jeffrey_abelson

When shooting up the side of a hill, should the back be perpendicular to the ground - and the front tilted along the incline or away from it? It seems that when you tilt back (away), object up the hill go into sharper focus.<div></div>

Norman 200b - 200ws, 100ws, 50ws settings, can power a qflash, also has an automatic head (if you can find it) has a ton of reflectors and softboxes, can be run from AC power or on batteries that give you about 170 200ws flashes, built like a tank and cheap - get it serviced though and you've got studio lighting that fits into a backpack.

"The bellows often have pinholes, the front standard is often misaligned, shutter speeds are innacurate, and the lenses are frequently cloudy. "

 

The range and/or viewfinders are often tiny and hard to focus through, there's no metering, the rangefinder is often uncoupled (depending on the model) and most of the cameras that I've examined smell musty. The Holga, while an interesting camera, is a completely different scene - this guy wants to shoot pictures (not "art").

"Let's suppose you are using a 135 mm lens, the camera is 4 feet from the ground and the near flowers are about four feet away. "

 

Nice work: 150mm lens, lens is about 3 feet off ground, nearest flower was about 4-5 feet. I'i gonna try stopping down - I can't wait to try shooting in the woods with type 55 (which I meter at 40 asa) ...:|

The attached photo had to be shot at 5.6 or so - I did not want a

long exposure time because of the breeze - but I was wondering if I

could get foreground and BG in focus using the tilt movement and if

anyone has a suggestion on how to do so.

 

Thanks!

 

Jeffrey<div></div>

"Film Rules"<div></div>

One big problem of on-camera flashes, like the Vivitars, is the lack of modeling lights and they burn through batteries pretty fast - and the recharge slows as the batteries drain. Without modeling lights, the flash is hard to aim, and, I think, you're limited in your use of parabolic reflectors, diffusers, grids and softboxes, snoots and various other modifers. This can be all worked around, but why bother when there are lights made specifically for what you need?

Grant Swinging the Bat<div></div>

"5.6 and f8 gets the best soft light portrait resul"

 

I meant f8-8.5. I don't know why I posted other wise.

"A small pocket digital made to look like Rolleiflex f is a fun toy, but not a MF Rollei"

 

Really? :)

Ellis is right - makeup is the answer - even a baby can get some powder on the nose - if not, remove the highlight in photoshop (clone tool set on a darken blending mode at about 30 percent opacity and 50 percent flow or burn it in the darkroom). What aperture are you shooting at? I found between 5.6 and f8 gets the best soft light portrait results<div></div>

<a href="http://www.rollei.jp/e/pd/MiniD.html">New Rollei!</a>

Try this: set up the camera on a tripod. Expose for and focus on the mountains - i'd use a medium aperture at a 60th to saturate the colors. After shooting with the focus on the mountains, take the same shot but expose for and focus on the flowers. Create a composite in Photoshop or in the darkroom.

I know this is an old thread, but I'm finding it very interesting. The modernist movemt of photography specifically rejected the soft painterly selective focus of the pictorial movement - and this was in the 20s! They decided, I think, that sharp focus and detail made the portrait - look at the work of Weston and Stieglitz and Victor Keppler.<div></div>

"I must correct what Jeffrey wrote : don't use Quickload sheet films on a Polaroid 545 holder : the 545 has no pressure plate and you'll have film flatness problems. "

 

I've shot quite a few quick loads to very sharp focus and no problems - in fact, Fuji themselves say the 545 works with their quickloads. My understanding of the 545 and fuji QLs is that polaroid films are not actually 4x5 and may have some framing issues.

I would buy a Polaroid 545 first: you're gonna want to see your work ASAP - and you can shoot quickloads in the Polaroid holder (with some reservations).

 

Jeffrey

Hi Scott:

<p>

I did a little research for you: for $378 a month you can lease the Phase One H20 for Mamiya RZ. This is a 16 MP back and perfect for your needs. And relatively affordable. Enjoy!

<p>

<a href="http://calumetphoto.com/ctl?PAGE=Controller&ac.ui.pn=cat.CatItemDetail&ac.item.itemNo=PE71225C&.detail=y&type=SPDSEARCH">Calumet Photo</a><p>

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3352&item=3819790707&rd=1">RZ Pro II body for under $400</a><p>

"What does this picture has to do with the thread's theme? As far as I can see (or the .jpeg reveals) this could have been done with my Contax P&S as well as with any digicam around, so how does this posting add to the discussion?"

 

As I said, this was done with a c330 - a 6x6 camera that can create huge prints from the transparency - this is a small version of a 13x19 which is not 20x30, but I could've scanned it much larger - thus the topic of the thread. Didn't mean to be rude but it's hot hot hot in NYC today...

"Now, what's so interesting about the Maui picture?"

 

What a stupid question! What's so interesting about anything? It has interest to me because I not only took it - but I was there. It has interest to me because I'd rather be there right now than stuck behind my desk. Please, though, post one of your very intersting photos, so I know the parameters of your version of interesting. I merely posted so Scott could see that medium format senics could be easily scanned to large print size (though 13x19 ain't the biggest print, it could've easily gone much bigger). Whether you find it interesting is besides the point...

"Now, what's so interesting about the Maui picture?"

 

If you don't see it, no one can enlighten you...

Hi Scott:

 

You don't really sound like you're interested in shooting pictures - if you were, you'd not worry about what you can't have and you'd certainly not be angry that you can't afford a digital back - you'd get your ass out there to shoot film and either scan the stuff yourself or have it professionally scanned - either way you can equal or surpass the best of digital backs for a tiny piece of the price. Photography has always been an art of compromise - from choosing the tones you'll capture to which equipment you'll pack for your shoot. Now stop bitching and bring something to the table - just accept the fact that you can't have the $20,000 back and move on already.

<p>

Thanks!

<p>

<img src=http://www.jalook.com/fun/plantation.jpg align=center><p>

Maui Tropical Plantation - c330, 55mm - scanned to 13x19 on an Espon 2450 (total cost for camera, lens and scanner (all bought used on Ebay): about $800

"...digital--in any format in its current technology--is nothing more than a scam..."

 

"...the apparatus, the souless machine, must be subserviant, the personality and its demands must dominate..." Heinrich Kuhn

SHoot digital and adjust as you go - or shoot polaroids and do the same.

I forgot to add: power to the people!<p>

<img src=http://www.jalook.com/fun/subway.jpg align=center>

<p>

Shot in 2001 at 207th Street A Station (you can see my reflection in the widow)

From today's NY Times:

 

Ban on Subway Photography Prompts Underground Protest

By ALAN FEUER

 

At a protest by photographers, you see things like a guy taking pictures of a guy taking pictures of a few more guys taking pictures of one another.

 

There was such a protest yesterday, but it might take hundreds of pages to describe it, given all the pictures that were taken, each one worth at least a thousand words.

 

Advertisement

 

 

The photographers - about 100 of them - gathered to express their outrage at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's proposed ban on taking pictures in the subway system. Meeting at Grand Central Terminal, they rode the trains for upward of an hour, shutters clicking, flashes popping, in a filmed rebuke to the idea that photography is somehow a national security threat.

 

"The point is really to make everyday people wake up and realize that photographers are not terrorists," said Joe Anastasio, who organized the event. "In the last few years, photographers near anything vaguely important have been getting harassed."

 

Mr. Anastasio went on to tell the story of a friend who took his wife's picture near the Whitestone Bridge, only to be called in for questioning by the police. He told another of a man caught snapping pictures at a Metro-North station who was interrogated for nearly two hours by authorities at the scene.

 

"The paranoia," he said, "has gone a little too far."

 

The transit authority's proposal, posted on its Web site, says the agency is planning to adopt "a general prohibition against photography and videotaping in the system." The agency is soliciting public comment on the ban and plans to vote on the proposal in the next few months.

 

"It's a security measure," said a spokeswoman for the agency, Deirdre Parker. "It was suggested by the N.Y.P.D."

 

Mr. Anastasio and his fellow photographers said it was ridiculous that pictures of the subway might somehow make the trains unsafe. After all, they said, there are thousands of subway photographs already on the Internet.

 

"The subway is so well documented that what's the point?" asked Jean Miele, a fine art and commercial photographer. "This sort of thing makes us less free, not safer."

 

Infuriated that his photographic rights might in fact be curtailed, Mr. Anastasio sent messages to several friends, asking them to show up yesterday to photograph the subway. They did - with Nikons, Leicas, Canons and such. There were an $8,000 digital job and a cheap mini that showed a nudie picture through its viewfinder.

 

When a downtown No. 6 train arrived, the photographers began to cheer. They boarded in a herd and held their cameras up, taking pictures of other hands holding cameras up.

 

At the 14th Street station, they split into two groups, stood against the walls and photographed each other across a corridor. This had varying effects on the people passing by. One woman fixed her hair before she ran the gantlet; another covered her face.

 

One guy said to his buddy, "Hey, what's with all the paparazzi?"

 

His buddy said, "Dunno, I think it must be you."

 

There was a tense moment when the crowd decided it would photograph a transit police dispatch station at 14th Street. A startled officer came out and suggested that they leave.

 

"You didn't say 'Cheese!' " one of the cheekier photographers said.

 

When an L train finally arrived, they tried taking pictures of the motorman. He was not keen on this idea, however, and blocked his window with an advertising circular.

 

Many of the photographers said they planned to post their pictures on the Internet - Jared Skolnick, for example, who takes pictures of the subway on his cellphone and then displays them online.

 

"I've learned that so many crazy things can happen on the subway," said Mr. Skolnick, who paused and then added, "including this."