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Thread: polyptych photos

  1. #11

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    Re: polyptych photos

    Does a polyptych needs to give a "continuous" end result? I'm curious about that because those I have seen at a photo exhibition they were just 3 photos that related and were presented as a single piece.
    Expert in non-working solutions.

  2. #12

    Re: polyptych photos

    Rob, I am not sure, it was a few years back, but I probably composed from left to right.

    I think rear movements are probably the way to go with these. Moving the vantage point of the lens would likely make the images odd looking, with a stereo effect. If I had to do this, I would consider using an 8x10 camera (or larger) somehow place four 4x5 negatives (or plates) right next to one another in an 8x10 film holder and take the exposure at one time. Perhaps an 8x10 vacuum back might allow for this? Careful use of tape? glueing a set of film septums (like from a grafmatic) or film adapters for plate holders in to a 8x10 or 11x14 plate holder? Maybe also look into adapting a Deardorff sliding back. I am not 100% sure how those would work for you, but it might provide a mechanism for rear movements.

    As requested here is an image of my camera showing the etched scale:
    Click image for larger version. 

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    and an image of it shifted:
    Click image for larger version. 

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    Last edited by Jason Greenberg Motamedi; 11-May-2019 at 17:28. Reason: Added images and reconsidered poor recommendations

  3. #13
    Pieter's Avatar
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    Re: polyptych photos

    Quote Originally Posted by Jason Greenberg Motamedi View Post
    Rob, I am not sure, it was a few years back, but I probably composed from left to right.

    I think rear movements are probably the way to go with these. Moving the vantage point of the lens would likely make the images odd looking, with a stereo effect. If I had to do this, I would consider using an 8x10 camera (or larger) with a 4x5 film back precisely mounted in a corner of the back. An image could be made, it could be rotated 90 degrees, and then repeated. Another way of doing this would be to somehow place four 4x5 negatives (or plates) right next to one another in an 8x10 film holder and take the exposure at one time. Perhaps an 8x10 vacuum back might allow for this? Careful use of tape? glueing a set of film septums (like from a grafmatic) or film adapters for plate holders in to a 8x10 or 11x14 plate holder?

    I will try to take a picture of my scale later today and append it.
    Double-sided tape? https://www.scotchbrand.com/3M/en_US...3786499&rt=rud

  4. #14

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    Re: polyptych photos

    Quote Originally Posted by Rob Henkel View Post
    The image is by an artist named Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer. I should have given credit when I posted the image. It's a wet plate collodion image.

    Yeah, I'm not sure how to phrase the question. An example I'm thinking of would be four panel portraits - google "Kasia Wozniak", another collodion photographer.

    If I'm photographing a head, and I take a picture of the upper left quadrant, how do I then move the camera to take a photograph of the upper right quadrant so that the two images align and there is no overlap along the shared edge between the two images? Assuming I'm shooting 4x5, do I just move the camera horizontally 4" for the second image? And then to photograph the lower two quadrants, move down 5"?

    Sorry for not articulating my question very clearly. I hope that made some sense.

    Rob

    Thank you.

    Now that I see some examples of the technique I have a different response. These are large format images that seem to defy the technical advantage of large format camera work in rendering detail and texture that smaller film formats fail to do. I call these examples manipulated images and the technique is all about the manipulation and little to do with sharpness, in fact there doesn't seem to be much, and it doesn't matter. What this means to me is that the door is open to construct such images by any and all methods available. If I were to attempt this kind of work I might use a view camera if I wanted shallow depth of field, otherwise I would medium format or 35mm and make the portrait as a single exposure that encompasses the entire field of view wanted in the finished print in a single frame. Then I would start on the manipulation part, division of the work print into quadrants, then experiment with various manipulation methods to add borders and distressing to taste. Having achieved a result I liked I re-photograph the manipulated master print to produce copies.
    It is my opinion that an attempt to make such an image by making four separate exposures in registration, may involve additional complex technical challenges that even when solved add little to the finished picture.

  5. #15

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    Re: polyptych photos

    One of the things I noticed in Nadezda Nikolova-Kratzer's profile on her website is that her images are photograms rather than photographs. That explains the tight registration on the image in Rob's initial post, something that I had been struggling to understand prior to reading this blurb:

    Focusing primarily on wet plate collodion, she is re-imagining the historic process, traditionally used for portraits and landscape photography, by creating cameraless image-objects that walk the line between painting and photography. (When an object is placed on a photo-sensitive surface that is exposed to light, the object casts a shadow that creates a shape on the photographic surface, resulting in a photogram, a type of a camera-less image.) “I appreciate the photogram’s simplicity and immediacy. Essentially, we are experiencing light and the absence of it, in a careful balancing act.”

    https://nadezdanikolova.com/bio/

  6. #16

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    Re: polyptych photos

    Your creativity is your box of sand, play with your own rules.
    As I understand polyptych - more than one photograph for display, glued together by composition, meaning, color, form, narrative, you call it.
    Accurate stitching seems important to you, but personally I don't care. And I think there is no tension between puristic LF position (biggest format, more details and so on) and using of any kind of format with LF camera.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    For this display I used all 120 film, 6x12cm x6
    Sinar P, Sironar 300, PanF

  7. #17

    Re: polyptych photos

    Accurate stitching is only important to me insofar as I'm curious as to how it was done, really.
    I like the panorama a lot. A good example of slightly less than perfect registration that ends up adding to the final piece rather than diminishing it. Very nice.

    "It is my opinion that an attempt to make such an image by making four separate exposures in registration, may involve additional complex technical challenges that even when solved add little to the
    finished picture."
    Yeah, that's probably true. The really interesting part of these images (at least to me) is the haunting feel of them, which has absolutely nothing to do with how accurately they were put together.

    I'm intrigued by the scale on your camera, Jason. You had it custom made?

  8. #18

    Re: polyptych photos

    Yes, SK Grimes etched it for me. I described what I wanted, and he did it.

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