Yes - I've been told a similar thing. Even just setting the self timer, standing back and holding a flashlight during the exposure. It'll give the lab a reference point.
Tom C. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peifer, William [OCDUS]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 30, 2001 8:48 AM Subject: RE: developing Leonid shots > Amita wrote: > [Problems getting prints from astrophotographic exposures -- snipped....] > > Hi Amita, > > Getting machine prints from astrophotographic exposures is problematic. I > think the fundamental problem is that the machines usually can't determine > the boundary between two successive exposures. (Worse yet, the technicians > can't determine this visually, and they often end up cutting the film right > through the middle of an exposure.) At least in my experience, it seems > that the drug and department store minilab technicians haven't had enough > training to know how to override the machine and manually print a specified > area of the negative strip. Perhaps it isn't even possible to override some > machines? I shot about half a roll of the Christmas eclipse a couple years > ago and I had a devil of a time getting prints from the nearby drugstore. > The central image of the partially eclipsed Sun was quite dense, but the > machine just couldn't figure out where the edges were. > > What ~may~ help is to shoot a conventional scene at the beginning of each > roll, and instruct the technician not to cut the film. This way, you'll at > least have a starting point from which to reference the registration of the > rest of the exposures. Another trick is to get a little bit of something > terrestrial -- a tree branch, the edge of a building, a horizon -- into your > shot. This usually gets exposed enough to allow the machine to see the edge > of the negative frame. > > Hope this helps. I still haven't shot the rest of my roll that I hopefully > have a few Leonids on -- been sick with the flu and haven't gotten outside > with the camera yet. Maybe this weekend. > > Bill Peifer > Rochester, NY > - > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, > go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to > visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org . - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
