Question to the B&W specialists: what are your favorite films for chiaroscuro compositions, particularly portraits? Thanks!
Question to the B&W specialists: what are your favorite films for chiaroscuro compositions, particularly portraits? Thanks!
Lighting is more necessary than film choice . Study paintings done in chiaroscuro very carefully as to lighting.Originally Posted by Weihan
I had to look up what "chiaroscuro" was. It is also called "clair-obscur". I understand it is about: "the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition." The midtones aren't used much and there isn't much regard for color.
Interesting!
Is that what you're doing? If so, wouldn't (besides lighting) the developer and printing method be of greater influence than the film itself? (assuming you'll use B&W film).
Ralph Gibson's work is much about chiaroscuro especially with portraits and female form. He overexposes and overdevelops Tri-X400. I've only used Tri-X320 on occasion, but not in his manner.
van Huyck Photography
"Searching for the moral justification for selfishness" JK Galbraith
To see the techniques used by Ralph Gibson (and many other well-known photographers) try this book - http://www.amazon.com/Darkroom-Wynn-.../dp/0912810203. It's a fascinating book, available used on Amazon for $7.50. You'll see that many of these photographers don't use what most here would call normal darkroom techniques - they use methods that they've developed over the years as best suited to what they want to accomplish and some of them are really odd. Whether you ever actually use these techniques or not, it's still a very interesting book for a darkroom enthusiast.
Brian Ellis
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
a mile away and you'll have their shoes.
Broadly speaking, the slower the b/w film, the shorter its tonal scale is. So a slower-speed film will give you the 'chiaroscuro' effect more easily than a fast film, by and large. Although any standard film will work fine; as Jim Noel says, it's more about how you light our subject, or what light you find it in, than anything else.
It has nothing to do with the speed of the film, but can be facilitated by the steepness of the toe. I've had excellent results in both portrait and landscape work
using either TMax film and UNDERexposing them a full stop to abruptly black out the deepeset shadows, followed by plus development to expand the midtone and
highlight tonality. There are various tricks in printing too, like simply punching the shadows in VC paper with a deep blue filter after the primary white light exposure.
For studio lighting, an old school focusing fresnel light like an Arri can be invaluable.
wow there is a cool name for the way these couple of portraits I did the other day turned out. : )
"WOW! Now thats a big camera. By the way, how many megapixels is that thing?"
Thanks all! I don't normally shoot B&W, but the chiaroscuro genre has been the one area that has always greatly appealed to me. I don't normally care for the same technique used with color film. The B&W chiaroscuro images, especially portraits done in the 1930s and somewhat later (e.g., those of Marlene Dietrich, with her glistening blonde her silhouetted in a pitch black background) and the stark contrast in print are just what I'm looking for. I'm actually having fewer problems with the lighting than with the contrast of the films I'm using. I'm thinking now of trying the various setups I've been using with the Rollei Ortho 25. I don't know if anyone has had any experience with this film, but it is quite slow at 25 ISO. There's something simply timeless / classic about the portraits I've seen that have been shot with the steep gradations in chiaroscuro, but I have no idea what film they were using. Thanks again! I'm definitely going to get the Ralph Gibson book - excellent tips.
it is not a genre
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