Scutum: The Shield

Object:	Scutum
Location:	Narrowsburg, NY
Observer:	Roland Roberts
Time:	10 Jul 2002
Camera:	Pentax K1000, 50 mm f/1.4 lens
Exposure:	2 x 10 min + 2 x 7 min + 3 x 5 min at f/4
Film:	Fuji Press 1600
Processing:	PWP level adjuments on all raw images before combine. RegiStar average combine. PWP curve adjustments, conversion to grayscale, composition with skyline.

Technical Notes

I took some artistic liberties with this one. The silhouetted skyline is real and was actually present in this photo, but the version shown here was taken from a shorter exposure that left it unblurred. This is the view from my dark-sky location looking from the river bank in New York toward Pennsylvania; the tree-line is in Pennsylvania.

Having said that, this view is actually pretty close to what you would see, naked eye. After sitting out in the dark for several hours, the eyes become quite light sensitive and the night sky does not appear dark, especially compared to the tree line on the horizon. The only “fake” part of this is that even the tree line did not appear pitch black to my eyes.

I chose to make a black and white image rather than color because the film I used had a horrible cyan cast and basically no other colors. My conclusion is that the Fuji 1600 has 100% reciprocity failure for the yellow and magenta layers after a very short time. I’m not sure the cyan layer is really still active for the five minute exposures which were used in this composite. There is no discernible difference between the 5 minute and the 10 minute exposures which leads me to believe that the film has given up by the 5 minute mark.