THE PHOTOGRAPHIC EYE

more important consideration: cropping.
Unless you plan to make your
own prints from your transparencies,
or are willing to pay for custom printing
at a lab, you must do all your
cropping when you take a photograph.
Is your eye good enough so
you never need to make corrections
after, a shot is taken? Shooting
transparencies is a good way to find
out. It's also a good way to work
toward that goal.
Films
Deciding between negative and reversal
film narrows your choices
down . . . but not by much. Both
kinds of film offer a wide range of
choices in speed and other factors.
The following examples of transparency
films will give you an idea of
your choices.
Kodachrome has been the reigning
professional standard for several
decades. It has a good grain structure,
which means that the dots that
produce the colored image are small
and densely packed. It also has good
contrast, so objects look razor sharp.
These two factors are especially important
if you hope to have your
photographs published.
Kodachrome reacts particularly
strongly to red, so anything red is
likely to seem dominant. It's important
to be aware of this, especially if
your primary subject is not red. All
color films have a similar bias or cast.
Kodachrome is not especially good at
rendering bright greens, so if you're
photographing springtime in the
park, for example, you might do better
with some other film.
The grain structure of Ektachrome
is not as good as Kodachrome's, giving
it a "soft" quality. It also has
relatively low contrast and a green
bias. All these factors make it a good
choice for nature photography. It is
less good for some skin tones.
Fujichrome is a very bright film
with a yellow bias. The brightness is
the result of an unusually thin emulsion.
Its grain structure is comparable
to Kodachrome's, though it has
somewhat less contrast. Fujichrome
tends to make things look rather
cheerful because of its brightness and
yellow bias.
You also need to choose a film
speed that is appropriate to specific
subjects and lighting conditions. In
most cases, you want the slowest film
that will work in the light you have
at the shutter speed you need. For example,
on a bright, sunny day on
which you plan to photograph people
walking in a park, you might
choose a fairly slow film, such as ISO
50 or 64. For darker lighting or faster
subjects, you'll probably want a
faster film, such as ISO 200 or
higher.
You can get higher ISO ratings by
pushing the film, achieving faster
speed by altering the development
time. The film that works best for
this is Ektachrome 400. Many labs
will push it to ISO 1600 or 3200. Be
sure to point out that you want it
pushed, and how high, when you
drop off the film.
Money
One last technical issue is money.
Color film costs more than black
and white. It also costs more to develop
and print. While shooting
many photographs of a single subject
is just as good an idea in color as
in black and white, it is expensive.
So, experiment to your heart's content
at the start. Later, once your experience
grows (and your wallet
shrinks), you'll probably want to be
more conservative. Try to make every
shot count. Don't stop bracketing,
but be careful not to waste color film
on subjects that are only moderately
interesting. Hold out for the really
good stuff.
Color 251