[navi]

Picked up a toyo view camera with about 6 lenses for next to nothing
Decided to shoot film again for a fashion editorial because I thought it could be fun.

Toyo 5x4 with a nikon 150mm lens
orthochromatic BW film (so we could develop under a red light)
1 Elinchrom 500BRXi flash head on a 2m parabolic umbrella
Scanned on my flextight scanner.




I think I will shoot more with film and 5x4 camera for my editorial work. There is no way i could get the tones I get with B&W film on a digital camera.  I should have saved my money and not bought the digital hasselblad in 2010!

[thunderbrick]

NICE!   

[charmerci]

I should have saved my money and not bought the digital hasselblad in 2010!

Well, IF you're not using it, can I borrow it?  (Yeah, that's me green with envy!)

[navi]

Well, IF you're not using it, can I borrow it?  (Yeah, that's me green with envy!)

You can hire it off me!

[nathanm]

How many shots did you shoot with the 4x5 verses what you'd normally shoot digitally?  My understanding of ortho film is that since it's not sensitive to reds the flesh tones come out brighter than normal, right?

[SET Man]

Hey!

  navi, very nice shots.

  There's still something about those little light sensitive salt crystals that digital sensor can't match when is come to B&W.

Take care,
Buddy

[navi]

How many shots did you shoot with the 4x5 verses what you'd normally shoot digitally?  My understanding of ortho film is that since it's not sensitive to reds the flesh tones come out brighter than normal, right?

correct-O! ortho film on people look good because it's not sensitive to red- which is why i can develop under red light as well (developed in my bathroom). I didn't have to use a green filter like with normal BW film.

I shot 10 shots. 5 looks 2 shots per look. If I had shot it digitally I would have BLASTED off about 200-300 frames. I'm shooting film for editorial work in the future.

[navi]

Hey!

  navi, very nice shots.

  There's still something about those little light sensitive salt crystals that digital sensor can't match when is come to B&W.

Take care,
Buddy

What digital does well is sharpness, low noise & colour intensity (that can be considered as lower dynamic range)

The closest way to getting this tonal range with digital I've found is adjusting the raw file as a greyscale image and adding green and tweaking the red and blue channel

[SET Man]

What digital does well is sharpness, low noise & colour intensity (that can be considered as lower dynamic range)

The closest way to getting this tonal range with digital I've found is adjusting the raw file as a greyscale image and adding green and tweaking the red and blue channel

Hey!

   I  think I have been doing something similar to that. I desaturated the color and I use Channel Mixer on the CS2, works OK.

correct-O! ortho film on people look good because it's not sensitive to red- which is why i can develop under red light as well (developed in my bathroom). I didn't have to use a green filter like with normal BW film.

I shot 10 shots. 5 looks 2 shots per look. If I had shot it digitally I would have BLASTED off about 200-300 frames. I'm shooting film for editorial work in the future.

     There is something very different when shooting with film than digital isn't it?

     Very different mentality. I feel that with film you pay more attention to the subject/scene than with digital, with digital I feel that you sometime get caught up with back LCD screen peeking and missed the moment with the subject.

Take care,
Buddy

[nathanm]

Shooting B&W film is a big shortcut I think, assuming you want that look.  It gets you halfway there.  You can get the same result with digital, but it just takes more post-processing work, a sort of work which isn't quite as fun in my opinion.  Also, you aren't as distracted by having too many possibilities with the negative.  You can get really carried away by manipulating the lightness of the color ranges with digital conversion, but with film it's more about tweaking the tonal areas that are already there.  It's just a different work process I guess.

However, I am nearly convinced that you cannot reverse engineer the super old-school tintype, wet plate collodion etc. process with Photoshop\Lightroom.  I am open to being proved wrong, but when I see one of those the combination of the ancient blurry glass, the grungy rough edges and the tones just seem like they can't be duplicated any other way.  Way beyond my patience level, though.

[navi]

 I  think I have been doing something similar to that. I desaturated the color and I use Channel Mixer on the CS2, works OK.

   

I would suggest you work on the RAW file or convert it to a 16bit tiff before you mess with it in photoshop. Just so you get the best file with the widest tonal range.

[navi]

However, I am nearly convinced that you cannot reverse engineer the super old-school tintype, wet plate collodion etc. process with Photoshop\Lightroom.  I am open to being proved wrong, but when I see one of those the combination of the ancient blurry glass, the grungy rough edges and the tones just seem like they can't be duplicated any other way.  Way beyond my patience level, though.

I'm trying to work out a way to do wet process for a shoot in the near future. Also to modify my polaroid back for the Mamiya RZ to fit onto the 5x4 view camera. I'm onto my last 4 sheets of 5x4 polaroid. Waiting for http://www.the-impossible-project.com/ to make type55 again