Portable Studio Portraits

[Cameron Cornell]

May 10, 2018

A year ago, I posted a thread asking for advice on building a portable skylight studio to shoot portraits in the field.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?136068-Portable-Skylight-Studio&highlight=portable+skylight+studio

Well, I did it. Last summer, I bought an 12x20' canopy tent with an 11' peak. I discarded the cover that came with it. Instead, I draped opaque fabric over the half that would be facing south, and draped the north side with white fabric. Last August, I set up the tent at a four-day folk music festival in Washington State called the Subdued Stringband Jamboree (http://www.stringbandjamboree.com/).

My approach out in the world is to shoot these 8x10 portraits for free. The people sitting for portraits sign off that I retain the rights to use the images however I want, and they can buy a print if they like the results. It's a hobby. I don't have any ambition beyond making images that appeal to me. I'm not trying to make money, and I'm certainly not angling for any notice. I did make enough selling prints, however, that I covered the cost of my film and paper, so that was great.

I'll be back at it again this coming August 9-12. Stop by if you're in the area. Everyone camps out. There's music basically 24 hours a day because everyone is walking around with instruments and they play all night around campfires. It's a good time.

All that to say, what follows are a few out-of-focus snapshots of the setup, plus a few of my favorites of the 88 portraits I shot last summer. If anyone else has done something like this, I'd love to see photographs of your setup, plus any images you'd like to share. I'd also welcome any discussion of the "WHY" of all this image-making we do. For me, I take pleasure in the process and the end-results. It's hard work and it's fun and I like the pictures these old lenses capture. I enjoy meeting the people who end up in front of the camera. Setting up out in the world like this invites that serendipity. This way, I have no idea what this summer's pictures will look like.

Cheers,

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

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Washington State
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Washington State
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Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Cameron Cornell]

All of the above were shot on a 1944 8x10 Ansco Studio No. 5 using either a 16" Wollensak Vitax or a 14" Voigtlander Heliar. I printed the contacts on Ilford Multigrade FB Warmtone, toned in selenium.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Peter De Smidt]

What a great project! Kudos!

[jon.oman]

Great job! Wonderful images!

[ericantonio]

These are beautiful!

[Cameron Cornell]

Thank you, fellows. I certainly enjoyed making them.

[nbagno]

Love it. Lots of ideas never reach reality, great that you brought yours to fruition. The people sitting for you will have something to cherish forever.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ajmiller]

Great portraits, thanks for sharing. I do like your background cloth as well.

[malexand]

Well Done!
Great images!
I've been mulling a similar strategy for some local festivals here but haven't gotten all the puzzle pieces into place yet. Great inspiration!

[robshepherd]

Good job Cameron! I live in Bellingham and have attended that festival a few times in the past. I even recognize one of your subjects from around town here. I'm impressed that you made more than 80 portraits. Were they all done at the Jamboree? -Rob

[bloodhoundbob]

Great job, Cameron. Love all the images, but gotta favor the barefoot bari sax lady. It is so much my favorite instrument that I almost bought one to learn to play it. I now regret that I didn't. Congratulations on your work!

[Cameron Cornell]

Well Done!
Great images!
I've been mulling a similar strategy for some local festivals here but haven't gotten all the puzzle pieces into place yet. Great inspiration!

I highly recommend this strategy. By setting up at a busy, happy place like a music festival, people wander by. Seven out of ten don't even notice, but the people who are into it self-select and really seem to enjoy the process. Great conversations and even relationships ensue. By not charging for the sitting, I can do it however I want. I'm not trying to please anyone but myself. I have a box out for donations. I gave the donations (about $80 last year) to my son (the lanky guy in glasses in the snapshots) who was my right-hand man. He had a great time, too.


Good job Cameron! I live in Bellingham and have attended that festival a few times in the past. I even recognize one of your subjects from around town here. I'm impressed that you made more than 80 portraits. Were they all done at the Jamboree? -Rob

You live in Bellingham? So do I! Just south of Lake Whatcom, actually. I hope you'll come to the Jamboree again this year. Stop by my circus tent and I'll make your portrait.

All of the portraits I posted at the beginning of this thread were from last summer's Jamboree. Below are some portraits I made at the 2016 Jamboree. That summer, I just camped with my 8x10 and set it up after the sun set behind the trees each afternoon around 5 p.m. Solving the problem of shooting portraits in high summer sun was really what got me interested in building a north light studio. The light in that thing is just lovely. Every time I looked through the ground glass, I'd almost gasp at how gorgeous the light was on my subject.

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Cameron Cornell]

Here are a couple more portraits from the 2017 Jamboree. This is a band called the Hot House Jazz Band. Fantastic musicians, really friendly people. The band leader had his trumpet sit in for him in the portrait inside of the tent.

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[robshepherd]

You live in Bellingham? So do I! Just south of Lake Whatcom, actually. I hope you'll come to the Jamboree again this year. Stop by my circus tent and I'll make your portrait.



Yes, we live a little south of the university. I will send you a private message here this afternoon. Perhaps we can get together and look at some prints. I'd like to show you some gum dichromate portraits I have been making! Regards, Rob

[Hugo Zhang]

Great project and lovely portraits!

[Ari]

You are to be applauded, sir! I remember your post from last year.
Good on you for making this happen, and doing such a great job of it.

[Mark Sampson]

Keep up the good work!

[Serge S]

What a great set up!
I'm impressed!!
Great to see it come to fruition for you!
How much does your tent weigh?

Serge

[Cameron Cornell]

What a great set up!
I'm impressed!!
Great to see it come to fruition for you!
How much does your tent weigh?

Serge

Thank you, Serge. I really do appreciate all of the encouragement you fellows have offered, especially as it comes from people whose work I really respect.

Here is the canopy I bought:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/King-Canopy-12-ft-W-x-20-ft-D-Steel-Expandable-Canopy-EX1220/203576428?cm_mmc=hd_email-_-Ready_for_pickup-_-20170626_PP_ET_Merch_Ready_for_pickup_3039683-_-product_desc__W611914892

It looks like it weighs 201 lbs. I rented a 14' truck to set up the day before the festival opened, and again on the last day to break it down.

Normally, the fellow who runs the festival (the musician Robert Sarazin Blake, the fellow in the portrait bowing and holding his hat above his head) charges $300 for vendors to set up at the festival. We made a deal, though, that I'd shoot portraits of the musicians who perform at the festival and give them scans of their images for free. He had invited me to be a vendor after we met at the 2016 Jamboree. My plan is to go back every summer for the next ten years or so. By the time I wrap it up, I figure I'll have a nice little set of portraits.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Ben Calwell]

I love this!

[hoffy]

Only skim read this thread. Awesome job. Will read it a bit more indepth later, but I do like what you have done

[Merg Ross]

Wonderful idea and results! Looks like hard work, but well worth it.

[chassis]

This is great. Would like to do something similar this summer.

[mdarnton]

I love the photos, and am really struck by how wonderfully you handled the lighting, with the modified tent. The light is absolutely perfect, by any measure!

[Cameron Cornell]

I love the photos, and am really struck by how wonderfully you handled the lighting, with the modified tent. The light is absolutely perfect, by any measure!

Thank you, Michael. I think that considering the light is one of our best chances to impact an image. We can’t really take credit for how a lens renders a scene (we didn’t make the lens), or the great face or expression our subject has (or for that matter, the beautiful tree or mountain). That leaves composition, technique, and the light. The light can be so beautiful. Properly handled, I think it can make an image of anything seem like a revelation.

I have plenty to learn about light, of course, but this project has been a great vehicle for that process. I was trying to recreate the light in the north light studios of old, like Hippolyte Bayard’s below from 1855. I spent five weeks setting up the tent in my back yard everyday, gradually modifying the way I draped the fabric until it was just the way I wanted it. I didn’t want to be figuring it out during the actual festival.

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Robert Brazile]

Really enjoyed those, plus the shots of the setup. Good for you!

Robert

[Roger Thoms]

Nice job all around, portraits are great and it's awesome that you brought you studio camera out.

Roger

[diversey]

A great set-up! Nice portraits.

[Cameron Cornell]

You’ve all been really generous with your encouragement. Even though I make these photographs for my own enjoyment, and to some extent for the people in the photographs, and even though I claim not to want or need any notice, I’ll confess that it’s gratifying to have people in the know take a look. I do hope that if any of you fellows actually follow through on a similar project that you’ll get in touch. I have pages of notes on my solutions to the thousand little problems that popped up that might save you some time. If you have the requisite desire, time, energy, and funds, I’d encourage you to go for it. It’s the most fun I’ve had making photographs since I first picked up a camera.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[hoffy]

Hey Cameron,

I love what you have done. I love how you have done it and I love that you are doing as no strings attached, for your own enjoyment and to give back to that specific music community.

I have something similar planned, but portraits done at my home and in my own (yet to be setup) garage studio. My idea would be similar. Come and sit for free. If you like it, you can buy a scan for $X or you can have a fibre print for $Y. If you don't like it, will that's fine, as I would have learnt something.

It makes it refreshing to see this, as opposed to the "you must sell. If you don't you are doing the industry a disservice" attitudes and responses on many other groups and forums.

keep up the good work! I've really enjoyed what you have done.

[eabartel]

fantastic! thanks for sharing

[Cameron Cornell]

July 30, 2018

Greetings!

As detailed at the beginning of this thread, I will be setting up and shooting 8x10 portraits Aug 9-11 at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree in Deming, Washington. You can get all the details at http://www.stringbandjamboree.com.

If any of you from this forum make it out, stop by and I’ll make your portrait. I never charge to shoot, but if you let it me know that you read about it here, I’ll also make you a print for free.

Best,

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[ericantonio]

Gawd that looks fun!! A friend of mine here is from up there but I don't think he's logged in a while. I'm going to send him a note to check out this thread.

[gimenosaiz]

Hello!

What a wonderful project!!! Great portraits.
It's really amazing, I love it!

kind regards from Spain
Antonio

[bvy]

I'm intrigued. I'm doing an 8x10 shoot using the new Polaroid film at an art gallery next weekend. This is good last minute inspiration.

Good luck with the event.

[dasBlute]

one of the more inspirational threads I've seen in quite a while [but maybe I'm living under a rock or something],
thanks for sharing this...

[jnantz]

one of the more inspirational threads I've seen in quite a while [but maybe I'm living under a rock or something],
thanks for sharing this...

couldn't agree more !
ive been living under a rock too..

[Michael Graves]

Here are a couple more portraits from the 2017 Jamboree. This is a band called the Hot House Jazz Band. Fantastic musicians, really friendly people. The band leader had his trumpet sit in for him in the portrait inside of the tent.

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

Is that the ghost of Ansel in the back there?

[peter brooks]

Inspirational is the right word... A great idea, and great portraits. The light is gorgeous.

Sounds like the ideal venue too (not that there's much chance of getting mugged for your camera - it would be a very slow getaway :)

Do you have a lot of film holders, or reload holders at intervals in a dark bag?

[Cameron Cornell]

Thank you fellows for the encouragement.

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I set up the portrait tent again at this year's Subdued Stringband Jamboree this past August. The music went on round the clock and so many familiar faces were there that I only had to take down information for 12 people who'd never sat for me before. I shot 140+ sheets of 8x10 and 25 sheets of 5x7. To answer your question, Peter, I have 22 8x10 film holders, so I can shoot up to 44 sheets a day. At some point each night, I drove home to my darkroom thirty minutes away and reloaded.

I don't love any of the shots from this year's festival. For the most part, they are competent portraits, some of them good, but none quite have that quality, impossible to define (but I know it when I see it), of an image that I love. That doesn't mean that the project failed this year. The process is the point. It's loads of fun. Chasing those elusive shots where everything comes together keeps me coming back to try again.

I finished processing the film by the end of August. Now I'm slowly working my way through printing the images that I like, along with the print orders that have come in. Above are a few that I've printed so far (Ilford Multigrade Warmtone FB toned in Selenium). I'll post a few more below, along with some pictures of the setup and process.

I would love to hear from anyone doing something similar. I'll be back at it again next August.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Cameron Cornell]

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Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

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I'll post a few more in the coming months after I get them printed to my satisfaction.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Cameron Cornell]

Here are some snapshots of this year's setup and process.

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Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Cameron Cornell]

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[chassis]

Great series Cameron.

[Cameron Cornell]

Thanks, BJ. I looked at your work- really beautiful. We’re lucky to get to do this stuff.

[John Olsen]

Cameron,

I missed your event this year, staying home sulking with a broken foot. Put up your notice when you do this next time as I'd like to visit and watch. You've been doing really nice work on this project! (Loved the jugglers!)

John O

[Cameron Cornell]

Cameron,

I missed your event this year, staying home sulking with a broken foot. Put up your notice when you do this next time as I'd like to visit and watch. You've been doing really nice work on this project! (Loved the jugglers!)

John O

Hey, John-

I remember talking about this idea with you at your Greenbank Farm gallery opening a few months before executing it for the first time. The negative I made that day didn't work out, by the way. I think it was my first time using that studio shutter and I fouled it up, totally overexposing the negative. Come to the Jamboree and I'll get it right this time!

Cheers,

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Cameron Cornell]

Here are a few more prints from the Jamboree that I've made in the past few weeks.

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This is the woman in the last portrait performing one of her songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8c6BTVMP64

I took the group portrait with an 1899 5x7 ROC Pony Premo No. 6 and the others with a 1907 14" Voigtlander Heliar on a 1944 8x10 Ansco Studio No. 5. I was able to shoot portraits outside during the day on the final day of the festival because it was cloudy bright. The group portrait has the back of my portrait tent as its backdrop.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Tin Can]

Thanks for the song link.

Nashville music comes to my new town often.

I like the group shot best.

[chassis]

Nice series Cameron.

[Cameron Cornell]

Thanks for the song link.

Nashville music comes to my new town often.

I like the group shot best.

Thanks, Randy.

Here are a few of the other musicians who played there last summer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8c9s4lNAqI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4NoNUk_7as

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWXpKCQ6XGI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvQfKHBuVbo

It's mostly local or regional musicians, lots of youngish people, but truckloads of talent.

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[bwlf]

Great work Cameron! This is wonderfully done - very impressive. Getting a classic soft overhead light through diffusion like that is exactly how all the old photography studios did it!

In a related note... I recently visited Seoul, South Korea and was most spectacularly impressed by the work of a local photographic artist there who set made near-life-size prints in black and white of nearly all the shop owners on a pedestrian street in the historic (and very touristic) Bukchon Hanok Village.

The artist or shop is called Mulnamoo (mulnamoo.com) - and they used the same technique of a large tent (at a larger scale) with diffusion cloth as the studio. I have only found the photos easily referenced via instagram (@mulnamoo):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjZgUvVg-tU/ - large outdoor tent studio with diffusion cloth for making the portraits
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo5x7W8B5sN/ - triptych of prints, example results
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpXDeAPBbgd/ - print example next to the shop owner subject

The work was also compiled into a beautifully printed book, from the letterpress shop across the street.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo-2G7shfOY/

[Cameron Cornell]

Great work Cameron! This is wonderfully done - very impressive. Getting a classic soft overhead light through diffusion like that is exactly how all the old photography studios did it!

In a related note... I recently visited Seoul, South Korea and was most spectacularly impressed by the work of a local photographic artist there who set made near-life-size prints in black and white of nearly all the shop owners on a pedestrian street in the historic (and very touristic) Bukchon Hanok Village.

The artist or shop is called Mulnamoo (mulnamoo.com) - and they used the same technique of a large tent (at a larger scale) with diffusion cloth as the studio. I have only found the photos easily referenced via instagram (@mulnamoo):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjZgUvVg-tU/ - large outdoor tent studio with diffusion cloth for making the portraits
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo5x7W8B5sN/ - triptych of prints, example results
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpXDeAPBbgd/ - print example next to the shop owner subject

The work was also compiled into a beautifully printed book, from the letterpress shop across the street.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo-2G7shfOY/

I love this! Thank you so much for passing this along.

It made me think of a project that Neil Selkirk did in Times Square back in ‘98 (although I much prefer the project that you shared): https://www.neilselkirk.com/1000-on-42nd-street-1/uoamu1ljxosievm2ykhw13heqtrasv

I was living in NY at the time and I remember how captivating it was to walk down that street and confront these 1000 faces printed several feet tall right at street level.

[Cameron Cornell]

Greetings! One week from tomorrow, I’ll once again have the north-light, portable portrait studio up and running at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree. If any of you on this forum by some coincidence are in the region around Mount Baker in Washington State and you happen to enjoy bluegrass & folk music, you ought to come to the festival and visit my tent. I’ll make your portrait and mail you a print. I’m not even charging for the prints anymore, with the caveats that I retain all of the rights to use the images and that I only print images that I choose (not every session will yield a print, but just mention this post and I’ll make sure we get a keeper).

It’s going to be fun. I’ll post images here through the Winter as I print.

Cheers,

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[tuco]

Greetings! One week from tomorrow, I’ll once again have the north-light, portable portrait studio up and running at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree. If any of you on this forum by some coincidence are in the region around Mount Baker in Washington State and you happen to enjoy bluegrass & folk music, you ought to come to the festival and visit my tent. I’ll make your portrait and mail you a print. I’m not even charging for the prints anymore, with the caveats that I retain all of the rights to use the images and that I only print images that I choose (not every session will yield a print, but just mention this post and I’ll make sure we get a keeper).

It’s going to be fun. I’ll post images here through the Winter as I print.

Cheers,

Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

Maybe. If you see a guy with a folded Crown Graphic at his side on a shoulder strap plus a waist pouch stuffed with some sheet film, you'll know it's me.

[Cameron Cornell]

It was the fourth year I’ve made portraits at this festival. It was three days of shooting and just under 150 sheets of 8 x 10 film. I’ll post some of the results this fall and winter. Now to organize and store the massive mess of tarps, furniture, fabric, and equipment littering my garage!

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com
www.instagram.com/papacornell

[Tin Can]

Wow!

Like!

[Peter De Smidt]

Great setup!

[hoffy]

150 sheets of 8x10! And I believe you don't charge the sitters?

Now that is commitment! Keep up the good work

[Tin Can]

I think Cameron is very smart not to charge and retain usage rights. He also does not guarantee a print, so he can just keep moving.

Try it sometime, there is never a profit.

Most do it for fun.

I am not on his level but any print I make I give it away if somebody actually wants one...

Has happened!

[Cameron Cornell]

Thank you for your kind words, gents.

In previous years, I would shoot portraits for free and charge for prints if people wanted them. The problem was, I would spend weeks scanning negatives and sending out proofs. When orders came in for prints, it was rarely the for the images that I loved. It was a drag setting up the darkroom to print these images and know that I was putting off printing the important work. Now that nothing will be available for sale at any point, I have full control of the process. At one point this past weekend, someone asked if she could have her portrait made standing with one foot on the chair. In the past, I might have made the portrait with the thought that, well, maybe she’ll buy the print. In the event, I told her that I don’t like portraits of people with their feet on chairs, and since I’m not going to print something I don’t like, we shouldn’t make that picture. It was a great moment for me.

I’m going to New York for 12 days for John Coffer’s wet plate workshop and a few days visiting friends and family in the city. I’m planning to shoot another 50 sheets of film, which will round out my summer’s shooting to 300 sheets. I’ll start processing in September. The lovely thing is, when I’m finished, I can begin printing the images I love the most and just keep printing until I get to images that aren’t worth my time of the darkroom. Those images will never see the light of day. This is the way it should be for a hobby. It should be fun and I should be making what I want to make.

Here are the signs I had up in the tent:

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

[Tin Can]

Fantastic!

Bravo!

[hoffy]

Please, please don't get me wrong! I find it amazingly commendable that you are doing this for passion. I wish I had the confidence to do portraits like this. Like Tin Can said:

Fantastic!

Bravo!
:)

[Cameron Cornell]

Please, please don't get me wrong!
:)

Not at all! I know the whole thing is a little bit nuts, but I’m 44 years old and I can do this now and I know that won’t always be the case. I figure the next decade or two is my time to go big on this thing. It’s not important in the scheme of things, but it’s fun.

[coolbreeze1983]

Excellent project. Keep up the great work. Always enjoy seeing updates.

Howard

[John Olsen]

Thank you for your kind words, gents.

In previous years, I would shoot portraits for free and charge for prints if people wanted them. The problem was, I would spend weeks scanning negatives and sending out proofs. When orders came in for prints, it was rarely the for the images that I loved. It was a drag setting up the darkroom to print these images and know that I was putting off printing the important work. Now that nothing will be available for sale at any point, I have full control of the process. At one point this past weekend, someone asked if she could have her portrait made standing with one foot on the chair. In the past, I might have made the portrait with the thought that, well, maybe she’ll buy the print. In the event, I told her that I don’t like portraits of people with their feet on chairs, and since I’m not going to print something I don’t like, we shouldn’t make that picture. It was a great moment for me.

I’m going to New York for 12 days for John Coffer’s wet plate workshop and a few days visiting friends and family in the city. I’m planning to shoot another 50 sheets of film, which will round out my summer’s shooting to 300 sheets. I’ll start processing in September. The lovely thing is, when I’m finished, I can begin printing the images I love the most and just keep printing until I get to images that aren’t worth my time of the darkroom. Those images will never see the light of day. This is the way it should be for a hobby. It should be fun and I should be making what I want to make.

Here are the signs I had up in the tent:

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com

By stating your goals and your standards so clearly you've done a huge favor to all photographers who want to work their own vision. I'll come to your show, for sure.

[Cameron Cornell]

Thank you kindly, John.

[tonyowen]

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Cameron Cornell
Washington State
www.analogportraiture.com
www.instagram.com/papacornell

Looks like a partially unfinished game of Go in the foreground

regards
Tony

[Cameron Cornell]

Looks like a partially unfinished game of Go in the foreground

regards
Tony

That’s right! It was a teaching game my son had been playing with a visitor to the tent. If you know the game, you can see that neither side is playing brilliantly :)

[Merg Ross]

A passion and dedication to be admired. Wishing you much success!

[LF_Alex]

Really cool idea!!!!

[tradexelgraphics]

amazing sets of idea you made... great job. keep it up.

[Torontoamateur]

I think this is wonderful I would always send the subject one print. Even if " bad" to them it will be wonderful and they will tell friends.