Films for B/W Portraiture

[Ron Marshall]

A friend of mine has a studio set up in his house and is using some Alien Bees lights. He had to crank them up all the way the last time I tried to do portraiture but I was using a process lens with max aperture of f/11. I am hoping that perhaps f/5.6 or f/8 with a different lens would be easier to work with on his setup.

Shooting wide open will give you enough light, but perhaps not enough depth of field and depending on the lens less image quality.

Personally, I like the slightly soft look and shallow depth of field of f5.6 on 4x5. See some of the examples that Frank Petronio has posted that were taken at f5.6.

The smallest Alien Bees unit is rated at f11 at ISO 100 with a medium softbox, so if you can get it close to your subject, ISO 400 may give you f22, but even a larger softbox and greater distance should give you f11.

[Frank Petronio]

I do f/5.6 on 4x5 with ease but f/5.6 on 8x10 is much harder to hold focus in control areas because with a 300 (I used a Xenar) the DOF is eyelash thin. I tried to get f/8 to f/11 on 8x10, which gives one a little margin. Getting f/11 from even a couple of 500w Halogens bouncing off walls puts you into 1/8th sec range. I hate shooting people below 1/15th. They breath even when they are good models.

Of course Supreme Dudes like Jim Galli can shoot 11x14 at f/4!

[Ted Harris]

I still use Ektapan for 5x7 (still have around 150 sheeets) for 4x5 I use Acros. Don't get too worried about Alien Bees, IMO they, like many other Chinese made strobes are dramatically overrated in terms of real output. I have used a mix of Hensel and Norma lights for years and never hand any trouble shooting a basically whatever settings often using 1000 or less.

[chris_4622]

Diane,

The photos I sent of Janet were done on Fp4+ at f4.8, 1 second.

My reason for using it was a result of asking a similar question here before the workshop.

[John Kasaian]

8x10 eh? I'd go with Tri-X or HP-5+. Try a 12" Dagor or a e14" Commercial Ektar at f6.3 unless your have on of those "Jim Galli Specials" If you want them to shed a few pounds a strategic pose in front of a 10" WF Ektar should do the trick. For a "big head" shot I'd suggest at least a 16-1/2" lens (even with the 14 incher the subject's breath does tend to fog the lens!)

Have fun!

[David Luttmann]

FP4 all the way. Creamy smooth skin tones. I use 4 Alien Bee strobes and F11 is fine.

[Diane Maher]

I do have some brass lenses, but I want to try the 250 mm Fujinon SF lens on the 8x10 before I fall back on the brass lenses.

I also have a whole plate camera I would like to use for portraiture, but I may stick with the brass lenses with that one. The whole plate camera is what I am really asking this question for since the Ilford film is now being offered.

Thanks to all for your replies.

Diane

[BrianShaw]

Will the Fujinon cover 8x10? I use one on 4x5 and (despite popular opinion) like it. I've never checked, however, to see what the coverage is really like.

[John O'Connell]

I was told by Badger Graphic that the 250 SF will cover 8x10 at infinity. Haven't got one yet to test it though.

[BrianShaw]

Late last night I scrounged through my files and found a hard-to-read copy of some Fujinon SF lens design data -- the 250-SF appears to have an image circle of 300mm. I'm pleasantly surprised!