Posts tagged ‘50mm f/1.4 FD’
Three from today
Weston Beach, Pan-F, Rodinal
I know I’ve been away aq bit, just been very busy at work. This weekend I was able to catch up on some scanning, and these three images were the favorites from that session.
HP5, Xtol, BVW Class, Oct 2010
And, then this one, shot just yesterday and developed last night as a test of HP5 in HC-110 (H)
HP5, HC-110 (H), Processed a bit in Silver Efex
More to come
No Special Way
Vancouver, October 2011
“There is no special way a photograph should look.”
“The photograph is a thing in itself.”
– Gary Winogrand
Vancouver, Oct 2011
One of my goals in 2012 is to take a street photography workshop either with Peter Turnley or Mary Ellen Mark. My street work is ‘ok,’ but I really want it to improve.
Heading out to Vancouver tomorrow
Art Institute, Chicago. FTb, 50mm f/1.4, Tri-X, DD-X
((This post was supposed to be posted on Tuesday of last week. I would’ve sworn I posted it. But today when I began to work on a new post during my trip, WP told me this was still a draft. Crap.. Here ya go. I’m already in LA.))
Tomorrow I head out to Vancouver for a conference. I’m bringing both the 5D and the EOS 3 so I can shoot with the Contax lens. Having a digital with me will allow me to post some images in real-time from the trip.
After Vancouver I go to LA for a couple days and then I head back to Pittsburgh.
While I”m on the road, I’m going to try and post some thoughts on the teachings of Ben Lifson, a photographic mentor with whom I’ve never had the honor of speaking but whose thoughts about the nature of photography influence me a great deal.
Speak to you soon!
Old Meets New
HP5, FTb, 50mm f/1.4, Clayton F76
This image was taken on my May trip to Chi-town but the roll was just scanned over the weekend. Just got back from travel and had some time to get some photo work done.
This post title might be a good sub-title for my blog. Hmmm . . .
Updates
- I received the focusing screens in the mail for both my EOS 3 as well as my 5D. I shot some images with the 5D/C-Y Zeiss 50mm 1.4 and I’ll be posting them as soon as I get them processed. The EOS 3 and that screen and Zeiss lens will be tested this week. Thanks again to Ed and Mike for the info about those screens and where I could get them. The screen for the 5D was great!
- The test-print negative to be drum-scanned has gone out and will be processed this week, I suppose. Then I send it off to Mike Peters for his take.
- The F100 is at KEH for repair and then, when it returns, it goes on the sale block. Anyone who knows someone who might be interested in a near-mint F100, please contact me.
- I ordered business cards from Moo yesterday. My wife had gotten her cards done there and they were spectacular. I used 25 different images spread throughout the print run. I’ll let you know more about them when I get them back from Moo.
- When I was in NYC last week I bought some Portra 400 and shot a roll. I’ll be sending it out. Can’t wait to see what they look like.
More soon!
SF Walk-about
Plus-X, Pulled, Clayton F76, FTb, 50mm f/1.4, yellow filter
I know I’ve posted shots like this before, but I just souped a roll of Plus-X shot in SF in June. Love that ‘depth’ and ‘guts’ I see in pulled Plus-X. Ordering more rolls of it tomorrow.
Updates
1. The F100 is mailed off to KEH for the repair on the coupling-tab. After that, I’m gonna sell it. Why? because . . .
2. Thanks to Ed and Mike, I’ve found focusing screens for the older EOS camera and the 5D. Now I can use my C/Y Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 with an adapter on both cameras (which was the idea in the first place). I’ll post tests with that lens after I fit the screens. Yay!
3. SEnt the negative off to be scanned for the Great Print Test. I’ll post my scanned version and the service’s scanned version as soon as I can. And then Mike will scan the neg as well. Cool!
The neighborhood around AT&T park on SF is just wonderful. Great place to walk aeround. I’ll be in NYC Mon-Tue, so I may not be posting much of anything. Talk soon!
Sometimes things just work out
SF, FTb, 50mm f/1.4, Plus-X, N-1, Clayton F76
One of the most influential times for any photographer, in my opinion, is when they get to sit and shoot the breeze with someone else who wrestles with the craft. Sharing war stories, as it were. Such a meeting for me was the day I spent with Mike Peters. One of the craft-related items we discussed was ‘using the entire frame.’ Something Mike prides himself on doing. I try to, as well, but don’t always succeed.
This image was captured on a street walk-about in San Francisco, California, in June. I shot a number of images of this waterfall, loving the contrast between the foaming water and the geometric shapes. I set up the shot trying to use the whole 35mm frame.
I leaned against a wall, trying to utilize as slow a shutter speed as I could, to get as much movement in the water as possible. My memory is that I exposed this at 1/15th of a second.
Then, just as I was ready to trip the shutter, I saw the man come into the frame. Well, now or never, Bam.
Plus-X Pulled in Bright Daylight
Plus-X Pulled on stop, Clayton F76, 50mm 1.4 FD lens, Yellow Filter
The first time I published some Plus-X pulled images, the lighting that day was overcast. Well, the images at the Cubs game were in daylight, but not really high-contrast daylight. Well, right after I returned from that Chicago trip, I shot a roll in bright daylight just to really test the combo. After all, those are the conditions pulling is designed to combat; situations where the light-to-dark contrast is too great for the normal 10-stop range. Here are some images from that shoot, scanned on my Epson and shot on 35mm Plus-X.
Notice also the specular highlights and how crisp the images are.
Remember, this lens is a mid-1970′s Canon run-of-the-mill 50mm. Not even an ‘L’ lens.
Shadow side of the building, bright sun across the street.
The yellow filter helps to darken the skies, certainly.
Tree in bright daylight, dark car in shadows
My Saab in the parking garage.
Now, I certainly like the Nik Silver Efex ‘pulled’ preset, and have used it many times. But it achieved nothing like this.
In my search for a look or ‘looks’ that cannot easily be replicated by digital, this i certainly one of them.
Thanks for looking!
The Glow
Plus-X developed at N-1, Clayton F76, FTb, 50mm FD, Yellow Filter
So this post came about because I read a post at The Luminous Landscape entitled ‘The Glow.” If you want all the details about the process and goals, please read that post and then return here.
I went out and bought some Plus-X (a first for me) and shot everything pulled and with a Yellow filter, and this roll is the first I developed and scanned from that experiment. Now, while I don’t have my print capability set up yet, I figured that I might be able to see some of the qualities that article spoke of in the negs themselves.
I believe I see some of the qualities discussed in the neg above
Here
And here, where I intentionally shot looking for a nice reflective quality that the N-1 development would protect while extricating robust shadow detail owing to the exposure.
These were all captured on a brief visit to Chicago last week for work.
It was a bit of as foggy overcast morning, really well suited for the experiment.
It seems to me that. as long as you are willing to sacrifice a little film speed, I’m not sure what is lost by pulling b&w film. There is a lovely quality to these images, unlike the Tri-X/DD-X combo but obviously in the same film family.
I bought six rolls of Plus-X (again, had never shot it in my life before this) and love the way this combo looks.
Just for kicks, I exposed some frames at the Cubs game the day before, which shows off the effect of pulling in extremes of contrast (light and dark).
and
Yes, the seats we had as gifts from a client were quite good. I’ll be buying more Plus-X, for sure.
backwards I work
Clayton F76, FTb, 50mm 1.4 FD, HP5
So, much of the work I have done over the past year could be retitled “Forward to the Past” or something. When I dove back into photography seriously in 2008, much of my work then was to emulate a certain ‘look’ I had in my head, a look which was much akin to old school b&w. It was then that I discovered Nik Silver Efex, and I certainly love what that software can help me accomplish when I transfer digital files to b&w.
But much of that work, as much as I was happy with it, left me searching for more.
The modern b&w films, especially for me Tmax, are too perfect. As beautiful as they can be, they have the same issues as digital files. A little cold, a little without character, a little too much without personality. When I shoot for clients, I absolutely use digital for all the obvious reasons, but when I shoot for myself, I shoot film.
Ok, now comes the point. Most people learned b&w darkroom skills with Tri-X and D76. That combination is what most schools use. I have mentioned here before that my original teacher, Klaus Schnitzer, used FP4 and FG-7. For years, that’s all I knew.
My journey has led me to going backwards with my b&w work, more towards the imperfections and personalities of old school. That led me to ordering some Clayton F76, which is a D76 work-alike that comes in liquid form, which allows me to use it roll by roll instead of mixing a gallon at a time.
This image is from the first roll I developed in Clayton F76 in my own darkroom. I learned of the developer when I sent off b&w film I shot with a Contax 645 18 months ago, and those rolls came back nicely contrasty. I asked the lab what developer they used, and they told me Clayton F76. So I tried it.
This image is HP5 and Clayton F76, shot with a 40 year old lens on a 40 year old camera. It is about as old school as I can get, given the current batch of films. I am going to try some European film types in search of the same qualities. The grain on this image is very clear and very different than DD-X or Xtol. When the image is scanned, it comes into the computer with a very different contrast scale than anything I have ever scanned in before with any developer I have used, whether it be DD-X or Tmax or Xtol or FG-7 or Rodinal or HC-110 (although I haven’t touched HC-110 in two years).
So, it only took me 40 years rto discover the joys of Tri-X, why shouldn’t I now discover how a venerable developer might also become a tool in my toolbelt?
Backwards I work.
