's hot. H-O-T-T and Kara 101.1 FM PO Box 940 Eager spelled E-A-G-A-R Arizona
85925. Okay, folks. And by the way, it's February the 1st.
It's time for everybody to send their February donation.
Send your tithes for February now for your Ministry of Freedom, which is right here on this broadcast, so that we can continue to do it.
Otherwise, we're history.
And I've got to tell you, you know, a lot of you are sending in regular donations and it's wonderful, but a lot of you aren't, and we have yet, have yet to get enough money on either month to pay Everything that we need to pay.
We're still way behind with WBCQ and we're behind one payment on the building.
Everything else we've been able to keep up pretty good, but we're behind on WBCQ and we're behind on the payments on the building.
And we can't get two payments behind because then the building's gone.
If that's gone, then I'm going to be in a tent somewhere.
I don't know where.
So get your donations in the mail.
And those of you who haven't donated, either stop listening to this broadcast and go listen to somebody else, or contribute your fair share.
Okay?
You're getting something for nothing out there.
And for all these years, I footed all the bills.
All the bills.
Except for a short period of time that Swiss America Trading paid only for the airtime for WCR.
I paid for everything else.
Always!
Always!
Okay?
And it wasn't until we got in this trouble that we found ourselves having to ask for donations.
That was for the TV project, which came after all this happened.
And now, you know, now we just have to have your donations or we're not going to be able to continue.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Good evening, Bill.
Vic from New Jersey.
Hi, Vic.
Yeah, I'd just like to say I love that there's a nice photography show.
Oh great me too.
I've been I guess an amateur photographer now for about 20 years so it's great to hear that you're trying to keep this hobby going for everybody.
Well some people make their living with photography and I bet we've got some in our audience.
Right.
But for most people it is a hobby and it's a wonderful hobby and if you learn a little bit about it you can make some fantastic just stunning photographs to be so proud of.
Now my question is would there ever be possibly in the future like a gallery on your site for people to send in pictures for like a photo of the month type of contest or something?
That's exactly what we want to do.
In fact I said before we're going to have a photography section and we're going to have hints and tips and links to other photography sites and we're going to have a gallery for where you guys can send in your photographs and we'll scan them and put them up there.
We'll have a contest and every month we'll put the photo of the month and I think it'll be a lot of fun.
Oh, that would be terrific.
I think it'll be a lot of fun and I will not compete with you guys for photo of the month.
Not that I'm any better.
I bet there's lots of people out there who are much better photographers than I am.
It's just that I don't think it would be fair.
That's for you guys.
Well, you've got to be the impartial judge there.
Yeah, that's right.
Another question.
I've been a big fan of the Canon line for a long time.
I have an A1 and also the EF line.
Yeah.
Nikon started out making lens for Canon and Nikon and they got a great reputation for cameras and lenses because journalists covering the Korean War, they had to go through Japan to get to Korea and they picked up a few Nikon lenses and somebody, you know, they started talking about it and then the New York Times ran an article Talking about these wonderful lenses that the photojournalists in shooting the Korean War were using and that's what started the Nikon reputation.
The truth is Canon and Nikon make cameras that are so good now that there is no such thing as Canon's better than Nikon or Nikon's better than Canon.
Some cameras do better in one area than the other maker, and that maker has cameras that does a little better in some... It just comes down to feature to feature, that's all.
Yeah, it comes down to your own personal preference.
But as far as lenses are concerned, in impartial tests, and I've seen just about every test that there is on lenses, Canon has far surpassed Nikon at this time.
Right.
Now, in your opinion, you know, you're telling me that the lens around that, how do they
compare to the Canon FD SpectraCode lenses?
I'm not sure if you're familiar with that.
Well, if you know anything about lenses, Leica and Leitz lenses are the best in the world.
Right.
And this little lens on this Canon compares with the Leitz lenses.
And there are people who will swear that it's just as good as any Leitz lens that's ever been made.
And I'm telling you right now, from my use of this little camera, I believe that.
I think I may have to pick one up just to try it out.
Yeah.
I think you'll be very, very pleased.
In fact, I guarantee you'll be very pleased.
Yeah, my buddy back in high school had one, and that's what turned me on to the Canon line, so I'm sure it's all what it's cracked up to be.
Personally, I think it's the best lens that Canon ever made in its whole history.
Okay, great.
Well, I'll get off and let somebody else call in.
Thanks a lot, Bill.
Okay, thanks for calling.
520-333-4578 is the number, and when I make statements like that, folks, I'm giving you the best of my personal knowledge, and of course, it always boils down to my humble opinion on things like this.
There are people who would argue these points, but I think if you get one of these little cameras and you take some pictures with it, you're going to be absolutely amazed, especially if you've been using these These little cheap junkies.
Well, you know, some of them aren't cheap.
I've seen people pay $400 for a camera that I wouldn't even use for junk.
I'm not kidding you.
A lot of this stuff they're selling today is just plastic junk.
It really is, folks.
And it's a shame, too.
And when they break, they can't be fixed.
They just can't be fixed.
520-333-4578 is the number.
Phones are open.
We can take your questions and calls about photography for a while and see if I left any of you thoroughly confused out there.
For instance, I talked about shutter speed and apertures.
I told you that the aperture determines how much light comes through the lens and the shutter speed determines how long it's allowed to come through.
But there's more to it, folks.
There's a lot more to it and I discussed it You know, aperture determines also the range of focus in the picture that you're taking.
It's called depth of field.
And so, you may want to take a photograph and have everything in the photograph be perfectly in focus from right up close to you all the way to as far as the eye can see.
And if you don't set it on the proper aperture, it's not going to happen.
It's not going to happen.
And you may want to stop motion dead in its tracks.
You might be photographing a car race and you want to stop that car dead in its tracks.
If you don't know what shutter speed to put it on, it's not going to happen.
Or what shutter speed would you put it on to make the car look like it's moving, like it's got a blur to it so that everybody can tell that car is going really fast.
And some of the best photographs I've ever seen use that motion blur.
Not only with cars, but with runners and all kinds of things.
And so you can be creative.
And the reciprocity law is what allows you to change your shutter speed and your aperture in order to make sure that you have the depth of field that you want or that you're able to stop that motion or you're able to make that motion blurred.
It's called the reciprocity law.
And what it means is there's no perfect exposure.
There's no perfect exposure.
For instance, if, folks, Since no one's calling.
If you want to call, just call.
While I'm talking, if you find a question you want to ask, go ahead and call.
For instance, if your meter tells you that the correct exposure for the type film you're using, and every film that you use has what's called an ASA or a DIN number.
If you're in Europe, you're going to use the DIN number.
If you're in the United States, you're going to use the ASA number.
And most people are used to them.
It's like 50 ASA, 100 ASA, 200 ASA, 400 ASA.
Most of you are used to the 200 or the 400.
And you set that on your camera or on your light meter.
And that's what the meter uses to determine the proper exposure according to the meter.
So maybe the meter might tell you that the proper exposure is F15 on your aperture dial.
and one-two-fiftieth of a second on your shutter speed dial.
But what if... Now let me ask you this.
What if f5.6 won't give you everything in your photograph in focus from right up close to you all the way out to the edge of the horizon?
But your meter tells you you've got to use f5.6 at one-two-fiftieth shutter speed.
Well, the reciprocity law says this.
If, if you cut the amount of light entering the camera by stopping down the aperture one stop, so we go from 5.6 to F8, okay, you have cut in half.
Every stop is always half.
You're either increasing it, you're either doubling it, or you're cutting it in half.
Okay?
If you open up, you're doubling the amount of light coming in.
If you close it down one stop, you're cutting the amount of light coming through the aperture in half.
Always.
Okay?
So, if you stop it down one stop from f5.6, which is what your meter told you to use, to f8, that means to get the same exposure, you have to slow down the shutter speed by one stop.
So you would change it to 1.125 of a second.
So your meter said the proper exposure is f5.6 at 1.250 of a second shutter speed.
Here's how you get more depth of field.
You close your aperture.
And in this instance we close it to f8.
One stop.
So we cut the amount of light coming through the aperture by half.
We doubled the amount of time that we're going to allow the light to come through the shutter.
We went from 1.250 to 1.125 of a second.
That's exactly the same exposure, folks.
Exactly the same exposure.
If that still isn't enough, then we can close it down again to f11.
And we can open up the shutter speed again.
for twice the amount of time to 1 60th of a second.
And that's exactly the same exposure as F 5.6 at 1 2 50th of a second.
Now, if we want the very maximum depth of field, we could go one further, but we need a tripod.
Let me tell you something.
When you get down these slow shutter speeds, you need a tripod.
Set it on the tripod.
If we have a tripod there, we can close it down another stop to F 16 And then double the amount of time we're going to let the light come through the aperture again to 1 30th of a second.
That's exactly the same exposure as F 5.6 at 1 2 50th.
So now we've got our lens stopped down as far as we can go on this particular camera, which is F 16, which will give us the maximum depth of field in our photograph and literally give us everything in focus in the whole scene.
And our shutter speed is 1 30th of a second.
We're going to put the camera on a tripod to make sure that there's no, no shake.
And we're gonna, we're gonna put a, uh, a little, uh, shutter trip cable on our shutter so that we're not touching the camera when we take the picture.
Okay.
And that's what reciprocity says.
If you close down the aperture one stop, then you've got to let twice as much light In other words, you've got to let the light in for twice as much time.
Now, the other way, if we wanted to stop motion, and we didn't care if everything in the whole scene is in focus or not, as long as our subject is in focus, whatever we're focused on, we could open up from 5.6 to f4.
Remember, the smaller numbers in the aperture range Make a larger hole, a larger aperture.
Smaller numbers make a smaller aperture.
Smaller apertures give you more depth of field.
Larger apertures give you less depth of field.
So that means smaller numbers, less depth of field.
Larger numbers, greater depth of field.
So if we open 5.6 to f4 and double the amount of light allowed to come through the aperture, then we have to cut The time that the shutter is open in half.
So we would go from 1.250th of a second to 1.500th of a second.
And f4 at 1.500th of a second is exactly the same exposure as f5.6 at 1.250th of a second.
And if that wasn't a fast enough speed to stop that car, you could go again, open it to f2.8 and cut the shutter speed in half again.
And make it 1,1000.
So you would be shooting at f2.8 at 1,1000 and that's exactly the same exposure as f5.6 at 1,250.
How about that?
So that's the reciprocity law.
The reciprocity law is really pretty simple, folks.
And your exposure is always going to be determined when you meter by your film speed.
No matter how you determine what your what your exposure is.
And that's, you know, that just happens to be a fact.
Now, there's such a thing as reciprocity failure.
Reciprocity failure.
See, most people think that the reciprocity law applies to all values of light and time, but there's exceptions.
Folks, it doesn't always work that way.
There are exceptions.
And that's when you're using extremely fast shutter speeds or extremely long exposures.
Extremely fast shutter speeds or extremely long exposures.
Okay?
And this usually occurs when the shooting light is either really bright or unusually dim.
See, when the light is really bright, that's when you have to use these really super fast shutter speeds.
Or when it's really dim, that's when you have to use real long exposures.
And these exceptions, when it doesn't work like I just told you, you know, with very long exposures and real extremely fast shutter speeds, it's called reciprocity failure.
And the problem lies in the nature of the film.
Or I should say, the emulsion.
Not with the camera.
Nothing wrong with the camera.
It's in the emulsion of the film.
It's always due to light that is more or less bright than the design range of the film emulsion.
And nobody's ever been able to overcome this.
It's something that you have to learn.
If you're going to make long exposures, or use real fast shutter speeds, Then you have to understand reciprocity failure, and you have to understand how you can overcome that.
Okay?
Now, even though reciprocity failure is caused by the amount of light, the very best clue that you're ever going to have is shutter speed.
Because unusually fast shutter speeds means there is a lot of light, and unusually slow shutter speeds mean the light is dim.
So, that's your clue to the fact that you may be going to experience reciprocity failure, and you have to do something about it.
So, here's a rule.
As a rule, For most films that you guys are going to use, which are films you buy in the drugstore, you know, your Safeway store, whatever, just regular films for regular people.
These are not commercial films.
They're not films for professional photographers.
They're not film that are made for special purpose.
They're all around ordinary film that ordinary people buy every day, including me.
Okay?
So, as a general rule, if you're shooting with amateur or normal everyday film that you You know, that you'd normally buy.
If you're shooting faster than one one thousandth of a second, or slower than one second, then you should think about the possibility of reciprocity failure.
And most film comes with a little data sheet that's supplied by the film manufacturer inside the little canister.
Or, if you look inside the box that you take the film out of, It's printed on the inside of the box.
So open that box up and read what it says in there because it's telling you about the film.
So read that data sheet or read what's written on the inside of the box by the film manufacturer.
Some films have a more limited normal range of exposure times than what I just gave you.
And so you have to know what that is.
Now the basic effect of reciprocity failure are the You know, what happens is always less actual exposure on the film than you expect.
In other words, your film is going to be underexposed, even though your meter is telling you that you're making the right exposure.
Meters don't know about reciprocity failure.
You have to know about that.
Okay?
So, the basic cure is to give more exposure by using larger aperture, more time, or both.
For example, folks, if your exposure meter or your meter in your camera, or your exposure calculation, however you figure your exposure, suggest using F4 at four seconds.
The data sheet packed with the film may say to give one stop more exposure than that to compensate for reciprocity failure.
So if it says to give more exposure, then you either double Listen to me carefully.
One stop would be doubling the amount of time that you allow the light to come through the aperture and hit the film.
So instead of 4 seconds, you would expose it for 8 seconds.
That's one stop.
And you would leave the aperture where it's at.
Or, you could leave the shutter speed where it's at, at 4 seconds, and you could open the aperture one stop to f2.8.
And that would give you one stop more exposure In accordance with what the film manufacturer told you in that little data sheet or on the inside of your little film box.
And you will have allowed one stop more exposure for that particular frame of your film.
And, uh, you know, most professional photographers are people who have studied photography quite a bit.
They know approximately how much more exposure to give a film Because they use the same film all the time.
We're going to talk about that because that's something you need to learn to do.
You need to learn your tools.
And if every time you go and buy film, you're buying different film all the time, you never learn about any one film and you're always lost as to what that film is capable of doing.
And every time you take the pictures in, you get different contrast, you get different colors, You know, in one the face may look normal, in the other one the face may look cold.
Different films have different color temperatures.
Some are warm, some are cold, some are neutral.
So you have to pick a film that you like and shoot only with that film, always.
Always.
That's what professional photographers do.
Unless they have a job that requires some special film, they always use the same film All the time.
And I'm not just talking about Fujifilm, because Fuji has Superior, it has Velvia, it has all kinds of different types of film.
Okay?
So, you want to pick a film, and you want to learn everything that you can learn about that film.
What's the best exposure for that particular film?
Some films, even though the manufacturer recommends a certain film speed, you might get a better exposure by overexposing it a little bit, or underexposing it a little bit.
So, you have to experiment with these things and find out what's best with your film.
And no matter what your meter says, if you know that film will give you a better photograph by overexposing it a half a stop, then whatever your meter says, open it up, A half a stop and give it that much more exposure every time.
And the way you do that so you don't always have to be manipulating your camera controls is you set your film speed on a different film speed that will give you that half stop extra exposure.
Okay?
And to do that, remember, the higher the number, the less exposure you're going to get on the The lower the number, the more exposure.
So if you had ASA 100 film and you wanted to give it a half a stop more exposure, I would set it on 80.
Okay, folks?
Bye.
Thank you.
That would give me a half a stop more exposure on every single frame I shoot and I wouldn't have to change, I wouldn't have to consciously change the aperture or the film speed.
Now if I wanted to underexpose it, I would set it like maybe at 125 or 150 film speed.
Actually, I don't think there is a 150, I think there's a 160.
I would set it on 160 and that would give me half stop underexposure.
Remember, doubling or halving is one half or twice as much.
Remember that?
with shutter speed or aperture settings.
When you close it down one, you're cutting the amount of light in half.
When you open up one on your aperture ring, you're increasing the amount of light by twice as much.
Same with shutter speed.
If you go from 1.250 to 1.500, you have cut the time in half that the light is allowed to hit the film.
If you go from 1-250th to 1-100th, then you have increased the amount of light by double.
That's allowed to go through and hit the film.
520-333-4578 is the number.
You can call in at any time and ask a question if you want.
Remember, these photography nights are for fun.
Just for fun.
To help us take better pictures of our family and our vacations.
The important events in our lives so that, you know, and there are some pictures that you take that you really should take back, take the negative back and have them blown up and put them in a frame and mount them on your wall or set them on your mantle or on your bedside table or whatever because they're the pictures of the lifetime and you want to save them.
That's a pretty simple explanation of reciprocity and reciprocity failure, but it's really all you need to know.
It's pretty simple.
Remember, aperture not only determines the amount of light that comes through the lens, it also determines the depth of focus in your photograph.
If you're photographing a person and you want it to be a portrait, you want the whole attention
of whoever is looking at that photograph to be on that person.
So you focus on the eyes and you set a shallow depth of field that will only include their
face.
And everything else in the photograph will be out of focus and so the eye will not wonder.
You know, you're supposed to be looking at a pretty girl in this photograph.
You won't be looking at the tree or the guy standing back there behind her because they'll
be out of focus and your eye doesn't want to look at something that's out of focus.
See intentionally putting portions of a scene out of focus is designed to direct the eye
of the viewer to the subject of the photograph.
.
Okay?
At the same time, if you're going to take a landscape photograph of a sweeping vista, for instance, if you're in If you're in some national park somewhere and you want to take this beautiful view that's maybe got a waterfall over there, you know, and over here there's a river coming through and it's just breathtaking.
You want everything to be in focus.
Everything.
Because landscapes look funny if part of it's not in focus.
If the subject is the landscape.
Now if the subject is something in the landscape and you want to accentuate just that something, then you can throw everything out of focus except that particular subject that you're photographing.
And you can get some stunning, beautiful photographs.
All of you need to stop taking pictures with these little cheapy cameras.
That's why when you get your film back and you look at them, Everything looks fuzzy.
It's out of focus.
You can't hold them still.
And most of them have these real slow shutter speeds.
And that's why you're not getting good, sharp, beautiful photographs.
You need a good camera and you need a tripod.
Tripod doesn't have to be expensive, but it does need to be sturdy so that it holds your camera absolutely still.
It doesn't do any good to have a tripod if the wind's blowing a little bit and your tripod is one of these rickety old aluminum things that, you know, the wind is making it shake.
You need a good sturdy tripod.
And you can get one and you don't have to spend a fortune for it.
Just make sure that before you buy the tripod that you set it up and make sure that it's good and sturdy and that it will actually hold your camera steady.
And then you need a shutter cable, a shutter cable.
And, uh, you know, you can't use a shutter cable on all cameras, but most good cameras you can.
And just shoot it, screw it into the little shutter trip mechanism.
And, uh, you don't have to touch the camera to trip the shutter.
Now, if your camera does not have a place where you can screw in a shutter cable to trip the shutter with.
Then use the self-timer on the camera.
In other words, you would set the camera up for the proper exposure or put it on automatic and let the camera determine the proper exposure.
And then you activate the timing mechanism so that from the time you set it and trip the shutter, it actually won't take the picture for about 10 seconds.
And that gives the camera time to stop shaking from when you touched it.
And you'll get a perfectly crisp, beautiful, focused, sharp photograph.
With these cameras that we've got for you, it will blow your mind.
The quality of that little lens is just absolutely incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
Will blow your mind.
I'm still amazed at it.
I'm amazed that people have been ignoring that little camera for a long time.
Everybody but collectors and professional photographers.
Anybody who knows anything about cameras will tell you that that's one of the best cameras ever made.
It was so good that Canon sold more of those cameras than almost any other camera they ever made.
That's how the quality was and the price was reasonable.
Now, you get one that's in good shape, it's going to cost you money.
And then you're still going to have to take it in and have it, what we call CLA'd, clean, lubricated, and adjusted.
And you're going to have to know, you're either going to have to have it converted to use modern batteries, or you're going to have to know where to get a battery at the proper voltage.
If you put the wrong battery in one of these cameras, folks, your light meter will not give you correct exposures.
It may be off as many as two or three stops, and you'll get terrible exposure.
You have to have the proper voltage.
If you can't get the proper voltage battery, then you have to have the camera converted to use a modern battery, and you have to know exactly what battery that is.
The cameras that we have, some of them have been converted, some of them have not, but we always give you a sheet to tell you exactly where to get the proper battery for your camera.
And there's a little adapter that you can use with the camera that we have.
So that you can use modern batteries and the adapter converts the voltage to the voltage that it's supposed to use for the camera.
So.
520-333-4578 is the number.
If you have any questions about anything that we've been talking about so far tonight, give me a call.
Remember this is for fun.
It's for fun.
It's for our enjoyment and so that we can make better pictures for For our family, for our friends, for ourselves, so that we can record the important events in our life properly.
Now, a lot of cameras, folks, have meters built into the camera.
Some of these meters are really good meters and some of them are not.
And it doesn't matter what kind of a meter you have, there are situations that can fool your meter.
That's why you go out and you take a picture of somebody and you get it back and, you know, all the rest of the scene is perfectly exposed, but the face and the body of the person you were taking the picture of is black.
You say, what happened here?
I didn't change anything on the camera.
You can't even see her face.
That usually occurs in backlighting.
Good evening, you're on the air.
Hey, how you doing?
Good.
What do you feel about getting a camera cleaned?
Is it a rip-off sometimes?
A friend of mine told me that my camera may need to be cleaned and I went to the store and it was like $50 and they wanted to do it for, I just don't know.
Well, find out exactly what they're going to do for $50.
Because most reputable camera repair people will charge you between $50 and $100 to do a CLA.
And a CLA is not just cleaning the camera.
Here's what they do.
If you open the back of your camera, you'll see around the edges there's some foam there.
Looks like rubber neoprene foam.
As the camera ages, that foam starts to disintegrate and it gets sticky.
And it's a light seal is what it is.
It keeps the light from coming through and exposing your film so that you can have good pictures instead of light streaks all over your film.
They replace that.
That's part of the CLA.
They replace the light seals if it's needed.
And it usually is.
Usually if your camera needs cleaning, the light seals need to be replaced.
And they'll do that.
They replace the light seals.
They completely clean the camera.
including all the inside, inside the viewfinder.
They adjust the aperture so that you're getting the proper aperture.
They lubricate everything so that it works properly.
And they adjust and calibrate the meter and the shutter speeds.
Now, if they're doing all of that, then $50 is the cheapest price that you're going to get.
I had no idea that they do that much stuff.
Well, you have to ask them to make sure that they're doing it.
Okay, absolutely.
Because a reputable place will do all those things when they perform a CLA.
I just found out the other day I was watching tech TV.
I had no idea that you could use lenses from normal cameras on digital cameras.
They were interchangeable.
I thought that was amazing.
Well, that's not always true.
Most digital cameras, you can't change the lens at all, and the lenses are cheap plastic junk.
And most digital cameras are cheap plastic junk, and so are most film cameras.
They're cheap plastic junk, and you're wasting your money when you buy one.
Right.
You really are.
But if you buy a good digital camera, made by a reputable manufacturer, and you're spending a bunch of money on it, and you're going to spend a bunch of money on it if you can change the lenses.
Then you can change the lenses, and you can use the same lenses that you use on your film cameras.
For instance, if you've got a professional Canon digital camera, you can use all the lenses that you use on your professional Canon film cameras.
Yeah, I've never bought a digital camera.
I've got a regular A1, and I've looked at the Mavica, but I don't even think that's even a real digital camera.
I mean, it's probably a TV.
Let me tell you something.
There is no digital camera made that compares with the price of a good film camera.
Yeah.
They're more expensive and they can't even come close to producing an image that film can.
Yeah.
So you're better off having that A1, which by the way is an excellent camera made by Canon.
One more question.
Get a scanner and scan either your negatives or your pictures into your computer.
You know, I got a scanner, but mine didn't.
I have a Scanjet, HP Scanjet, I think it's a 5P or whatever, and it didn't come with the little slide adapter like some of the other ones do.
So you take slides?
Yeah, I do.
Okay, then what you need is a film scanner that will scan negatives and slides.
That'd be great.
And you can find them on eBay, you can get them at camera stores.
Watch out now, some of them are really expensive.
Yeah.
And some of them are not so expensive.
And you gotta watch out on that end too, because if you scan your photograph, you want to get a good scan.
Yeah.
Have you ever heard the interesting stories about the film that they use when they, uh, I guess on, I mean, I guess it's a matter of wherever they took the shots on the moon, wherever they happen to, you know, shoot the film, and whether it be on, you know, I can tell you it wasn't on the moon.
Yeah, I don't think so either from what I've read.
No, those are all studio shots.
They have perfect studio lighting.
If they were on the moon with no atmosphere and the brightest sunlight that you can imagine because there's no atmosphere to filter it, you'd have deep shadows and bright highlights and no film made at that time by anybody could handle that kind of latitude.
I read that book that came out not too long ago, The Dark Moon.
That had a lot of photography information related to the moon landing.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
Any professional photographer can look at those.
And you'll notice that the light falls off as it goes.
It should be even light over the moon's surface.
Oh, yeah.
But it falls off.
The light is only where they're shining their lights to take the pictures.
I wish I knew where they did it.
I mean, you know... They did it in the Nevada Desert.
They spent several years in Las Vegas, all the astronauts and all of the NASA people, and they were filming it in the atomic test site in some huge hangar out there.
Do you think that some of the, you know, the orbit shots taken from orbit You know, with the probes.
Some of those have to be real though.
Some of those are real, but some of them are also fake.
For instance, we have pictures of one of the astronauts floating around inside one of these planes where they go up and then they take a guard to make their way down.
Oh yeah, the vomit comet.
Yeah.
And what they did is they took a picture of him in that plane and then they mask it and
then they took a picture of space and they put him in that space and it's the same astronaut
in the same position with the same wrinkles on his everything is exactly the same.
It's a fake photograph.
And NASA put it out there for us to think that it was real.
Have you done the EO series recently?
I've been listening to Mystery of Babylon but I think some of those go back to 9-4.
Remember that one, you did that one, the Mystery of Babylon series?
I did it over a long period of time.
Have you done one lately?
Are there any other ones that I need to listen to?
There's lots of them, but we don't have them on the internet yet.
Oh, okay.
Well, I know you will watch.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, I appreciate it.
Thanks a lot.
Okay.
You're welcome.
Thanks for calling.
All right.
Bye.
520-333-4578.
We have about time for maybe one or two more calls and really don't have time to get into anything else except calls.
So, if you've got a question or a comment or a tip, give us a call right now.
520-333-4578.
Remember folks, this is just for fun.
I ain't not going to bite your head off about photography.
520-333-4578 is the number.
Oh!
I forgot to tell you.
If you want to have a lot of fun and read a good book that you'll really enjoy, get the National Geographic Fields Guide are the National Geographic Photography Field Guide Secrets
to Making Great Pictures by Peter K.
Burian and Robert Capuccio. You'll not only enjoy reading it, but you'll learn an awful lot about
photography. Good evening, you're on the air. Hello. Hello.
Hi Bill. Listen, I used to take photographs of black and white and they used to have what
they called, there was resin coated and then there was a different kind of black and white. Resin
coated and fiber based.
I did a couple of rolls and had them done fiber based.
I never saw a more realistic look.
I happened to get a pretty good exposure and I was really impressed with the fiber.
All professional photographers who do black and white and who do fine art photography use fiber based.
It is beautiful looking.
Everybody should try black and white and get it done in fiber at least a couple of rolls.
Oh yeah.
And also try different exposures like you said.
Yeah.
Go over and under by one or two and you can come out with a great photograph.
That's right and also the lab where you have it processed, where you have the film processed or where you have the film printed has everything to do with it.
You go to a cheapy one hour place or you go to the drug store or the Safeway processing,
you're going to get cheapy one hour and Safeway drugstore processing.
Right, you're going to get people who love what they're doing and really take care of
it.
One other question, how come videotape films look different than filmed movies?
Because it's done, there's lots of things that are different about them.
They don't even compare.
Is it due to the scatty nature of videotape?
That's part of it, but a good videographer will try to make his videos look like film.
Because people would rather see film than video.
It has a quality to it you can't match.
That's right.
Well you can.
You can get pretty close.
And there's ways to do it.
For instance Elite Video has a videotape that you can buy that tells you how to do it.
But you have to have a good video camera.
I see.
You can't have a cheapy video camera that you can't set.
You have to have settings on it like a professional camera so that you can manipulate how that camera works in order to give you that film look.
Right.
And have a great Lent of course.
Yeah.
Are you ever coming out to Los Angeles anymore?
No.
Okay.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thanks for calling.
That's it folks.
Good night.
God bless each and every single one of you.
Good night Annie Poo and Allison.
I love you.
And I miss you.
more than you probably ever know.
I'm out.
I don't have anything to do with the book.
I don't make any money off of it.
But it'll help you.
You'll enjoy reading it.
Let me give you that book again, folks.
I don't have anything to do with the book.
I don't make any money off of it, but it'll help you.
You'll enjoy reading it.
It's a lot of fun.
National Geographic Photography Feels Guide.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
Geographic Photography Field Guide.
Secrets to Making Great Pictures by Peter K. Burian and Robert Caputo.
Read it.
Read it.
You'll enjoy it.
But graceful.
I'm.
I'm.
and and
you
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