Long exposure experience with portraits?

[Monty McCutchen]

You don’t need a head brace. There are many work-arounds. Finding SOME bracing is important. The head brace becomes more important the tighter you get. The picture of my daughter leaning on the tree I believe was 13 seconds. Obviously wetplate. 20x24. Dallmeyer 8D. The picture of my son was 30 plus seconds. The backdrop is draped over my truck and his left arm is braced up against the door handle. Back is against the truck but his head is not. Same technical data/equipment as above. The biggest key i have found is explaining to your sitter that this is a collaboration and they need to participate. It is also helpful to let them know front to back movement is worse than side to side. That helps them concentrate on one thing instead of being ‘still’. To me that’s the most enthralling aspect of LF portraiture is the connection you make with the sitter because they feel vested in the outcome. The joy on their faces when it turns out well always speaks to the fact they feel they played a role in the success of the collaboration.

[Monty McCutchen]

I should note you don’t get much joy from your children, collaboration or not in long exposure portraiture.

[Andrew Plume]

That head brace went for big bucks since it was original from the 1860’s, Rob Gibson was the seller and he’s a well known and reputable fella/wetplater/re-enactor. I saw people calling that “a good deal”.


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Yes.........there was a great article in 'View Camera' magazine about Rob's work when I believe that it was him who re-enacted in Wet Plate the meeting of the two sections of the Trans Cont Railroad when it crossed the US

Andrew

[Vaughn]

I should note you don’t get much joy from your children, collaboration or not in long exposure portraiture.

Got to train them up early! And limit it to one image per outing, then turn 'em loose. My boys enjoyed it since I did not make it a task. Never got,
"Dad, do we have to?" from them...

8x10 pt/pd print, 159mm lens -- soft dark corners and all seem to work...don't use this lens much.

For this image I am set up about 25 feet above the forest floor (on top of a redwood fallen on top of another). I told the boys to get out to the stump -- generally I let them pick their spots/poses. After the image was taken, I continued to photograph and the boys explored.

[Exploring Large Format]

These shots of your kids are fabulous. Inspiring, just need some grandkids to come along!

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[slerman]

Monty. Those photos are great! I also like long portrait exposure times and agree that it is a special kind of collaborative image making...

[paulbarden]

I think this might be the photo Philip originally referred to:



Yes - 14 seconds at f4.5 with a 10" Kodak Anastigmat I had just acquired. This is a wet plate negative on glass.
As others have suggested, the trick is to get your subject to find something to lean on, without making it look obvious.

[goamules]

George Hurrell often had the Hollywood star steadying her head with her hands, or reclining on a couch, etc.

With wetplate, a typical outdoor portrait with no flash is from 2-10 seconds. A blink is a fraction, so is not noticeable in the photo, usually. I've found any exposure longer than 10 seconds risks a motion blur, unless a head rest is used. I have a replica of the one shown above.

[Ulophot]

Paul, yes, that's the photo, and no it's not obvious that he is leaning on the trunk; well done!
Monty, thank you for your experience in this; very helpful.
As for children, one thing I found most challenging when I was a pro, were the children who did not know how to relax in front of the camerra, because their parents had insisted on photographing them to relentlessly and always demanding "smile," "show me your teeth." as soon as I saw that look, I knew I had to start getting very devious to trick the child into a more natural condition. One time, with twin boys, I told them to turn their backs to the camera and not peek, which of course they did, to my shock dismay, which turned into a game with them laughing.

[John Layton]

Now that is one relaxed dude!