High contrast style?

[ryanmills]

Recently come across Margaret M. de Lange: http://www.margaretmdelange.com/index.html

I know she shots mostly 35mm but the b/w is very striking to me. A tone style very similar to sally mann. Is this style as simple as pushing the film a ridiculous amount? If I was going to try to duplicate this and recommendations on how?

[jp]

Looks like she just used too high a grade of contrast when printing.

[C_Remington]

You would pull the film.

[jp]

Unless you have seen the prints in person, this could be bad scanning too.

[Jim Noel]

Slow film, D-76 straight for 40% longer than normal.
It would be very easily done with lith film and D-76 1+3 or 1+4.

[ryanmills]

Slow film, D-76 straight for 40% longer than normal.
It would be very easily done with lith film and D-76 1+3 or 1+4.

Your right, that litho film does give a similar look, does not seem like there is much around to buy anymore. Is ultrafine the only one?



Unless you have seen the prints in person, this could be bad scanning too.
She has put out two books and been featured in a number of gallery's, i highly doubt its bad scanning.

[Jim Andrada]

No, probably not bad scanning. More likely bad conception and execution at the button pushing stage. Ugly damn photos.

[Daniel Stone]

Very dense(aka almost, or, black(zone0-1)) shadow values, crushed mid tones and very "bleached" highlights to me would dictate both underexposure and the use of pushing film in development to raise highlight values to attain the required density.
Furthermore, use of a higher grade filter during the printing process would continue to lead to a more 'graphic' effect.

Not really my style, but an interesting perspective/style nonetheless.

Thanks for sharing,
Dan

[David R Munson]

I like her style. She places an emphasis on upper midtones and highlights in that she prints everything lower than that quite dark. Also looks like plenty of selective tonal adjustments/burning to further isolate the subject. I appreciate the stark, graphic nature of her shots. I like how she sees things. Take the same photos and give them the long scale, shadow detail, and delicate highlights the zone system crowd goes all wobbly for and the work would lose something. Not a style for everyone, but fortunately there's room enough for many approaches in photography.

[ryanmills]

No, probably not bad scanning. More likely bad conception and execution at the button pushing stage. Ugly damn photos.
To each there own, but how many books have you put out, how many solo shows have you done? Margaret, 11 Solo shows, 2 respected books. Not sure about you but she has me beat and has my respect. Perhaps a little is due.

[ghoonk]

I can't speak for the technical aspects of her work, but the images have a wonderfully gritty and contrasty look about them that bring out the subject well.

I'd love to know how she got it to look like that, her film, how she developed the film and the paper

[Cor]

..I guess: pushed 35mm TriX processed in Rodinal should get you there perhaps..

Best,

Cor

[ghoonk]

Rodinal, one of the developers that cannot be shipped, and not available here in Dubai. I really need to get to reading up on how to push the development process as well :)

[Brian C. Miller]

Rodinal is not magic. "Pushing" a film simply means underexposure and then using a longer development time. That's it. You can push a film using any developer out there. This will always add grain and screw with the film curve.

Look for "High Contrast," by J. Seeley, published 1992. He wrote a thorough book on the subject.

[Brian Ellis]

If you print from Photoshop there's many ways to get this look but the simplest is to just expose and develop normally, then use a Curves adjustment layer, move the line in the upper right corner to the left and lower left hand corner to the right, fiddle around with the midtones as needed, until it looks like you want it to look. If you're using a darkroom you're more limited but in general I'd underexpose the film so that the shadow areas will be black when printed and then if you want bright whites overdevelop.