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Thread: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

  1. #1

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    Dec 2004
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    Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    Hi just got my 4x5 Polaroid Razzle rangefinder conversion. Going to shoot it on the street at night with flash in July. The plan is to use tri-x 4x5 rated at 200 and a 283 Vivitar flash which will allow me to shoot at f16. Will use grafmatic backs, lens on the camera(no movements) is a 135mm F5.6 Fujinon.

    Any thoughts? suggestions? I shot street stuff with a Mamiya 6 in 1999 with a metz flash and 75mm lens at F11(which gave me nice depth of focus).

    http://gerryyaum.com/street%20life.html

    This is the first time I am doing this type of work with 4x5, any thoughts or suggestions would be helpfull. Just looking for some people that have experiance in this style of shooting that might help me limit my mistakes.

    This is the camera:

    http://gerryyaum.blogspot.com/2008/0...ma-online.html

    Thanks Gerry

  2. #2

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    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    I would suggest using Tmax 400, new is better, but old is fine, in Xtol 1:3. You get great shadow depth and real 400 speed. I have shot quite a bit of it with my Technika handheld, both with and without a flash:

    http://www.epr-art.com/mardigras/2007-Zulu/index.htm

  3. #3

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    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    thanks Ed, thats sometihng to think about. I have never used the Tmax 400/Xtol 1:3 combo.

    Ed you shot your Technika hand held? what kind of shutter f-stop comboes we talking about? The extra stop (rating tmax at 400) would help.

    Gerry

  4. #4

    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    This sounds very interesting, but the accessory shoe on my Technika is occupied with the viewfinder and the side flash mount doesn't make it very convenient to mount flashes with standard flash shoes.

  5. #5

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    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Hohenstein View Post
    This sounds very interesting, but the accessory shoe on my Technika is occupied with the viewfinder and the side flash mount doesn't make it very convenient to mount flashes with standard flash shoes.
    Then the Novoflex FLASH GRIFF with a Novoflex goose neck arm will solve your problem.

  6. #6

    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon - HP Marketing View Post
    Then the Novoflex FLASH GRIFF with a Novoflex goose neck arm will solve your problem.
    If it clamped to the right side of the camera it would be perfect. Doesn't anybody make a 1/4 x 20 adaptor that will clamp there? Then I could attach the gooseneck and dispense with the bracket. Since Linhof has stuck with that style of mount, surely there must be some adaptors for it.

  7. #7
    Whatever David A. Goldfarb's Avatar
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    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    Here's some night work with flash and a 4x5" Technika from the Greenwich Village Halloween parade that I've posted here before, but now with a short essay about the parade and technical information--

    http://www.echonyc.com/~goldfarb/pho...ween/index.htm

    For flash I use a standard simple Norman bracket with an extra hole drilled for the strobe (Norman head with a 1/4"-20 screw mount, rather than shoe mount, but I also have a flash shoe that I can screw in, when I want to use a smaller flash just for fill), so I can get it over the lens axis. Stratos makes brackets that look like they should work well with a press camera or converted Polaroid.

  8. #8

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    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    I use 100iso Fuji instant at f/11 with my Razzle, that's with a Vivitar 285 through the PC Synch.

    I'd recommend you pick yourself a Polaroid 545 back and some Type-55 to get your exposure right on the spot. That would be iso-50, but it's nice to use. The Fuji/Polaroid-550 holder and pack film is a nightmare on the Razzle, I'd not recommend it, but it's possible.


    I've not done much night stuff, I also find adding the flash on top makes the camera even heavier!

  9. #9

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    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Hohenstein View Post
    If it clamped to the right side of the camera it would be perfect. Doesn't anybody make a 1/4 x 20 adaptor that will clamp there? Then I could attach the gooseneck and dispense with the bracket. Since Linhof has stuck with that style of mount, surely there must be some adaptors for it.
    The flash bracket that fit to the bracket on the rangefinder housing was the Jones Encircling Clamp. Jones flash brackets was purchased several years ago by Veach (they make gold stamping machines) several years ago. Veach discontinued this clamp and you would have to try and find a used one. The Jones clamp accepted handle mount flash units with a circular handle - like a Rollei E36RE. You could easily get a piece of round acrylic plastic to fit the clamp and screw a flash shoe onto the top of the acrylic by drilling and tapping holes to accept a Kaiser flash shoe.

    I have never heard of a commercially made adapter for an accessory shoe mount flash for the Technika bracket.

  10. #10

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    Re: Street Portraiture with 4x5 Rangefinder Suggestions

    Quote Originally Posted by Bob Salomon - HP Marketing View Post
    Then the Novoflex FLASH GRIFF with a Novoflex goose neck arm will solve your problem.
    Thanks for the suggestions and the info, never heard of this device before. I will get one and give it a try.

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