Christopher,Originally Posted by Christopher Broadbent
Back to basics. Technica 4x5,135mm Sironar with lots of black stocking. B&W salvaged from a badly exposed Ektachrome with a double scan and HDR.
If you offered a how-to book, I'd be in line to buy it.
Ron
God, me too. I would pay by the word!
Add me to that list as well.
Anything I know about table-top would fit into one short 'teaching grannies to suck eggs' post. Here goes and I hope it gets buried fast:
'A photograph needs Structure, Light and the Hint of an Idea'. Whoever said that first deserves a monument (She was a creative director from Germany, I believe).
A backgrounds is the only really personal attribute a photographer owns and he must DIY (double bed sheet on a stretcher) himself, shading the tones off so that the light and dark parts of his subjects can emerge.
There is one source of light and it is larger than the subject - and the light is feathered off right up to edge of the composition (fighting the inverse-square-law).
The composition is not lit, it lights itself naturally. The source is immutable, placed for atmosphere on an empty set. It is the 'stuff' then, that gets added and shifted around until every edge finds a place to emerge against a lighter or a darker tone (Drawing for Dummies).
A camera on set gets in the way physically and conceptually and should be placed last and then somewhere between the horizontal perspective planes. ANY camera will do (see Safe Haven in the Lounge) - as long as the lens is a bit short of normal (for tangibility).
Finally, the subject sits as on a stage, surrounded by sufficient emptiness for the viewer to dress with her own imagination. It is all theatre anyway. Still-life has been done like this for a few hundred years for some good reason. I just tag along. End of Book.
I could add that tone range in the background should be minor, leaving the major tone shifts to the the subject. Adding haze (aerial perspective) to backgrounds is a must when shooting LF stopped down or with small formats. I use tulle half way between, now and then.
Great summary Christopher! Thanks for taking the time for us early learners.
Jim Cole
Flagstaff, AZ
Chrisopher's summary is a bit humble and understated - like the explanation given by a Master Sculptor: "I just remove the extra stone".
Last edited by Ken Lee; 25-May-2010 at 09:47.
Due to small working space, combined with a smallish background, one of the things I tend to struggle with is getting the background far enough away. Your solution sounds promising. I'm guessing one must be careful with light spilling on the tulle? Well, ok, I'm not even remotely sure what I really need to do to make it fly. Does the tulle need to be pulled tight? Any hints to not make me learn everything by errors (which is my tendency) would be greatly appreciated!
This was shot with a Chamonix 4X5 with Ilford FP4, than printed on Adox FB, bleached and toned in Carbon toner from Wolfgang Moersch.
Light on the tulle is the way to create haze. They do it like that at the opera. Staple it to a frame pulled tight.
Otherwise, let a mist of weak watery white paint rain down on the background before it's paint dries (always paint flat on the floor anyway). A garden spray pointed skyways is good for that.
Attachment 41088
lens: jupiter-8
photopaper: "Bromportret"
what do you think?
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