thomashobbs
30-Jan-2010, 10:07
Hi,
My aunt & uncle own a small-town newspaper that still hasn't gone digital. They shoot their layouts on a massive copy-camera with a 15 foot rail that uses a 19" Goertz Apochromatic Red Dot Artar F11 lens.
I'd like to try to shoot portraits on this camera. For conceptual reasons I'd like to use, as much as possible, the same process and materials as they use to produce the paper. My main challenge is that the lithographic film has such a low sensitivity. I ran a few tests and calculated it's ISO at 1.5 [!!].
It seems like I have three options: 1) long exposure, 2) really powerful strobe lights, or 3) find a more sensitive film. I'm leaning towards some combination of #2 and #3.
Regarding finding a more sensitive film, a couple of people have recommended Arista II Ortho Litho film. I've been told if I use HC110 as my developer I can potentially push it a couple of stobs and get an effective ISO of 25. Does any one have any experience with this and can offer any tips or advice about these materials or any others that I might be able to use. I should add that I'd like for the portraits to be the same size as the newspaper which whose pages are 12x22" [Arista II is available in 20x24" and I could cut it down to size]
As for the strobe lights, I calculated that the current film needs about 10,000 ws to be exposed if the lens is wide open [at f11]. I could rent two 4800ws power packs and run it through two or four strobes placed about two feet from my subjects' faces. I'm thinking about doing this but I'm actually concerned about eye damange or heat from the strobes. I'd have my subjects stare at the lens, not the lights, but still, am I asking for trouble?
Obviously if I can get the film to be more senstive then I don't need lights as powerful and everyone's happy [especially my wallet].
Thanks!!
My aunt & uncle own a small-town newspaper that still hasn't gone digital. They shoot their layouts on a massive copy-camera with a 15 foot rail that uses a 19" Goertz Apochromatic Red Dot Artar F11 lens.
I'd like to try to shoot portraits on this camera. For conceptual reasons I'd like to use, as much as possible, the same process and materials as they use to produce the paper. My main challenge is that the lithographic film has such a low sensitivity. I ran a few tests and calculated it's ISO at 1.5 [!!].
It seems like I have three options: 1) long exposure, 2) really powerful strobe lights, or 3) find a more sensitive film. I'm leaning towards some combination of #2 and #3.
Regarding finding a more sensitive film, a couple of people have recommended Arista II Ortho Litho film. I've been told if I use HC110 as my developer I can potentially push it a couple of stobs and get an effective ISO of 25. Does any one have any experience with this and can offer any tips or advice about these materials or any others that I might be able to use. I should add that I'd like for the portraits to be the same size as the newspaper which whose pages are 12x22" [Arista II is available in 20x24" and I could cut it down to size]
As for the strobe lights, I calculated that the current film needs about 10,000 ws to be exposed if the lens is wide open [at f11]. I could rent two 4800ws power packs and run it through two or four strobes placed about two feet from my subjects' faces. I'm thinking about doing this but I'm actually concerned about eye damange or heat from the strobes. I'd have my subjects stare at the lens, not the lights, but still, am I asking for trouble?
Obviously if I can get the film to be more senstive then I don't need lights as powerful and everyone's happy [especially my wallet].
Thanks!!