Topic: 00:45 on friday morning, high time for a weekend thread from me! 08/07/11

[Paul Mitchell]

Nick - love that first image... reminds me of salt print

hookstrapped - beautiful study, I don't really go a bundle on 'posed' nudes but this is so natural

Paul

[Francois]

wow, lovely polas Patrick.

here are two portraits i have been working on this week
taken on the mamiya645 on foma 200 and a little bit of
PS to finish. I really like the blurred edges effect but would love
to be able to do it in camera . . .

If you live in a hybrid analogue/digital world, in-camera diffusion has some pluses. Vaseline, flipped lenses and such are a couple of options as is putting crinkled cellophane over the lens.  However, the diffusion can be better controlled and worked into the composition in the darkroom.

There is a definite difference between darkroom made diffusion and camera made diffusion.
With darkroom based diffusion, you loose the overall sharp grain.
Also, when you look carefully, you can spot the shadows blending into the highlights while camera based diffusion makes the highlights blend into the shadows...

[Chris A Fraser]

WOW... Gray
That first one, just blew me away. I love it!

[Phil Bebbington]

Peter, as always, beautiful.

[Phil Bebbington]

Hasselblad 501CM and Kodak BWCN in Marathon, Texas

[hookstrapped]

Thanks, folks.  I appreciate the comments.  Yeah, I really like the pushed Tri-X 35mm grain and contrast formula.


This is what I'm aiming for with the new color work, especially with the first three.  Leica M2, Nokton 40mm, Portra 160.

http://hookstrapped.viewbook.com/album/rockawaybeach?p=1#1

[Thom Stone]

Hookstrapped, your stuff is always so AWESOME, the nude is my fave but your colourwork is also outstanding

[hookstrapped]

Hookstrapped, your stuff is always so AWESOME, the nude is my fave but your colourwork is also outstanding

Thanks, thom.  I had got a bit tired of doing my high contrast B&W stuff, but didn't really know what to do.  Then I saw someone's photograph that I liked a lot.  Rather than B&W it was color; rather than hard light and high contrast, it was diffuse misty daylight, and the colors were a bit muted.  It was the first color work I had seen in a while that got me excited.  Maybe because it was the opposite of what I had been doing in so many ways.  Anyway, I'm happy with the look of these beach shots -- and I've fallen back in love with my Leica M2 and that wonderful Cosina Voigtlander 40mm lens.  Also, I used a 2-stop neutral density filter so I could shoot pretty open, 2.8 - 4.

[gregor]

 Leica M2, Nokton 40mm

Same rig I'm using except I'm shooting 800 @ 400.  How are you liking the Nokton?  Sometimes the DOF is a bit too swirly for me....

[Late Developer]

@ Hookstrapped / Gregor

Being a lazy bugger, I like to have a meter I can trust in my camera - at least to get an initial reading that I can se or tweak as I feel appropriate. My current daily camera is my M6 TTL but I also have a Fed2 that is un-metered. At the risk of kicking off a "sunny 16" discussion, how are you guys metering? Do you use sunny 16 or do you have a hand-held meter? If you use a meter, do you use reflective or incident readings?

I use a Minolta AutoMeter IVf (particularly if I'm using my Hasslblad or Rolleiflex and, where possible, take an incident reading. However, it's a slow-ish process and, if the cloud cover changes one minute to the next, I spend more time taking readings than composing my shots. Sunny 16 is okay but I'm a bit closer to being a control freak than is probably good for me. (I suppose using DSLRs for the past 7/8 years has taken its toll...!!  )

I'd be really interested to hear how you guys get your exposures.

Regards, Paul.

[hookstrapped]

@gregor

I really like the Nokton 40mm.  Nothing that makes it stand out in any way other than doing everything a good lens should do.  As for the bokeh, I went through my pics looking for swirly conditions (trees in the background) and found only two pics like that and one had a bit of swirl.  But for how I use it, that's rarely an issue.  I like the bokeh at f2 more than f1.4 which I find kind of harsh with distinct hard rings.  I found this piece about the lens, and more generally about the perspective a 40mm lens gives you.  I agree with what it says about the virtues of 40mm.
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/columns/sm-may-05.shtml


@Paul

I use this
http://www.cameraquest.com/voivcmet2.htm

I love it.  I think it's very accurate.  My only complaint is that when you take it off the hot shoe (e.g., when I want to put on an external viewfinder) the batter compartment door tends to come open and spill the batteries out.  Other than that, it's great.

I've been using my Mamiya 6 a lot lately and it's aperture-priority automatic, and the meter is very good, so I was enjoying not having to fiddle with readings and setting the aperture and shutter speed, but it's not bad with the manual setting business as long as the light isn't changing a lot.  Even then, getting a feel for the stop difference in exposure needed for when the clouds move in front of the sun or whatever, and with the latitude of negative film, you don't need to take a new reading each time.

[Late Developer]

@ Hookstrapped

Nice one! I've seen and actually used one of these meters (albeit briefly) but baulked at the price (£170-ish in the UK) as that was more than the camera cost. Stupid logic really as the meter is the thing that will make sure that the exposure is where it needs to be. Maybe I'll ask my wife for one as a Christmas present. 

I also like shooting wide open. Autumn, winter and spring offers good opportunities for that over here as the light intensity can be very low when it gets cloudy. Incidentally, I've tried leaving the exposure settings untouched when a cloud passes the sun and had mixed results; it is less of a problem when it's not the height of summer and slower film seems less problematic than 400+ ISO.

I had a Mamiya 7 some years ago, so I presume the meter will be similar to the 6? I really liked that camera's results but I used it, almost exclusively, on a tripod (landscapes). Bad move - you have to take the camera off the tripod and remove the mounting plate to get the door open and change film. What I didn't know (until too late) was that Mamiya brought out a little widget thing that sits between the camera and the tripod specifically to allow the door to open whilst changing film. Maybe one day I'll get a 7 again (or a 6) as I'd like to shoot that sort of quality camera hand-held now I'm doing more travel and reportage / documentary stuff.

Thanks for the info and insight; always great to hear other guys' "tricks of the trade".

[Alan]

Lovely work hookstrapped - your model friend is so relaxed on front of the camera
well done to you both!

thanks also to francois and others for the ideas on the blurrey filter doohickey thingy.

[gregor]

@ Hookstrapped / Gregor

Being a lazy bugger, I like to have a meter I can trust in my camera - at least to get an initial reading that I can se or tweak as I feel appropriate. My current daily camera is my M6 TTL but I also have a Fed2 that is un-metered. At the risk of kicking off a "sunny 16" discussion, how are you guys metering? Do you use sunny 16 or do you have a hand-held meter? If you use a meter, do you use reflective or incident readings?

I use a Minolta AutoMeter IVf (particularly if I'm using my Hasslblad or Rolleiflex and, where possible, take an incident reading. However, it's a slow-ish process and, if the cloud cover changes one minute to the next, I spend more time taking readings than composing my shots. Sunny 16 is okay but I'm a bit closer to being a control freak than is probably good for me. (I suppose using DSLRs for the past 7/8 years has taken its toll...!!  )

I'd be really interested to hear how you guys get your exposures.

Regards, Paul.

Paul - In mixed light or lowlight interiors I use a Sekonic Twinmate L-208 (used to use a Sekonic Studio Pro until I dropped it several times): spot metering. Otherwise it's instinct.  I may take a single reading and after that just use my judgement on how the light may swing a stop or two stops either way.  Many years ago I was taught the zone system in a haphazard way. That probably helped being able to read light without relying on a meter for most shots.

Film with a wide latitude helps too !

I can't sing high enough praises for the Twinmate. Only though user error have I missed when using it.

[Miles]

I use the same Twinmate too, upgraded from Leningrad-4 last year.  Very simple.

[Phil Bebbington]

I use a Sekonic L-358 - it would appear that it would make the tea if I knew how. I mostly take incident light readings with the odd reflective and have  found it spot on.