Posts from the ‘Street’ Category
Silver Efex to the Rescue
Acros 100, Zeiss 50mm Planar, tweaked in Silver Efex Pro
Sometimes the settings in Efex Pro can rescue an otherwise ‘meh’ film image and make it come alive. This worked well in this street image.
Zeiss 50mm Planar ZM
Bessa, Pulled HP5, X-tol, Zeiss 50mm Planar ZM
On a recent business trip I rented two lenses to experiment with, the Fujinon 18mm, and the Zeiss Planar 50mm for a Leica mount. I shot two rolls of HP5, two rolls of Rollei 80s retro, and one roll of Fuji Acros 100. All the rolls are developed, and I’m going to start posting the scanned images from the Planar. These two images are from that first roll of HP5. I don’t know if I like it as much as the Sonnar, but I certainly do like like it.
Bessa, Zeiss 50mm Planar
From Darkness into Light
Bessa R2a, Zeiss ZM 35mm Biogon, Tri-X, DD-X, Yellow Filter
I don’t really remember snapping this. But when I saw it in the roll I was scanning, it moved me a great deal.
Shapes
Bessa R2a, Zeiss 35mm Biogon, Tri-X, Yellow filter, DD-X, tweaked in Nik
An image I grabbed as I walked around the Vancouver Convention Center last summer.
Vancouver Bus Stop
Bessa R2a, Zeiss 35mm Biogon, DD-X, Tri-X, Yellow filter, Nik Silver Efex
I used Nik Silver Efex to tone this image. Normally I don’t use Nik to work on my b&w images, but with this image it just really brought the image to life. I had seen the possible intersection of the faces in advance, and tried to get that comparison working for me. It really helped that the woman looked at me just as I tripped the shutter. Trusty Bessa to get that moment right.
Coming Home
Time with the photographer on their magic day
Just a quick little post as I prepare to pack and head home today. You have to look a little carefully at this setup shot of the photographer, the bride, and the groom on the wedding day so see what the photog is up to. I watched him carefully position both the bride and groom before this shot.
Have a good day everyone, and see you once I get home.
Canonet; a look not for the squeamish
Canon Canonet, FP4, DD-x
A while back some of you might remember me posting some images captured with a used Canon Canonet. 40mm f/1.7 lens, old-school vignetting, kind of a cool look wide open. I was scanning a roll in my ‘to be scanned’ pile tonight and these three great examples of the best (or worst) of that look with that lens wide open. Enjoy
Strip District, April 2011
and one more
Strip District, Pittsburgh, April 2011
This last one might be my favorite. The last two were captured when Paul Lester and I went for a walk-about in the rain.
Composition
Contax RTS II, C/Y 50mm f/1.4, DD-X, Tri-X, NYC
When I’m out walking, I react instinctively to what I see. It’s how I’ve always shot. I saw this scene, it looked interesting, I raised the camera, I tripped the shutter. Of late, however, I often do one other thing. I do THIS:
I shoot a second image with a different orientation. Same scene, two frames. Sometimes I’ll also move closer, further away and take more shots (but those approaches, probably not as much as I should). However, the reason I do this is that whatever ‘thing’ in the frame attracted me in the first place, I CAN NVER ARTICULATE ON THE SPOT. It’s just something, but I know it’s there.
But I also know that the orientation of the image (in this case, the bike and the wall) will change the feeling of the image, sometimes significantly, and sometimes in ways I cannot predict.
When I scanned these two frames, I felt immediately that the two images felt very different. But, this time, I could not tell which one I liked better. So I posted both.
Certainly, in this case, it’s a little hard to tell fairly because the vertical framing allows the content to be bigger in the lower picture, which also changes the feeling of the image. Certainly the presence (or lack) of the street sign itself (instead of just the post for the sign) changes things.
Which one do you like better?
The distraction of Equipment
NYC, Sept 2011, Contax RTS II, C/Y 50mm 1.4, Tri-X, DD-X
So, here’s an example of the distraction of equipment I spoke about a little bit yesterday. Last year I became a little too interested in lenses. In fact, this distraction started about exactly one year ago, when I met Mike Peters and got a chance to mount Zeiss lenses on my Canon 5D (those lenses were borrowed from Mike).
I then wanted to use a Zeiss lens on my 5D when I got home, and found an old C/Y 50mm f/1.4 on ebay for $200 (1/3 the price of a new, made-for-Canon Zeiss 50mm). I was doubly lured. I was lured by the price, and lured by the images I saw on Flicker using this lens. All, I needed, see, was a adaptor for my 5D and the whole world of “relatively” inexpensive C/Y Zeiss lenses was mine for the taking on my 5D.
I bought the lens, and I bought the adaptor. BIG MISTAKE.
Partly, see, because that then led me to buy a copy of the original 35mm SLR the lens was made for, a Contax RTS. So, by September when this image was taken, I was walking around NYC with that lens and camera combo. Honestly, I LOVED that combo. Lens had the qualities I was looking for, and the camera was easy to use and fun to shot with. Hooked I was.
However, on the Canon side of things, I was having difficulty. I couldn’t get the lens/camera combo to focus properly. It would always short focus. I spent many hours of experimentation with the combo to no avail. I spent many hours of emails back and forth to the seller of the adaptor. While this gent was nice, he always claimed that the adaptor worked fine if only I would adjust the f/stop the 5D itself was set at while using the lens (the actual exposure, of course, came from the f-stop at which the lens itself was set).
Then the II’s meter started to go, and because of the age of the camera and the fact that the manufacturer had gone out of business, was unfixable.
The firm I bought the camera from took the body back, no questions asked. KEH is like that.
But, even though I have tried to get a refund from the adaptor gent, and even though I have since discovered that even when I shoot with my EOS the focus is off, I am stuck with the adaptor.
Time and money wasted, all in pursuit of a “look.”
I shoulda just saved up and bought a new Zeiss Planar 50mm f/2.0 and been done with it.
Big sigh. Distractions from making images. The image above is lovely, though, to my eye.
Equipment: Thoughts on Rangefinders
Rio, March 2010. Tri-X, Bessa
Sometimes I know I am guilty of confusing the work with the equipment. It has been said that the camera is, perhaps, the least important part of picture-taking. I agree, but my oh my, cameras are fun to play with. I have WAY more cameras than I NEED.
Paul asked me yesterday why the Leica Monochrom camera aroused some interest in me while the “normal” M9 did not. When Paul had visited Peg and I a year ago, he brought along his then-new M9. I shot a couple images with it, but although I wouldn’t turn one down if it was offered, I didn’t try to make plans for the acquisition of one. The Monochrom is different. I want one.
San Francisco, March 2011, TRi-X, Bessa
Rangefinders are a special breed of camera, All things being equal, I prefer rangefinders for most of the work I do. The image recording material (sensor or film) is a different, somewhat separate, issue. I say “somewhat” because the camera options if you are a SLR shooter are many and varied (digital and film), while the options if you want a rangefinder are limited: Epson RD-1, Leica M8 and M9, the Fuji X-1 Pro, the Fuji X100 and, well, that’s it. I honestly don’t call purely EVF cameras like the PENs and such rangefinders. In fact, the Fuji’s are sorta on the fence, in-between on this issue.
San Francisco, March 2011, Tri-X, Bessa
The reasons are that a rangefinder, to my way of thinking allows me to see the actual subject in real time, manually focus accurately and rapidly, almost instant shutter release, and lets me see OUTSIDE the frame lines to view picture options that exist IN THE FUTURE. In fact, all the images in this post were captured with the Bessa, and I believe I would have none of those images if I was shooting an SLR.
Rio, March 2010, Tri-X, Bessa
My friend Colin recently purchased the Fuji X-1 Pro, and I await the chance to see the work he produces.
But, until I can spend time with the Fuji or a Leica (I mean, 10 days or so at least) Tri-X loaded in my Bessa will have to do. But, someday, I think I will own a digital Leica. Time will tell which one.
