Two replies in one here: Feroze Kistan wrote:
> >Any tips for shooting rainbows, exposure times, film etc.... I usually start by spot metering on the rainbow itself. I put that at +1 (ie overexposed 1 stop) as a starting point. I adjust that as necessary depending on how the surroundings are lit and the amount of contrast in the scene. This is using slide film, BTW. I would suggest that there's quite a lot of latitude for exposing the rainbow itself as there's not much actual detail to be recorded: just an area of bright colour. So just ignoring the rainbow and exposing for the rest of the scene is probably good enough. If you want to highlight the rainbow then slightly underexposing the rest of the scene (eg 1/2-stop) might help. Feel free to bracket. As for film, it really depends on what you want and how much effort you're prepared to put in. If you're using a slow film then you'll probably need a tripod, especially if its near sunrise or sunset. Rainbows can be very transient and the time it takes to set up a tripod could easily cost you the photo. This nearly happened to me once; luckily I had taken a couple of snaps handheld before getting the tripod out. I learned from that experience: now I always grab a few handheld frames before setting up the tripod, provided there's enough light to allow handheld photography. Then Leon Altoff replied: > I can't remember if you are supposed to over expose or underexpose to get > better saturation in rainbows, it's one of the two. This is why > bracketing was invented. Yes, bracketing is a good idea, especially if you're shooting slides. I don't go out of my way for super saturated colours but that's just my personal preference. If that's what you want then the easiest way is to use a saturated film. If you adjust your exposure for higher saturation you might screw up the exposure of the rest of the scene. > You will also only see a full semi circle rainbow at or near sunrise or > sunset. Sometimes you might get lucky and catch one like this during the middle of the day: http://www.digistar.com/~dmann/temp/rotoroa/6x7-s1-18-600.jpg (Pentax 6x7, 45mm f/4) (more shots at http://www.digistar.com/~dmann/temp/rotoroa/ - the second 300mm shot is still set as my wallpaper) Cheers, - Dave http://www.digistar.com/~dmann/
