When I first began shooting color transparency film with my 1953
Summiocron 50/2, I immediately noticed that the results had a retro
look: gentle contrast, and subdued color. I felt like I was back in
the fifities. There's a lot to be said for subtlety. I now have a
45/3.5 Summaron as well, which is also of early fifties vintage. I
haven't really given it a full workout. Yet another reason I should
shoot some film.
Paul
On May 30, 2005, at 8:02 PM, Shel Belinkoff wrote:
I visited a few sites and reacquainted myself with his work. I had -
and
foolishly sold - a 1937-38 Elmar and an early 50's Summitar, and soon
afterwards realized what I'd given up. I'll bend over and you can
kick my
butt now ;-))
A lot of the look that Ravilious was getting is what I want to
explore, but
in this particular instance I was looking for a way to get that sort of
halo of white, that glow off the bright areas that one sometimes sees.
I
recall having done it often years ago, but I cannot recall how I got
it.
I'm getting so tired of photos that have this generic sharp/contrasty
look,
or the digital look, that stepping back a few decades in terms of
style,
look, and feel is becoming quite appealing.
Thanks for reminding me about R's technique. Contre jour, soft
contrast,
wide latitude, subtle detail ... a certain gentleness that time seems
to
have passed by is looking more and more interesting as we tread further
along the digital trail. Y'know, over on one of the Leica lists it
seems
that most people are using digital bodies (Canon mostly as they can
use the
Leica R lenses easily), a number of Pentax users, and a few
Panasonic/Leica
digi users.
Shel
[Original Message]
From: Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Date: 5/30/2005 1:15:11 AM
Subject: RE: Getting That Old Fashioned Glow
Ravilious was the local photographer in North Devon for many years
(he's
dead now). Most of his work is in black & white. It is a nostalgic
portrait
of a remote, rural community.
Over the years he honed his technique to produce a soft, old-fashioned
look.
He had started with modern Leitz lenses, and Tri-X. At the end he was
using
uncoated Elmars and Hektors from the 1920s and 30s on an M3. These
lenses
are said to have good 'drawing' qualities, giving a 'rounded' feel to
the
image, whatever that means. A strong 3-dimensionality, I think, with
a lot
of shadow detail even when shooting against the sun.
He used the Zone system, overexposing by 1 stop, then compensating in
the
development using a very dilute soft-working solution.
He used a very light yellow filter over the lens.
This combination of factors is said to have produced the very long
tonal
range in the neg., and a slightly soft feel to the image. It seems he
rarely
needed to burn in the sky more than about 10-30%.
He even made his own lens hood to cope with the fact that he shot so
much
against the light.
The book doesn't seem to mention what b&w film he was using at the
end,
although for colour he used K25. I would guess he was using a fairly
slow
b&w film too.
This may be old-hat to you - I'm not into the fineries of processing.
But
it
gives his photographs a very distinctive look, which is well-suited
to his
subject matter, and a welcome change from the high-contrast which
predominates nowadays.
--
Cheers,
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Shel Belinkoff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Link doesn't work ;-(( I'll check Ravilious thru Google and
see what comes up. Thanks for the pointer ;-))
Shel
[Original Message]
From: Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi,
I'm not sure if we're thinking of the same kind of glow, but I was
going
to
post some information about James Ravilious, an English
photographer
I've raved about before, who has a certain glow in his work when he
shoots against the light.
Then I remembered I've probably done this before, so I found this
reply,
to
one of your questions:
http://tinyurl.com/9sew5
If you haven't tried it already, it might be worth it. Even if it
doesn't produce that glow you might find an interesting
technique in
its own
right.
--
Cheers,
Bob
-----Original Message-----
From: Shel Belinkoff [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 29 May 2005 18:35
To: [email protected]
Subject: Getting That Old fashioned Glow
Before anti-halation backing, it was easy to get a nice
glow around
white or bright objects in a scene. I've not had any
luck recently
when trying that with the contemporary B&W films. Any
suggestions
on how to do this (outside of Photoshop and Digital Trickery)?
Shel
