natasa

this week's portrait entry is an indoors session. I had shot natasa back in may, and we both wanted to do another, more relaxed, session. I called her over to my place, and we spent a couple of hours trying to get the best out of a confined home studio and my film cameras. I really need to find a space for a proper studio, a 80x80cm softbox is very difficult to maneuver around living room furniture, or in the 10sqm space which modern greek house-builders tend to believe is the ideal size for a bedroom.

we started off with the omega view 45d and the schneider xenar 150mm/f5.6. I had a couple of 4x5 film holders loaded with fomapan 400, as well as a polaroid holder loaded with fuji fp-100b black & white instant film. the resulting fomapan 400 image was a bit underexposed, but I find it an interesting approach, just like the rice paper portraits on Paolo Pellegrin's "Storm".

then I switched to the instant film holder, and the resulting polaroids are a testament to the magnificence of instant film. no feeling can be compared with the tingle you get when you peel apart the "sandwiched" film and you have a positive print with exemplary black & white tones in your hands. there were four remaining frames on the film holder, I shot all of them, correcting the framing issues (I never understood why the polaroid holder's alignment is not centered).

...and then, of course, there's the negatives... the fuji fp-100b b&w negatives tend to solarize after development, so I stored them in a dark cupboard as soon as I had peeled them off the positive prints. I have no idea if I did the right thing, but I do know what came out of it after I bleached them... the resulting negative had a very strong orange base, exhibited solarisation in the highlights (on the face), and it was impossible to properly scan as a black and white negative. I scanned it as color negative, which could be a totally acceptable approach...

...and then I inverted it, applied a red-filtered black & white conversion in order to compensate for the orange base, and the original black & white image popped up. I still need to refine my bleaching & cleaning technique on the fuji fp-100b negatives, there's a lot of development goo still stuck on this negative.

then we moved on to the bronica sq-a, which I loaded with fomapan 100 film. while this film performs well, I'll have to stop using it because it does not agree well with my current developer (diafine) and it isn't that cheap... all things considered, I'd rather pay 4-5€ for a kodak/ilford/fuji film than 3-3.5€ for any other alternative. this axiom is true only for the medium format range - for large format, the fomapan films are very good and their pricing makes them a real bargain.

back on large format, toying with the best film batch I ever laid my hands on: a box of kodak royal pan, 400 ASA, that expired in 1973. 40 years later, its speed has been reduced to 25 ASA and it exhibits high fog, low contrast, lots of grain, low sharpness, mediocre resolving power, lots of artifacts - the perfect film for lo-fi large format images.

the first shot is in the studio with the xenar 150mm/f5.6, while the second shot is lit with continuous lighting. I changed the lens on the view camera, and put on the leitz hektor 150mm/f2.5, minimizing the depth of field and also gaining two stops of speed. the bedroom shot required 4 seconds of exposure. I achieved this exposure using the first shutter mechanism that was ever invented: cover the lens with its cap, remove the darkslide, issue a command of non-movement to the model, remove the lens cap, count slowly to 4, replace lens cap.

...I was out of large format film, so it was time for the bronica again. I took the view camera off the tripod and fixed the bronica - this shot only required 1 sec of exposure, which is very easy to do when you have a camera with a proper shutter: just set the shutter to "1sec", raise the mirror, use a cable release to activate the shutter. oh, the joy of modern cameras.

...and back to the studio again, because you can never go wrong with shooting a second roll of film on the same subject.

fotini chan

studio mode

large format meets studio meets fotini korre: an afternoon spent trying to combine large format and a simple lighting set-up in a really confined space (living-room-turned-studio). large format in a studio is a very disciplined craft, since you're bound to a lot of tripods - the lights, the camera, everything is on a tripod. changing the lighting takes time, selecting a new angle of view takes time, framing takes time, focusing takes time... hell, even shooting a frame takes time - spontaneity cannot survive on a tripod. lots of patience is needed, and disappointment can quickly rear its ugly head. still, the results are quite interesting.

fotini had an earlier television shooting for mad channel, so she came around with a wonderful make-up, courtesy of maria pilafa. she was dying for some food and all I could think of telling her was "errr, ok, you can eat, but please do not spoil the make-up and the hair". she is a most wonderful person, smart and laid-back, and she loves linguini, a fact which should not be overlooked. kudos to her patience, both when posing ("now, you must stand still while I put the film in, change the aperture, put a cap on the lens, remove the darkslide, pick up the remote trigger, remove the lens cap, trigger the lights, put the cap back on the lens, ok, you can breathe.") and when coping with my moments of failing inspiration. I owe her a night out at an italian restaurant, during which I will convince her to pose on a second, outdoor, shooting, and then I'll owe her another night out at a restaurant, and... you can see how this goes.

the afternoon's tally was 24 frames - 12 large format sheets with the monorail omega view and a 6x6 medium format roll with the bronica. presented in this post are the best 8 of them - they are separated in three annotated chapters, like journal entries.

part I: static normality

photographer tries to shake rust off   //   decides to start with a casual large format set-up   //   omega view 45d, industar n-51 210mm/f4.5, fomapan 400   //   extra background light   //   rediscovery of college yearbook style   //   model frustrated; cause: receiving instructions like "just stay still and look straight into the lens"   //   removal of extra light leads to rediscovery of rembrandt style   //   normal film, normal lens and static set-up bring about quick exhaustion and slow death of inspiration

part II: mobile squareness

photographer in dire need of a fresh view   //   abandons large format in favour of medium format   //   bronica sq-a with 80mm/f2.8 and kodak t-max 100   //   no longer attached to the tripod   //   new-found mobility brings rejuvenation   //   still hampered by casual, formal viewpoint   //   decision to move closer and change angle of view proves invigorating   //   inspiration levels rising

part III: expired pictorealism

mobility of medium format brought fresh inspiration   //   photographer switches back to large format   //   chooses projection lens to emphasize depth of field   //   chooses expired film because there was none else readily available   //   omega view 45d, leitz hektor 150mm/f2.5, kodak royal pan, expired 1973   //   depth of field really razor thin   //   film's extreme old age results in excessive grain, fogging and staining   //   pictorealism winks an eye

mariane

it had been a really long time since I last did a "proper" portrait session, so when x-ray model agency asked me to do a test with mariane, I immediately agreed. sunday was coming up and I had nothing arranged, so we decided for a morning shoot. dear liz was happy to provide make-up and hair styling, and we set out on sunday morning for zappeio. I was expecting the place to be empty on such an early time and I was planning to set up mariane in front of zappeio hall and let the speed graphic work its magic... but, surprise surprise, the leader of a political party had arranged a gathering there and the place was teeming with politicians, voters and police officers. so, plan b, we headed straight into the trees.

the time frame was quite tight, we had less than two hours before mariane had to go, and I settled with getting simple, natural portraits. straight on, I loaded up the bronica sq-a with a roll of kodak tri-x 400 and tried to catch the light that was filtering through the trees.

...then on to some against-the-light portraits...

...and as the tri-x roll came to an end (I was out of b/w film, too, just two rolls with me) I set up the speed graphic, paired it with the leitz hektor 150/f2.5 and looked around for some background that begged to get creamcheesed... I had some film holders loaded up with fomapan 400 and a couple loaded with expired kodak epn 6122 color duplicating film...

...it took me some days before I decided to develop the color films (always bored of heating up the chemicals), but the result was well worth it - expired cross-processed slide film, cheap as hell, kinda unpredictable but not without its merits...

...we'd already spent one and a half hour, what with the extra time needed for each large format shot, so I figured out it was time to pack up the speed graphic and go back to the bronica. the second b/w roll I had with me was kodak t-max 100 - two stops slower than tri-x but sporting a lot more of detail in the midtones....

...and that was it, we packed up and left just as that bloody politician was starting his speech. in total, 24 frames of medium format and 8 frames of large format were shot in the course of two hours. next time it's gonna be longer, with more large format shots, which are a pain in the ass to set up but quite wonderful if they come out as planned.