P3D Re: What wins the Gold Medal?

["Gregory J. Wageman" <gjw@xxxxxxxxxx>]

George Themelis wrote:

>Boris, I hear you are doing great with your tabletop, studio and
>computer-generated shots.  If you want to proclaim yourself a complete and
>competent stereo photographer, try to get PSA honors with handheld
>out-of-the-studio stereo pictures.  Now, there is the challenge!

Indeed.

I made two attempts recently to photograph ice hockey in stereo.  ("Why?"
I hear some of you ask.  Well, besides the fact that I generally like to
take stereo photographs of things I like to look at [ice hockey being one],
we had tickets on the glass to a Sharks/Kings game, as well as near the
glass to a women's Canadian and American Olympic team exhibition match,
a once-in-a-lifetime occurance that I wanted to try to document.  I
wouldn't think of trying stereo photos from our usual seats up in the
balcony.)

Both trys were at the San Jose (CA) arena.  The first attempt (the Sharks
game) suffered because I greatly overestimated the amount of light that
was available at the rink (should have brought my meter and taken some
readings) and consequently only had ASA 100 film available.  I was shooting
hand-held, wide open (f/3.5-f/4.5, depending on zoom) at around 1/4th to
1/16th second (depending on where, exactly, the camera was pointed and
on zoom factor).  Needless to say, even when I managed to hold the camera
steady enough (brace elbows on knees, exhale, squeeze shutter GENTLY, much
like shooting a gun), the hockey players were often nothing more than
ghostly blurs (an interesting effect which I might experiment with more,
some day... but I digress).

Anyway, to make a long story somewhat shorter, most of the pictures that
were not of face-offs or otherwise relatively-stationary players were
unacceptably blurry, and went into the trash.  And to top it all off, the
Sharks lost to the Kings.

Realizing that considerably faster film was a necessity, I threw all
concerns about excessive grain to the wind and bought a few rolls of
Kodak EPH, an Ektachrome "pro" emulsion which is DX-coded for 1600 ASA.
(It's apparently really a 400 ASA film and if you expose it at the 1600
speed, you MUST ask for "Push 2" processing.  The canister is labelled
as "Process E6-P", I presume the "P" stands for "Push".)  Kodak claims
(though I haven't verified) that it can be exposed at 3200ASA (and
processed with a 3-stop push).  Of course to do this in a DX-reading
camera like the RBT X2 or your twin-SLR rig, you must remember to use
the exposure compensation feature.  Anyway, I shot it at the 1600 speed,
giving me four more stops than my 100-speed effort.

The good news is that these results (of the Olympic women's teams) were
much better.  I was able to shoot at typically 1/30th sec. at f/5.6, giving
a reasonable depth-of-field across the ice surface without excessively slow
shutter speeds for hand-held photography of moving subjects.  As a result,
I didn't immediately throw out any of the pictures due to comically excessive
blur.  However, I haven't projected them yet nor remounted them for viewing
in a high-quality viewer, just previewed them in a Pinsharp, and so don't
know how objectionable the grain will prove to be under those circumstances.

Yes, the grain is very obvious.  Color saturation isn't bad, though it isn't
Velvia (but, then, what is, besides Velvia?).  Anyone on this list who finds
Ektachrome EB100 "too grainy" should run, not walk, away from this film. :-)

This was definitely one of the more challenging situations I've encountered
for stereography.  Flash was prohibited by the arena at the women's game,
and being behind the glass it probably would have been self-defeating (due
to reflections) at the Sharks game (even if it provided enough coverage,
which is unlikely).  The pros at the arena (who were located right next to
our our on-the-glass seats in the corner) have a network of strobes mounted
in the arena's rafters and a sync cable out by their "porthole" in the
corner glass.  I was really rather envious of that setup.

As soon as it stops raining here in the Bay Area, I think I'll go take
some nice, easy shots in full sun. :-)

	-Greg W.


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