Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/12/18
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Mark, I have a love / hate relationship with grain. (and my own work for that matter) Its been a while since I've been able to work much - having spent the last many years building my business to an acceptable equlibrium (not photography). As a pro I'd been 95% 4 X 5 architectural but gave it up as a profession to focus on our long term fiscal health. The last 2 art series I want to revisit / evolve from were literally day and night. The day was Tech Pan @ 25 - and was like this (very low res): http://www.sblutter.com/La_Paz_Tripych_-_Steven_Blutter.html I'm going to try Formulary's TD-3 and rate at 50 - or go back to Kodak's kit which was fine but slow @ 25 ASA. This series is about textures - abstracts. Inspired by some of Weston's later stuff, Meatyard, abstract expressionism, Minor White and poetry. These are shot mostly w/ Summi 50 collapsable and use the Sooky-M quite a bit (90 & 135 if necc also)- mostly in bright daylight and use filters where appropriate, pola, yellow, orange, green etc. These will start 16 X 20 (my max here) but will go much larger if there's interest. - -- The night series was originally dev'd with some blue developer out of CA that i can't find or recall (came in silver packets) - but it was Tri-X @ 32 - 6400 and was very grainy but pretty. They were fairly easy to print but the highlights blew out a bit. I haven't scanned any of the negs yet. These were slightly blurry portraits under sodium vapor street lights - in noir / interesting locations on Chicago winter nights (gets dark so early). As I recall the dev temp was 92! The experiements are going to start w/ Tri-X, but will try all appropriate films and am open to suggestions. Am trying Rodinal and Dektol for now. The grain I want is obvious but soft - (want that good Bokeh!) - want them to be atmospheric, textured and emotionally evocotive - to be printed 16 X 20. I didn't like T-Max and beating the hell out of Tri-X always amuses me - a heck of a film. For testing, I'm shooting in the right light, at the f; and speed I want (f: 2.8 > 5.6 @ 1/8 > 1/30) and am doing snip tests in trays in the D.R., looking for easiest to print full range negs. on fiber P.C. paper. Whole rolls of a static scene that has the range scale I'll be using - one setting at a time and noting times. Glad I kept my bulk loader! Once the tech is out of the way I'll be able to shoot freely - without worrying about settings. Its more important for to get the right expression from the 'model'. Will be using the Summitar - very pretty @ 2.8 & 4.0. (body doesn't matter.) 'Urban angels' is the theme Any suggestions are welcome and thank you very much for your interest. My hope is that picking up where I left my artwork off will further energize my efforts now that I can manage the time better. And have fun!! - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Rabiner" <mark@rabinergroup.com> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2003 8:41 AM Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: Lunasix 3 issue > Steven Blutter wrote: > > > > will post - but thanks for the suggestion of other films > > > > have been doing things one way for probably too long > > > Just to be clear is that "one way" pushing your film several stops? > > Or using technical pan. > > > Mark Rabiner > Portland, Oregon USA > http://www.rabinergroup.com > > No Archive > Hold the Anchovies > -- > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html