Tags
analog, Analogue, aperture, camera, exposure-triangle, film, film photography, fujifilm, instant, instax, instax wide, large format photography, Photography, shutter-speed
I recently rebuilt my Instax Wide back for my 4×5 Tachihara camera. The new back is properly fabricated using a new 3D printer, resulting in a much better user experience. I will write about it another time.
Since the new back is such a breeze to use, I have been very motivated to use it on my Tachihara. I especially like the idea of long-exposure images at night. Today, I went to an overhead bridge near my place to take some pictures. The view I remembered was from a 35mm roll I shot a few weeks ago.
I knew that this long road could make for some interesting images, so I took my 4×5 with a 150mm lens out for a shoot. The first shot I took was not particularly successful. The aperture was set at f/11 and exposure time was about 6 seconds. This proved to be too short, as the tail-light streaks I was hoping to capture did not show up contiguously. The road was generally well-exposed though.
Next, I closed the aperture down to about f/16. Instead of one continuous exposure, I broke it into 4 3-second shots, and was able to catch a few vehicles. I liked how the red streaks were relatively symmetric, and bounded the empty center lane.
In this 3rd image, I tried to capture the incoming bus. Although the bus added some additional orange/yellow lights, its path was a bit chaotic, and since the bus stopped at the bus stop, the resulting light trail was not smooth, as I closed the shutter for a while to prevent over exposure of the stationary tail light.
In this last image, I closed the aperture down to f/22, and did a very long exposure. While this image achieved the light trailing effect I wanted (including that from a turning vehicle), I found that the smaller aperture resulted in a slightly less vibrant red. The general exposure of the road was also a bit higher than I would have liked.
A little correction in Lightroom shows how I had envisioned the shot.
Still, I am stoked that the Tachihara has finally been revived!