w._veena Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 For a new project I plan to double expose 4x5 b/w sheet film. I don�t have decided the type of film yet, but it should be on the faster side, maybe 400. Every photograph should consist of a portrait of a person (exposure 1) and a second (small) object, which should appear on a part of the person�s skin like a tattoo (rather dark, 2dimensional look). So, my idea is to (1st) make the portrait (2nd) mark the approx. position of the �tattoo object� on the ground glass with some transparent film and a permanent marker (3rd) arrange the �tattoo object� in front of a white background and align it with the mark on the ground glass and (4th) make the second exposure. Well, this is the theory. I know there are lots of other ways to achieve this, but I want to avoid to create the double exposure in the darkroom with two negs., and I don�t want to use any digital manipulation. The big question for me now is how to correctly expose for this? The �tattoo-object� can appear pretty dark, not much or no detail is required, just a silhouette. But the portrait overall should be as balanced as a single exposure, with good gray tones etc. As I want to avoid too much trial-and-error testing, which would probably be rather frustrating, maybe someone could give some rough tips on how to expose or how I could approximate the right exposure with some kind of calculation. Thanks a lot for your input! Wolfgang Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w._veena Posted December 3, 2005 Author Share Posted December 3, 2005 Sorry for the question-marks and some other funny characters. Dont know where they come from and hope that my question is nevertheless comprehensible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lee hamiel Posted December 3, 2005 Share Posted December 3, 2005 Wolfgang: First off I would suggest using Polaroid type 55 film; This way you can see if you get what you want & it's a great film for the end product. Secondly: I would suggest shooting two sep. neg's of each image & combining either in the darkroom or in PS. More control & perhaps better end result. Good Luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huw_finney Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 Instead of film and a marker use a Chinagraph pencil directly on the GG. One point is that double exposure in the camera (and two negs together) only lightens things, for a darker tattoo you need double exposure when enlarging. Assuming the double exposure route to get a reasonable exposure bracket, in this case for a one stop bracket, which is all you need to vary the ratio of the face to tattoo, you need 6 exposures on 3 films. 1. Both 'normal' 2. Face one stop over, tattoo normal. 3. Tattoo one stop over, face normal. The exposure lattitude will take care of the rest. Don't forget to take the tattoo on a black background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
huw_finney Posted December 4, 2005 Share Posted December 4, 2005 ...and if doing the double exposure in the enlarger take the tattoo on a very white background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w._veena Posted December 6, 2005 Author Share Posted December 6, 2005 Thanks so far! I'll go for some tests. Hope I get some nice result to be shown here. regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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