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Careened Boat, Weyba Creek; Efke IR820 Aura

5190778725_a8f8bbdb99_b.jpg

Careened Boat, Weyba Creek​

Gelatin-silver photograph on Fomabrom Variant 111 VC FB, image area 16.3cm x 21.4cm, from an Efke IR820 Aura negative exposed in a Mamiya RB67 camera fitted with a 50mm f4.5 lens and IR680 filter.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
5190778725_a8f8bbdb99_b.jpg

Maris Rusis: Careened Boat, Weyba Creek

Gelatin-silver photograph on Fomabrom Variant 111 VC FB, image area 16.3cm x 21.4cm, from an Efke IR820 Aura negative exposed in a Mamiya RB67 camera fitted with a 50mm f4.5 lens and IR680 filter.

With the IR 680nm filter, enough visible light is included to make taking pictures with film less extreme. The result is impressive with a wide range of bright highlights to make the picture alive.

This scene does not pretend to be the center of some beauty, but rather seems to explore the edges of our reality. Trees outside the image send sinuous branches into the frame. The boat is "there" but not shown with any romanticism. Like this, we are forced to create from each part of the image our own series of vignettes of what the rest of the world might be.

A fascinating, somewhat unsettling and challenging experience to be given!

Asher
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Hi Maris,

I appreciate this. In this picture I appreciate the very dark rendering of the blue sky, that often irritates in in some black and white work. Perhaps it's the otherworldly appearance that the ir component already gives.

Cheers

Mike
 
Hi,

A "phantomatic" picture, great. It expresses underlying substance of reality. Maybe a bit more contrast on the bottom to enhance the presence of old boat ?

Cedric.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
use split grade printing and burn in the bottom half with higher grade filtration than the rest

mike

By higher grade filtration you mean adjust the ratio of Y-G colors in the "light from the head" such that it delivers a higher contrast result?

My sources for split grade printing are this snd this. Perhaps you have something better. How does one shape the "burn-in" other than using a dodging shadow as I have learned long ago?

Asher
 
Hi,

A "phantomatic" picture, great. It expresses underlying substance of reality. Maybe a bit more contrast on the bottom to enhance the presence of old boat ?

Cedric.

Yes, adding contrast below the horizon line was tempting but I decided, for better or worse, to do something else.

Using a IR680 filter, as Asher points out, instead of a more extreme filter such as an IR720 gives a "softer" result. I am always hesitant in infrared work to go so contrasty that the photograph becomes too shrill or even vulgar.

Next, the tripod height was adjusted exactly so that the dark roof of the boat fell against the distant line of bright trees and the white hull fell against the dark water of the creek. This with the observation that the boat is the only thing in the photograph with regular lines and angles gives it some prominence.

Without the boat the scene, while dramatic, is an empty stage-set waiting for something to happen. The boat is that thing; the dot on the end of the exclamation mark if you like.
 
5190778725_a8f8bbdb99_b.jpg



Maris Rusis: Careened Boat, Weyba Creek

Gelatin-silver photograph on Fomabrom Variant 111 VC FB, image area 16.3cm x 21.4cm, from an Efke IR820 Aura negative exposed in a Mamiya RB67 camera fitted with a 50mm f4.5 lens and IR680 filter.


Maris, this is a beautiful, slightly haunting image! I believe the result is something you may be exceptionally proud of, it is - in my eyes - truly excellent and original. So too, is your printing work. I for one do not share the sentiment of the rest here that you should have burned in, at higher contrast, the bottom.

I don't know why everybody equates "black and white" with "harsh contrast" - but - especially with medium format film - delicate and subtle tones are often more impressive on the print. A digital scan, of course, does not represent this equally.

As a fellow user of an RB67, but one who has never shot Infrared film in it, I was wondering how you adjusted focus to compensate for the lens' different focusing of light at IR wavelengths? Most lenses have an infrared mark, but the bellows-focusing RB67 has no such facility, and tiny movements of the bellows make a large difference to the 50mm wide angle's focus plane.

I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing another member's darkroom print, these are few and far between on this forum (most people scan their film directly, if anything).
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Dawid

Just to be clear - I wasn't suggesting that Maris should have incrased the contrast in the lower half of the print, just suggesting an approach that could be used to achieve it:)

MIke
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi,

A "phantomatic" picture, great. It expresses underlying substance of reality. Maybe a bit more contrast on the bottom to enhance the presence of old boat ?
Maris,

I really don't have issue with a question. There are two parts: what can be done and what should be done. The latter is for the artist and Cedric wasn't trespassing just wondering about what could be not should be! When we do that, it's with great deference and respect.

Asher
 
As a fellow user of an RB67, but one who has never shot Infrared film in it, I was wondering how you adjusted focus to compensate for the lens' different focusing of light at IR wavelengths? Most lenses have an infrared mark, but the bellows-focusing RB67 has no such facility, and tiny movements of the bellows make a large difference to the 50mm wide angle's focus plane.

David, you are right about the focus shift problem. Recently I shot several hundred frames of Efke IR820 with the result that everything with the Mamiya 360mm f6.3 lens was way out of focus. The 127mm lens and the 50mm wide angle delivered sharp images at f16 and below but that's riding on the depth of field and not truly compensating focus shift.

I have just exposed a roll of Efke IR820/IR680 filter combination through all my lenses using a distance calibrated collection of subjects aka my back-yard. When the roll is developed I'll measure the actual focus shift and post the results on-line. Amazingly, no one seems to have done this before!
 
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