October 2014 Portraits

[SergeiR]

Alright so it's technically not an October portrait, but I unveiled it last night (October 1st), I hope that counts. I've been keeping this portrait secret since I took it in May, seems a little odd to post the portrait in May portraits this late in the year.

very cool subject.

[Jim Galli]

Fuji HR-S X-ray film (cut to 4x5)
Exposed at EI 80
Xtol 1:1 6min @68
Sinar P
Fujinon 300/5.6

Mesmerizing shot.

[M.Lange]

[evan clarke]

Flickr, blogs..trying to judge contrast values? It's the Internet and doesn't really exist..

[jcoldslabs]

Fuji HR-S X-ray film (cut to 4x5)
Exposed at EI 80
Xtol 1:1 6min @68
Sinar P
Fujinon 300/5.6

Whatever that quality is that successful portraits have, this has it.

Jonathan

[Trevor Whitaker]

Alright so it's technically not an October portrait, but I unveiled it last night (October 1st), I hope that counts. I've been keeping this portrait secret since I took it in May, seems a little odd to post the portrait in May portraits this late in the year.
Details about the shoot here:
http://leesmathersphotography.wordpr...-george-takei/

Given the subject I guess the only appropriate response is "Oh my!"

[koraks]

In the woods. Schneider 75/8, TMX in Rodinal 1:50, 4990 scan

[NiNo]

very-very nice! thanks!

[richardman]

This should probably go to the "Mistake" thread. Ted Grant is a national treasure of Canada. He photographed Prime Minister Trudeau sliding down a banister and Ben Johnson winning the Gold (and then lost it later due to drug violation). Travel photos, Queen Elizabeth, he has done it all. His photography mantra is KISS (Keep it Simple...) Back in the days, he would run around with 3 Leica Ms on his neck, and then one or two Leica R with long lens.

And he's an incredibly generous, funny person. My wife and I had the privilege to share an afternoon with him. The (small format Leica M9) photoset is here: http://richardmanphoto.com/PICS/TedGrant-2014/

It was somewhat surreal that after some niceties, that I brought in my 4x5, and of course I had the wrong film etc. Nevertheless, with the magic of Lightroom, an image can be seen:

[photoevangelist]

Nice, Lee!!

BTW though, the Flickr version is way more contrasty than your blog post image. Not sure why? Actually, looking at it again, the top and bottom versions on your blog are different too...? The top looks like the Flickr link, the bottom one is less contrasty.

Bryan,
I do have two versions of this portrait. The Flickr version (and the main image on my blog) is a scan of the contact sheet print version. At the time I was using a Zone VI enlarger to make contact prints. Green for tones + Blue for maximum blacks. I'm now using an Omega 5XL for my contact sheets because I don't want to use up the last of my Zone VI bulb life on contact sheets. Also I think Flickr sharpens images once uploaded.

The image at the end of the blog is a final low res image of the negative scan I used to print the digital enlargement. I'm scanning my 8x10 images as 2000 dpi and reducing them to be 40x50 inches / 300 dpi for print. My 8x10 portraits would look great printed traditionally as 20x24, but I'm not able to print 8x10 yet. Since I have to scan the images to print my images, I figured I might as well go for the biggest I can do with our school's Canon printer. Very satisfied wit the results, but the clone/healing brush retouching from my v750 scanner at 200% takes 4-7 hours per image. I've got 15 images to do for a show that opens on Nov. 1, and am still working on the first image!

Thank you all for your kind words. It was a humbling experience to photograph George Takei!