December portraits

[chassis]

Really excellent, bobpin.

[polyglot]

Bobpin, these are exceptional portraits! You obviously work very hard to make each one as unique as the individual you are photographing. Each one tells its own story.

Seconded.

[Michael W]

Yes, excellent series Bobpin.

[szadow]

Globica 13x18 + Zeiss 250/4.5
10sec f4.5
13x18cm Tintype
Poe Boy Collodion

[bracan]

Excellent portrait Szadow!!!!

Globica 13x18 + Zeiss 250/4.5
10sec f4.5
13x18cm Tintype
Poe Boy Collodion

[szadow]

Behind the scenes video from this shot is in the making/ I'll post the link here when it will be online.

[StoneNYC]

Bella is a teacher who work in a Christian service center in an island to help some recovering (from drug addiction) girls to go back the society.

Thanks for the answer before, also, this one is just awesome... Man, this is making me want to get a LF so bad... I have everything but the darn body... I want a field camera I can carry that has lots of movements too, ugh, so difficult to wait... Haha, this 150mm LF lens is like a big tease...

[jcoldslabs]

When life gives you lemons (i.e. a wife who doesn't like to pose because she is self-conscious about her body), make lemonade (i.e. let her cover up as much as she wants). Taken last night in the living room.

Kodak 2D 8x10, 15" B&L projection Petzval, RC paper negative, two second exposure.




Jonathan

[Michael W]

That's wonderful Jonathan. She seems like some type of pod person. Actually, there are some Samuel Beckett plays where the actors are covered like that.
Technically, that is pretty good contrast for a paper negative, which are generally high contrast. Did you use a very dilute developer?

[jcoldslabs]

Thank you, Michael. I need a model and she is always at hand, so I figure I should let her do what makes her comfortable!

As for the paper negatives, I am just starting to experiment with them since I have an abundance of expired paper and no proper darkroom for enlarging as yet. I was aware of the high contrast aspect, and to combat that I did three things. One, I used a lens prone to lots of flare (fast, old Petzval); two, I used pretty flat, soft lighting (two tungsten lights with umbrellas); and three, I did use dilute developer. Specifically I used 4ml of Ilford Multigrade liquid developer concentrate mixed with 60ml of water (1:15) and processed the sheet of paper in a rotary drum for two minutes. I rated it at ISO 6.

Here is an unaltered straight scan of the other image I made during the same sitting (I didn't post it above because I don't think it's as strong). This will show you how low the contrast was straight out of the camera. It surprised me. I actually had to boost the contrast of these scans in Photoshop.




Jonathan