Shooting B&W With Asher

[Asher Kelman]

What, is this thread dying down? Here are a couple of recent prints of mine:

Snowbells A

(Ilford HP5 4x5in, Schneider APO-Symmar 150mm at f/5.6, Linhof Technika)

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An excellent print! This one is so reminiscent of the art of the 1920's and 30's of Erté and the lamps made b6 Tiffany. To think that it only needs to be planted and watered and it grows like that.

Asher

 

[Ron Morse]

Some very nice,quality pictures here.

I really should run some B&W film through my Mamiya. I have some Delta 100 that has been in the freezer for some time. I think I will wait for some warmer weather though.

 

[Dawid Loubser]

All you need is a kitchen sink

So, I am currently without a darkroom entirely, as our business moved to a much smaller premises, and my house has always been too small for one. Until I make another plan, I have developed my first batch of negatives over the kitchen sink in a small steel "daylight" developing tank (a Nikor tank for sheet film). It was difficult to load these large negatives in a new type of tank in a small light-tight changing bag (to say the least!) but, apart from one or two small artifacts of uneven development as I get to know the tank, it was fairly successful. Attached are four of the negatives scanned.

(I detest scanning negatives, it's so much easier and more productive to produce darkroom prints. Oh well!)

We each have our toys

Ilford HP5 (4x5in), 1950s Linhof Technika + Schneider Super-Angulon 75mm f/8

Plane of consciousness

Ilford HP5 (4x5in), 1950s Linhof Technika + Schneider Super-Angulon 75mm f/8

Interiour Facets

Ilford HP5 (4x5in), 1950s Linhof Technika, modern APO-Symmar 150mm f/5.6

Star-lit dwelling

Ilford HP5 (4x5in), 1950s Linhof Technika + Schneider Super-Angulon 75mm f/8
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P.S. The Super-Angulon 75mm f/8 is the very first generation of this legendary lens family, the all-chrome 1950s variant. Tiny (a Technika can close with it fitted), beautifully-built, with superb performance even wide open (as I seem to like to shoot it). The shutter is totally buggered, it needs a good service, but at least with a large-format camera, a shutter is an optional extra

 

[Dawid Loubser]

A recent 35mm B&W image I printed:

Boy and horse

(Nikon F, Nikkor-P 105/2.5 silvernose, Kodak TMY400-2)​

 

[Asher Kelman]

A recent 35mm B&W image I printed:

Boy and horse

(Nikon F, Nikkor-P 105/2.5 silvernose, Kodak TMY400-2)​

Dawid,

The position of the horses nose on the boys arm is what really makes this a special moment.

Thanks for sharing!

Asher

 

[Maggie Terlecki]

Beautiful tones in your b&w Dawid. I love the connection between the two; the horse resting on his elbow and his hand tenderly stroking the horse's neck. The water drops on his sweater and the texture on the horse's mane. Really nice!
Maggie

 

[Dawid Loubser]

One of the cameras that produces the most consistently pleasant monochrome tones (especially when coupled with an old-school film like Fomapan 100) is the tiny Minox 35 and it's 35mm f/2.8 lens. shot wide open here:

It renders like the classical Leica lenses, and is a fraction of the size and weight. This used to be my Dad's camera, until he gave it to me when he switched to a digital compact. I get such a kick out of using it.

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Memories of the beach

Here in South Africa, December is warm, sunny, beach-holiday time I've always thought that monochrome imagery comes to life in the kind of harsh, contrasty lighting in the middle of hot beach days that used to send slide film scurrying away in fear; back when everybody still shot film.

Soaking it up

Watchful eye

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

What, is this thread dying down? Here are a couple of recent prints of mine:

Snowbells A

(Ilford HP5 4x5in, Schneider APO-Symmar 150mm at f/5.6, Linhof Technika)


The B&W flame is burning bright over here - It's been almost 2 years since I produced any colour photographs whatsoever!​

Utterly gorgeous! The tonality of 4X5 with practically any B&W film is a wonder to behold! Of course means nothing until you have the vision to drive it and boy does that happen in this picture.​

 

[Antonio Correia]

A recent 35mm B&W image I printed:

Boy and horse...​

Like Asher, the nose of the horse in the boy's arm is an important part of the image but I think that what is also very important and striking is the very expression of the young man: they are friends. It is a friendly relationship. ​

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Makin' Deals

Makin' deals

Shot on a borrowed Zeiss C-Sonnar 50mm f/1.5, Kodak TMY400-2, Leica M3. What a lovely, gentle lens - I want one for when the Heliar just can't create a shallow enough field.

 

[Maris Rusis]

There are so many right things in this picture: cool shade inside versus hot street activity outside, the line of light following the profile of the bald cranium, the glint of spectacle frame against the light, the highlight on the lip moving in speech, the PERFECT focus.
Ok, I'd lose the right hand end of the picture just past the corner of the table but, hey, it's not my picture. And I could not have taken it; too slow. I envy your reaction time.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Instead of cutting the right side, Maris, if it was your picture, why not throw it out of focus so we get the wide space atmosphere of the place.

Asher

 

[Asher Kelman]

Instead of cutting the right side, Maris, if it was your picture, why not throw it out of focus so we get the wide space atmosphere of the place?

Asher

 

[Dawid Loubser]

There are so many right things in this picture: cool shade inside versus hot street activity outside, the line of light following the profile of the bald cranium, the glint of spectacle frame against the light, the highlight on the lip moving in speech, the PERFECT focus.
Ok, I'd lose the right hand end of the picture just past the corner of the table but, hey, it's not my picture. And I could not have taken it; too slow. I envy your reaction time.

Thank you so much I really would like to own that wonderfully gentle lens one day, it's contributed much to the atmosphere of this image. You know, I deliberately left the right side of the image, to convey a much greater impression of the space. I figured, since the shapes and tones are so different to the subject, it does not directly compete with him - though I do understand your point.

Lately, I have been focusing on very off-centre subjects (not just normal rule-of-thirds) - and leaving the right-hand portion of the image intact assists with this style.

When I make another print of this image in the darkroom, I might try Asher's advice and subtly blur the right-hand side. For the time being, I prefer the naked truth of the negative as-is

 

[Chris Calohan]

Is this thread strictly for film photographers?

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Is this thread strictly for film photographers?

I think that was the spirit of the original post - to "get down to it" and shoot some film in old cameras. I don't think anybody would object to some tasteful digital monochrome imagery, but let's hear what the rest says.

 

[Asher Kelman]

I think that was the spirit of the original post - to "get down to it" and shoot some film in old cameras. I don't think anybody would object to some tasteful digital monochrome imagery, but let's hear what the rest says.

My own view is that we should enrich OPF with B&W expression and that anyone who shoots film earns our devotion. Having said that, some digital is welcome. I'd love to see Chris and others also shoot some film too!!

The experience of valuing and conserving film to make the best exposure and composition one can get at the time, is important and hard to match. So bring on B&W and think in terms of form, lighting, textures, balance, disorder, rhythm and layers of value!

Thanks for every single B&W picture!

Asher

 

[Chris Calohan]

I had to quit shooting and processing film. Late in life, I've seemed to have developed an allergic reaction to most of the chemistry. This is as much why I switched to Platinum/Palladium, Salt, Albumen and Ziatype printing...not so many naughty chemicals to have to mix.

This is one of several digital images I've c

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onverted to B&W that I believe enhances the subject far better than the color. I generally convert using SEP2, but have been known to futz around in channels first and do several layering techniques to enrichen the tonal values.

In one image I'll post later, I used David Byrne's exposure layer technique to create a super rich image - but oh, it is quite time consuming...- but oh, it is so nice.

http://www.85mm.co.uk for David Byrne

"Well Connected"

 

[Chris Calohan]

These are two I made using David Byrne's exposure layering technique:

Chris Calohan: "Unto a Place I Walk in Peace"

Chris Calohan: "Into the Light"​

 

[Jerome Marot]

"Into the Light" is wonderful, even if it looks a bit like an IR picture, but "Unto a Place I Walk in Peace" is really over the top IMO. When I see strong contrast effects as is the case here, I need an explanation for it. I have it for "Into the Light", but not for the first picture. What about turning down the effect considerably on the trees but keeping it as it is for the grass for that picture?

 

[Chris Calohan]

"Into the Light" is wonderful, even if it looks a bit like an IR picture, but "Unto a Place I Walk in Peace" is really over the top IMO. When I see strong contrast effects as is the case here, I need an explanation for it. I have it for "Into the Light", but not for the first picture. What about turning down the effect considerably on the trees but keeping it as it is for the grass for that picture?

Thanks for your observation and to Asher for placing the images in a gallery format. I have several variations for the first mage. The one I used to print was less bright on the trees but I find when I post that in a smaller format, I lose a lot of the subtle detail...Into the light is one of my favorites as well.

 

[Jerome Marot]

Thanks for your observation and to Asher for placing the images in a gallery format. I have several variations for the first image. The one I used to print was less bright on the trees but I find when I post that in a smaller format, I lose a lot of the subtle detail...Into the light is one of my favorites as well.

The first image is more difficult to print just right, I suppose. And in smaller format, I noticed that about half-way to the right there is a tree pointing up the sky which responds to a straight line in the clouds. I find that element distracting in smaller format.

 

[Asher Kelman]

These are two I made using David Byrne's exposure layering technique:

Chris,

Both of these images are impressive. They stop one from just walking past. What then?

Chris Calohan: "Unto a Place I Walk in Peace"​

The first picture, is to me, something like looking at HDR. We're hit by the unusual solidity of everything. It appears as if there's no "somewhats" or "possiblys" or "nearlys" left, hinting of what things might be. But then, the entire image becomes really a mystery and so one has no choice but to move to a world of either hyper or alternate reality. So this is going to become for us a fascinating new world to exercise one's imagination, with new rules, perhaps that we ourselves might create.

I'm not yet acclimatized to surreal HDR images and this holds true for these B&W interpretations. Just I have to catch up. O.K., I take the leap, now what? Now I wonder about the central path which is so much less detailed and defined than the clouds or the fields. But with a compositionally dominant path one cannot help but evoke the most important metaphor common to all known languages, namely "life as a journey". So I'd ask if you might have thought of other approaches to processing the path to give it the significance it appears to own by inherent rights in all our cultures. There are no real curves, walls, broken parts or diversions to overcome. Yes, the path is not quite horizontal, but that seems a matter of accident and not bold enough to have been designed. Also there's a slight notch in the road in the far distance, but once again hardly more than an accident to be either considered an imperfection or a distraction. So what's left is texture and lighting of the road. At present it's just embedded in a trough of darkness. Fine, that may be your intent and as good as it will be. If that's so stop where you are.


Still, this simple picture to me offers a myriad of related ongoing opportunities for presentation. I'd love to challenge you discover what you might come up with to take this further.

 

[Chris Calohan]

Neither image is HDR but rather a somewhat complex method of applying multiple inverted exposure/contrast layers.

I will take you up on your challenge to find a differing approach to the first image. The second stays as it...hey, ya gotta make a stand somewhere. ;>}

 

[Asher Kelman]

Chris,

I thought each picture deserves separate attention as they are so very different in subject and experience.

Chris Calohan: "Into the Light"​

This is just one of those scenes I'm jealous to capture myself with crepuscular light filtering through trees. but here, with the processing, the light seems so strong it could be from an overflying Los Angeles police helicopter looking for suspects to shoot from air!

One process I always use is to work in layers with different version of my processing and then leave for several hours to get involved totally in something utterly different. when I return, my object now is to use the minimal percentage of the transformed layer that i'd left as "perfect" before the break. Most often I can use just 7-25" and still have the power of the transformation I thought was just right when I left it! sometimes I need almost all of it, but usually I can keep a few percent of the original. This way, one doesn't restrict oneself in artistic changes but one is also discipline not get intoxicated by the magic of the process itself.

 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Chris, in that second one I can imagine a hobbit walking out at any second, it's very surreal.

 

[fahim mohammed]

These are two I made using David Byrne's exposure layering technique:

Chris Calohan: "Unto a Place I Walk in Peace"

Chris Calohan: "Into the Light"​

Hi Chris.

I am not versed in describing images I see. All I shall say is they are marvelous to look at, give me a wonderful sensation of being there.

Best regards.

 

[Chris Calohan]

Thanks everyone for your comments. The process of declination from tiff at a rather large print scale to a jpeg really whacks the "Unto a Place I walk" image. At full size, on a matte Jon Cone paper, it is simply spectacular.

The second image, "Into the Light," was a chance shot made when I turned from my path to yell at my kid to hurry along because it was quite much on the verge of a heavy downpour. Just as I turned, the sun broke through for a fleeting instance and I was able to make this capture. Fortunately for me, I'd previously been doing timed tripod shots in a three exposure bracket and between two of the three, I was able to make this image work. I love serendipitous captures.

 

[Dawid Loubser]

Keeping in practice with the Linhof Technika

I produce these two images yesterday. I have not used my view camera in almost two months, and wanted to try out a new film-developing tank. I forgot just what a sensual compositional experience it is using that beautiful large ground glass (compared to the usual SLRs etc that we use).

Concave/Convex

Ilford HP5+, 1950s chrome Super-Angulon 90mm f/8.0

Steely Arum

Ilford HP5+, APO-Symmar 150mm f/5.6
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