More Film Photography - Bread and Puppet

[OK-944]

Ages ago in the Bread and Puppet storage barn/museum in Glover, Vt. Stationary life sized puppets, small slice of light coming through a cracked open door nearby, the rest by a burst of flash during a one second, handheld exposure - during which I twisted the camera (Hasselblad 500CM/80mm) on its axis to give these characters a bit of life!:

[GH85Carrera]

Cool.

Having spent a over 100,000 hours in a darkroom in my life, I have worked and played at all the tricks done in a darkroom or with film during photography. Double exposure, long exposures and mixed lighting during exposure on the film is almost impossible to replicate a result. Every exposure is different result.

I set up one shot for his living room. Wide angle 90 mm Super Angalong lens on a 4x5 Sinar P on KODAK VERICOLOR Professional Film Type L and gave the guy a small light with a switch he could turn on and off. We turned off all the lights, and it was a dark room, with the windows blocked out. He would change clothes, move to one area of the room, turn on the light for 12 seconds, then tun it off, move to another area with another costume on, and do it again. We ended up with him in for places, than I lit to entire room with just enough to light and a long enough exposure to get the room details.

In the end, it looked like he was a ghost in 4 different place, all slightly transparent like a ghost is supposed to be. It took us all night to do one final version. Now it can be don easily with Photoshop.

I wish I had a photo to post, but that was many years ago and I don't even remember his name.

[vash]

Originally Posted by OK-944

Ages ago in the Bread and Puppet storage barn/museum in Glover, Vt. Stationary life sized puppets, small slice of light coming through a cracked open door nearby, the rest by a burst of flash during a one second, handheld exposure - during which I twisted the camera (Hasselblad 500CM/80mm) on its axis to give these characters a bit of life!:

i actually have a degree in photography. its been super useful!!

this image is fantastic.

[OK-944]

Its been a long strange trip…running the gamut from commercial/industrial/advertizing/pr, to photojournalism, fine art, camera design and construction, with lots of teaching gigs along the way. Plus a few turns doing things like camera store retail, loading UPS trucks, and delivering veggies to homeless shelters, during various downturns in my photo-biz.

At any rate…photography has been good to me generally - afforded me lots of travel, helped me raise a family, got to meet some interesting folks.

The constant has been working with large format (4x5 and up) cameras on location, plus wet (darkroom) processing/printing. Will never tire of this although schlepping the gear certainly doesn’t get any easier for these aging bones!

Glen - a mention of Sinar…I’ve got some stories to share about Sinar, and Linhof. Will post more soon. And Vash...good for you! A useful degree no matter what comes later!

[Steve Carlton]

Film photography is special, IMO. I've gotten so lazy, I just use my iPhone these days over the digital cameras. I do have a Sigma DP1, which has a Fovean sensor that emulates film output- need to find it. I also have a Contax G2, which is like an automatic Leica and uses great Zeiss lenses of its own, as well as a couple of 35mm film cameras. This picture was shot by a professional photographer we were buying a couple of poster size prints from- she just shot the dogs in one shot. I don't think you can get digital to look like this, except for maybe with a Sigma camera:




I've posted these before, but I shot them of a couple of kids outside a coffee shop with their dog, playing with the G2:

[GH85Carrera]

This is me in high school. Loading more film in my Hassleblad 500C. I handed my 35 mm camera to the teacher and had everything set and focused, so all she had to do was push the button. It was a photo of me used in the year book.

[Steve Carlton]

Looks like the flash was off to the left a bit.

[sc_rufctr]

I still shoot film regularly and the local Photoshop still processes it. They fire up the big machine twice a week! Amazing when you think that most people have a smart phone that takes half decent photos.

Not my photo. This was taken with a Hasselblad 903 SWC. I own the same camera but I haven't used it in a while - I'm sure there are digital backs that will give you similar result but the dynamic range of film is still far superior to digital.

[Starless]

I miss film photography and the workmanship that went into some of those old Leicas, Rolleis, Hasseblads, etc. The new digital cameras just don't have that "something" that those Leica rangefinders had. My favorite was a lllf that I had with a Nikkor 85mm f2 lens. Although there are some digital camera that have some of the old flair to them. I have a Fuji X100 that has a bit of the older rangefinder look and feel to it.

[GH85Carrera]

I worked at a photo lab geared to professionals. To process slide film and do it right, is a lot of work. We were a certified Q-lab from Kodak. I would process a strip of film that they sold us, and box it up, and mail it back to them, and they read the values with a densitometer of their own. I plotted our own test strips, all the process the film to a high standard that a traveling pro could drop off his film, and know it was going to come out with the proper colors and density.

We had one room we set up for pros with a large light table, comfortable chair, and a phone. They would look at the film they shot, and pick the best shots. I would scan them and upload them to the magazine or newspaper for them.

We had a large safe from an old jewelry store full of camera gear. More than a few photographers would go broke, and come to us to sell off their camera gear. We bought a lot of Hassleblad and Nikon gear. I loved the Superwide Hassleblad. It was a cool camera.

[GH85Carrera]

One of the things we got to be well known for was shooting a 4x5 or 8x10 transparency of an artists work. We had the National Cowboy and western heritage museum bring in some large paintings for us to make a 4x5 or 8x10 transparency of it. Think 35mm slide, only the sheet of film is 8x10. Back in the olden days before digital, the transparency could be scanned on a large drum scanner and then a "separator" could make poster. Right now if you go to any museum and they sell posters in the gift shop, they are all done with offset printing.

One fun project was a local very rich lady that grew up with old money. She owned a Da Vinci and had a mortgage on it. It was stored in museum in Tulsa. She we took her, and the 8x10 camera and lights up to the museum and I photographed it in a room that was downstairs. I did touch it just to adjust the angle. She sold it to the Getty museum for 18 million. She had a second painting that sold for just 6 million that we shot while we were there.

The Da Vinci was the Madonna and child and if I saw it at a yard sale I would not have paid 20 bucks for it.

[sc_rufctr]

The one thing that I really like about shooting film... It slows you down so you take more care when setting up a shot.

If you know what you're doing you can get a lot of usable photos from a single roll of film. It's more about quality than quantity.

[sc_rufctr]

... Shooting on film is a gift.

I can't think of a better way to describe it. Enjoy life.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Loading more film in my Hassleblad 500C.

Glen:



Bob:

[Geronimo '74]

Any good tips on how to photograph women in a low light environment without them knowing??
(asking for a friend)

[OK-944]

Ha! Remember back in the day...two products stand out - one being that el-cheapo 400mm "Girl Watcher" Lens - the second was a nifty right angle mirror attachment, mounted in a black metal tube which helped it to blend into the design of whatever lens was chosen on which to affix it? I'd think one of these mirror devices might do the trick - along with the tremendous sensitivity of some of todays digi-cams. But hey...this did not come from me!

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by Geronimo '74

Any good tips...

That sounds like a good way to get into trouble.

[OK-944]

Three more photos (made with 4x5 and 5x7 cameras of my own design and construction)…and two additional images: of the large epoxy over plywood processing tray which I’ve built to help create darkroom prints as large as 40x60 inches, and the DIY horizontal enlarger which allows me to print this large:

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Bob Kontak

Glen:



Bob:

That one has the fancy rapid wind knob. Mine was the simple knob but it had a very rudimentary light meter built in that ate batteries like mad, so I never had batteries that worked.

Eventually I got the rapid wind knob.

My very first photo in the local newspaper was of our football team in a night time playoff game. The editor said he wanted to see facial expressions of the quarterback. My boss at the time set me up with his 500ELM (motor drive version of the Hassleblad) and a 70 mm film back, and the 500 MM lens all on a pistol grip. That rig felt like it weighed about 100 pounds by halftime. Fortunately I was young and tough. I shot Tri-X (ASA 400) the highest speed film that was worth using, and push processed it to 1600 with Rodenal developer and a crazy rigged up cine film processor. I got a picture of the quarterback with a great grimace as he hurled the ball to a receiver that scored a touchdown. I had to print it that night, and transmit the image with our UPI equipment to the newspaper in Birmingham using an acoustic coupler on the phone. That photo was run by most of the Alabama newspapers the next day.

[OK-944]

My first "Hassy" also featured the plain winding knob - not metered...and the quick wind which I later added proved to be a wise investment!

Glen I admire your tenacity in covering that event with a Hasselblad. I also photographed sports for a local newspaper while in high school - but usually with a couple of 35mm Nikons. But to do this with a Hassy...if you could pull this off - the results could be outstanding!