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How is this done? (Trent Parke)


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Hello Trusty Experts,

<br>

Any idea how <a

href="http://www.in-public.com/trentparke/portfolio/index.php">this

stuff</a> is done? I'm stumped. Seems like exposure, development, and

printing are all being managed creatively, but I can't figure it out

specifically other than severe burning and cutting and maybe other

wise manipulating negatives?

<br>

I'm impressed.

<br>

Ben

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I think you've pretty well figured it out, Ben. It's a high contrast print, possibly a high contrast negative as well (underexposed and overdeveloped - IOW, pushed). Lots of dodging and/or burning.

 

For me, at least, I'd want lots of printing time to accomplish this. I'd stop down enough to force a printing exposure time in the neighborhood of 30-60 seconds to give me plenty of elbow room for manipulations. And a footswitch control for the timer to free up both hands.

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image - city sunshower. the light is still relatively bright so in effect what you would do is expose for the highlights so that they print properly OR expose normally and print darker on a higher grade filter. the area to the left of the image (in front of the boy) is naturally in a shaded area so if exposing for the highlights then ofcourse the difference in stops would be high enough for the contrast to become so 'apparent'..

 

creative and careful attention to detail is a must when printing images like so. though its not as complicated as it seems.

 

Narelle Autio and Trent Parke are always noted for their simple and effective approaches. Viewed a doco on both these two on SBS (Sydney Channel) just recently and they are very much down to earth...

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I'm told Trent's just another Leica M guy; clearly he uses a wide-angle mostly.

 

To get the look and texture of his prints, you have to use a film with very wide exposure latitude, which is a wordy way of saying "tri-x".

 

The "look" is mostly in the printing: you print very contrasty, but go to enormous lengths to retrieve detail in the highlights and shadows by burning and dodging like crazy.

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  • 4 months later...

All of the above is very well but it is the shots that seem to have a

lot of blurr, with high speed film and exposing for highlights.

(there are many more examples of this on the magnum photos

website) how do you get slow enough shutter speeds? Neutral

density filters? Can you pull tri x to iso 50 or less?

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Paul, ND filters could be used very conveniently on a Leica or other camera which doesn't require viewing through the lens for composing and focusing. So, yes, it's entirely possible that's one of the techniques.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by exposing for the highlights - that sounds like a recipe for underexposure which probably translates into push processing.

 

And, sure, Tri-X has enough latitude to handle exposure indices from 100 on up pretty easily. EI 50 would be tricky - I don't know of anyone doing this deliberately (some folks report having done this accidentally and ask for help).

 

OTOH, maybe the photographer simply uses a different film on occasion.

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Dream/Life was shot on ILFORD FP4 (pushed) with a Leica.

 

Trent on dodging & burning:

http://ccp.org.au/exhibitions/archives/2001/leica/exhbt_leica-interv-parke.html

 

"I'm always trying to break the photographic boundaries but I don't do

anything on the computer that I can't do in the darkroom." Trent Parke: -

Everyday Surreal by Chad Watson (Newcastle Herald 20Apr02)

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  • 2 weeks later...

"The oddly dreamlike mood of his surf photos came about by accident. After a

great day of shooting, he nearly wrecked his film. Almost in despair, he tried

processing it a new way-sorry, he won't reveal details-and it worked. Some of

his beach pictures just earned second place in World Press Photo's Daily Life

Stories category." 30 under thirty - Photo District News - Mar 2000

 

"The Seventh Wave" photos @ http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/

t_parke_n_autio/index.shtml

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  • 6 months later...

Lou,

I have had varying opinions from people regarding what film Trent Parke is using in Dream Life. One person suggested that pushed FP4 would not give the shadow detail that are in Dream Life. WHAT SHADOW DETAIL! So I'm not sure if suggesting that is was NOT FP4 is correct.

 

Another person suggested 2 stop pushed FP4 developed in Ilfotec DD-X to give fluffy grain. That is sounding most likely give also that Trent is sponsored by ILFORD.

 

Where did you find out that Trent uses FP4. I wish I had the luxurey of time to experiment but I have school assignments due soon that I want to try this technique on! :-)

 

Thanks

 

Jason

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I've noticed that there are colour versions of some black and

white shots in his Magnum archives suggesting that some times

he prints B/W from colour negs. In his most recent work 'Minutes

to Midnight' and most of 'Dream Life' I would say he uses red

filters, and a lot of dodging and burning in the darkroom.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 years later...

<p>I noticed a few people thought Trent Parke used Tri-X. But I think he may use FP4. He may also push push to 200.<br>

As some other people have said, he probably sets his exposure for the brightest parts of the scene and works from there. <br>

I think some of it is also happy accident. I saw in a Magnum interview with Parke that the photo he took of the bus passing by was accidental. After he saw the effect it created with that long blur of highlighted bus going past with shadows in it, he back tracked to how he had set his camera exposure and worked from there. So that image was one of those happy accidents that he learnt from.<br>

I don't like the colour work he's done too much but his B&W work is great. There is a photo I think Narelle took of him examining negatives he'd hung in a tree to dry. I wonder how those negs turned out after air drying outside with all that dust blowing around?</p>

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