Large Format 4X5 Calumet Camera

<h3 id="20161216135048AA1fAJV" ><a id="yui_3_17_2_5_1481902586841_569" href="https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20161216135048AA1fAJV" data-rapid_p="1" data-ylk="slk:qtitle">Large Format 4X5 Calumet Camera?</a></h3>

 

Schneider 210 mm 1:5.6 Lens. 100 ASA ERA B&W Film How do I get that Old Time Photography look when I do Portrate, 1960's Look?

 

<p>Via a lot of well placed comparably small light sources?<br>

I'm too young to know when strobes became fashionable in studios. and further don#t know to whose pictures you are refering when talking about a 60s look. I can imagine fresnel hot lights + maybe an odd beauty dish somewhere still in use in the 60s. And the folks back then surely knew how to place a hair light and such.</p>

When I think 1960s portraits I also think color in

which the blue has faded, giving an overall

yellowish look.

 

For B&W I'd orient toward warm paper... and a lens

a bit less sharp than a Symmar-s

<p>How you'd use lighting is v. instrumental, but you also need various things to stylize the hair, using appropriate clothing or props. If you intend to do things in color, you may need polish up how to tweak the saturation and contrast in the edit. Recently made color films have different properties and might need to be altered.<br>

Also there are many books on glamour lighting (Hollywood type)....kind of a style from that era.</p>

<p>Les</p>

 

<p>The one film still available with the upswept type of HD curve typical of portraits of that era is Kodak TX320 in sheet sizes. It's the last black & white "portrait" film.<br>

But it's mostly about the lighting.</p>

<p>Out of curiosity, I checked that suposedly "sixties" look in a portraiture book I have from celebrities at the Harcourt studio in Paris. There are loads of shots starting, say, at the forties up to the end of the first 2000 decade.<br /> Gear wise, the main difference I see is the increased microcontrast in the later images. As used to say, images look "clinically" sharp, specially if compared to those in the 50`s (which use to have an overall soft look), but also even on the 60´s and 70´s. Other than this, all look the same; focal lenghts, formats, etc.<br /> In respect to illumination and composition, backgrounds, etc. there are dramatic changes; from the hash upper-front light to the more horizontal and softer in the sixties... current illumination is free, complex, mostly imitating older styles but also with silly compositions. Backgrounds used to be simple and almost flat up to early sixties, after that maybe any blurred but distinguishable scenario could appear behind the subject. Their latest portraits use to show sharp, environmental backgrounds (like Arnold Newman`s).<br /> So I tend to think that using large format, which is sharp "by itself", will minimize that gear diferences. If you shoot with a lens from the sixties, you will have to work mostly on illumination, composition and scenarios (hair cuts and wardrobe included!) to achieve a "true sixties" look.</p>

<p>Regardikng films: I agree that in B&W the only current emulsion dating from that era is Kodak Tri-X. For color, aybe a Kodak color negative films.</p>

<p>There is a software add-on for Photoshop that is supposed to emulate the spectral response and "look" of now departed films like Kodachrome, Ektachrome, Kodacolor and so on.</p>

<p>In B&W I kike the still available Ektascan, a panchromatic medicsl film only avaiklable in 8x10. Chemistry is compatable with Tri-x.</p>

<p>Please let us know what you do and share a few images.</p>

<p>Wow, those yahoo answers were worse than useless.</p>

<p>I am wondering what you mean by a 60's look? Tri-X is old school, but there are other B&W emulsions out there that are old school as well like Arista, Foma, Kentmere, etc. I would use a Graflex SLR w/ an Optar lens for starters w/ 4x5, loaded w/ any of these. You can get all sorts of different looks w/ film depending on how you expose it, how you develop it, and what you develop it in. So film choice is not as critical as knowing what you're doing. The easiest route would be to just use Tri-X in D76 straight if you're new to this. </p>

<p>Many people were using 35mm in that era, so a screw mount camera w/ a 90mm Elmar will give you that period look. This would be my preference, as I love the way those old Leica lenses image. They certainly won't be mistaken for anything modern, and I prefer that look anyway to anything made today. That old Leica glass has a unique signature.</p>