Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/11/14

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Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: Long: crazy: My Halloween sheetfilm Project Poster.pdf
From: lea <lea@whinydogpress.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 08:54:41 -0600
References: <3BF24DDF.12AE4E9D@rabiner.cncoffice.com>

Good work Mark...you did a great job. Thanks for sharing.

And where can I go to get an invite to this party next year? Weeehaw!!!!
Lea

Mark Rabiner wrote:

> http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/pdfs/MuseumHalloween.pdf
>
> The above is a 1979k PDF which takes less then a minute to load if you have DSL
> i think. Hit the option button if you want it not to come up in your browser,
> but on your hard disk where your acrobat works a bit better.
>
> It consists of 15 4x5's very close to 1:1 neg-size on a 22x18in horizontal
> poster layout.
>
> The location is the Portland Art Museum North Wing Grand Ballroom lobby.
>
> I shot 4x5 Kodak T Max 400 which i ran in a Kodak half gallon rubber tank in
> Xtol 1:1 for ten minutes. Agitating once per minute as per usual. 70 degrees. 8
> at a time. 4 runs. Fixed twice. 4 tanks. That's 32 images so i edited 17 out for
> perhaps the time being. I added 2 ounces of pure Xtol after every run to the
> tank. 8 sheets equals 2 rolls. Straight answers on replenishing Xtol with Xtol i
> could not get because they kept talking about seasoning in the Kodak literature.
> And I'm allergic to MSG! No i wasn't about to start "seasoning" this stuff where
> was i when they invented THAT? No one told me about it. My guess on 10 minutes
> turned out to be right on the money. My consistency in all four runs is
> remarkable. My contact sheets all certainly got the same time under my enlarger
> and matched up well.
>
> There is some brief nudity here. Some People wearing briefs -  and not much else
> plus body paint. No boxers - "thongs." And paint. But they left a one inch bald
> spot at the base of their spinal cord so they wouldn't suffocate!!!  Such A Cold
> Finger.......beckens You To Enter His Web Of Sin..........
>
> So if the kids are standing right there next you your monitor as you download
> this blindfold them.
> Better yet gag 'em!!!
>
> And a few shots might even be a tad disturbing.  Are you downloading yet?
>
> I took an ambient reading and got 5.6 at a 1/4 second!
>
> I had my Calumet/Cambo NX set up on my new Ries wooden tripod in the corner of
> the room. The lobby. No head! The camera was hot-wired right to the tripod. Do i
> have shifts or do i have shifts? Do i have legs which lock anywhere? The
> ballroom things were happening fast and the reading was 5.6 at at least a
> minute. It would have been an empty ballroom. A few very transparent Ghosts. No
> Pepe and the bottle blonds.
> http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004UDE8/qid%3D1005731256/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F0%5F1/103-9844849-2939036
> Like a civil war battlefield... an empty field. Oh and the lens was a Fujinon W
> 5.6 210 i got ten years ago from Calumet. Way before i got into German glass.
>
> I thought: These pictures are not going to come out!  I don't have a clue what
> I'm doing in this format! These people are boring. What the hell am i doing here
> in this Nadar Peirott Photographer white clown outfit!?
>
> But as I've been all of a sudden shooting wide open with all my other cameras
> and lenses why not 4x5? Great bokeh maybe! Eh?  The blur might be a big plus!
> Stop them from being deadly boring Maybe!
>
> A little bit out of focus; a little blur - what have you got? A transcendental
> experience! Mush! I focused my camera a foot from the corner. Some people came
> right over and stood there. They were not so boring. They wanted to know what
> they owed me. This happened all night. Where did they keep their wallets with
> those Costumes? I had special pockets sown into mine! I clicked the shutter
> having cocked it ahead of time.  Stuck the dark slide back in. Said thank you.
> Flipped the thing around took the dark slide out and parked it at the top
> position just like the 1850's photo. Cocked the shutter and went looking for a
> spicy victim.
> Others found me.
>  What do you say when a big white clown asks you to take your picture? I think
> most of them saw my big view camera parked out in the corner of the lobby. 4x5
> is both impressive and unthreatening. People will give you the second degree
> with hand held small rollfilm cameras as you try to blend in. We photogs have a
> bad rap as of late. But the 4x5 on a wooden tripod breaks all that down.
>
> My instincts based on i don't know what came thru for me on these shots. They
> came out exactly as i thought they would. The blur and bokeh. I'm happy as a clam.
>
> I love Halloween because everyone dresses up as themselves! Their year round
> costumes finally come off!
>
> These are scans at 1200 dpi off the contact sheets. A full sheet at a time. I
> then divided them up into individual units. Eventually i may scan the negs if i
> want to inkjet them. But i may upload these to my website. But I'm going to
> darkroom print them 11x14 warts and all. My Omega D2 had no cloning tool. Must
> have not been in the shipping case. I'm seeing how I'm going to have to air
> blast and brush my negs better as i load them in the holders. This is day one
> for me. I've shot very little sheetfilm. And not in a decade.
>
> Each indiviual neg was 5 inches high. Around 6000 pixels high. Then downsampled
> to screen size, 768 pixels high-still 5 inches high and put in the layout in
> Adobe InDesign.
>
> The texture of the scratched contact sheet making glass really comes though if
> you zoom in with the magic magnifying glass in Adobe Acrobat! By the way my
> wifes Epson printer made a stupendous letter sized inkjet of this thing. The
> default for acrobat is "size to print." Very sharp!
>
> My wife punched holes in the contact sheets to put in the 3 ring binder with the
> negs! I forgot to tell her i was planning on scanning them! But i find those
> punch holes a real plus at this point with the pictures! How much would i have
> to pay an artistic consultant to put those holes in there so perfectly! Without
> the holes and glass scratches i have no ideal how much I'll still like these
> shots! We'll see. I cant wait to bring these back into the darkroom. and put
> them INTO the enlarger this time.
> Its been years since i've printed this large a neg.
>
> Mark Rabiner
>
> Portland, Oregon USA
>
> http://www.rabiner.cncoffice.com/
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- --
Lea Murphy
Whiny Dog Press
816-333-9111
Home: http://www.whinydogpress.com
Newest: http://www.whinydogpress.com/new.html


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In reply to: Message from Mark Rabiner <mark@rabiner.cncoffice.com> ([Leica] OT: Long: crazy: My Halloween sheetfilm Project Poster.pdf)