Size

The local cemetery is huge in ways it's hard to describe. The maps don't do it justice and every time I visit I find some new areas.

The cemetery is also very very old so it's rare just to see plain headstones, almost everything there is ornate and in some cases overwrought.

Here is a new Angel I discovered in yet another section I found.

Class

The evening photography class I take on studio lighting has a truly terrible book. Everything in that book is out of focus. To be more precise, the Depth of Field is far too shallow for the subject matter. It's like the author of the book got ahold of an f/2 lens and shot wide open for everything.

This shot is wide open, at 1.8, and is in better focus than the book ones, so I have to revise my original theory and suppose the author got himself an f/1.2 instead.

In any case, I like the soft effect and gradual blurring here of the Angel.

Film

I've been bouncing back and forth between C41 process films, from Kodak 400CN B/W to Ilford XP2 400. Currently I'm using the Kodak, mainly because it's readily available and I can buy three rolls of Kodak for the price of one roll of Ilford.

In any case, I'm not really a fan of Kodak's products, I feel they make a great deal of junk these days (i've ranted about Kodak elsewhere in this journal) but this film.....isn't bad at all.

As you can see from this cross detail (with the 50mm) even the smallest of details have been captured on the film. Currently I've got a roll of Ilford loaded in my F4s, so I can compare back to back (I intend to re-shoot these images) but barring extremely differing results (in Ilford's favour) I think I will stick with the humble Kodak.

Maiden

One of the cool things about the 50mm is the ability to shoot at an aperture of 1.8 (in other words, wide open) allowing for extremely shallow depth of field, as shown here on this ground maiden figure.

Handy when trying to really lose the background, and rather interesting when trying to focus on only certain parts of a subject.

Local cemetery, film shot

Nifty

I bought a 50mm lens the other day with some Christmas money (thanks Dad!) and had an occasion to try it out. Here is one of the results at wide open (f/1.8) with local drug store B/W film. I love the look!

As an aside, notice anything.....unusual....about the Angel? I understand the desire for anatomical accuracy, but still....