Edit: I wonder if it is due to reciprocity failure with film - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocity_(photography) ?
I found the correction chart below on t'web [1] just now.
I recollect using 2.5x per stop over 1 second which gives slightly longer exposures than [1], but then I did tend to 'pull' the development a bit (contrast goes up), so a 2 minute metered exposure would be 2.5^7 seconds (10 minutes) instead of 2^7 seconds roughly. A 10 minute exposure on the meter corresponds to two hours and a very significant contrast hike - I recollect printing on grade 1 and grade half filter settings (multigrade paper). I only used extreme exposure times in old dark interiors e.g. churches in the UK in November or something. Inside so no need for any filters - not astro.
I'll dig a few prints out and scan them over the weekend. Nowt astounding. See if you can find a book about Edwin Smith if you are near a library with a very good photography collection.
I have a fantasy of using 10x8 film with a pinhole camera and just doing contact prints... but then I remember the darkroom days and the amount of water that got used up...
[1] http://home.earthlink.net/~kitathome/LunarLight/moonlight_ga...
Cheers, I'd be very curious to see your prints.
I've just had a little look on google images at some of Edwin Smith's photos, they look stunning! The light in the photos look amazing.
I still have an old Pentax K1000 film camera I think it is, I'll have to dig it out again some time :) I'd really like to get a medium format camera, but they're still not super cheap, I was looking at the Mamiya RZ67 (I'd actually like to try shooting landscape with it, which could be impractical due to the weight, but would be fun nonetheless ;).
10x8 film would be awesome to play with!
A 35mm camera on a tripod with shutter release would allow experimentation and allow you to decide about weight and carrying for hiking. I used the long exposures mainly in buildings in a city.
My images are not on Edwin Smith's level by any means, but the movement of the Sun direction over an hour does make a sort of smoothing of the light.
No reason it couldn't be applied to regular long exposure photography using a DSLR, either.
