The Warming Effect & Under Exposure

Recent experience has shown me that film is affected by the temperature, and with the Autumn season this means cooler temperatures and therefore colder light. A way to compensate for this is to use a warm up filter, and these are two examples taken in the New Forest.

I also experienced under exposure and this is explained later on.

First up is a photo of a stream in the foreground with the wood in the background. This was taken at Fritham on Fuji Velvia 50 slide film at F16.

All of the pictures were with my Zuiko Olympus OM 35-80mm F2.8 lens.

#1 is without #2 with the warm up filter. An exposure compensation of +2/3rds proved to give the best result for both.

1.

2.

The next is from Knightwood Oak and again a +2/3rds exposure compensation was best.

1. Without the warm up

2. With the warm up

Under exposure.

Autumn also brings shorter days, and this can mean you find that you are shooting in fading light. With less light there is a greater chance of under exposure. Under exposure is caused by not enough light reaching the film, and is easily identified by the shadows being blocks of black.

I experienced under exposure when taking a shot of a woodland path in Anderwood, New Forest. I initially took the scene using the camera’s TTL metering, but then decided to check the amount of light with my hand held light meter. The reflective light reading indicated that I should use an exposure time of 3 seconds.

This also applies if you are just shooting in dark conditions.

Film used was Fuji Sensia 100 RA-669.

The under exposed shot.

The correctly exposed manual metered scene.