Photo shoot
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
Some photo shoots can start off with with trying to plan every last detail, others have the room to breath and experiment to see what happens. This photo shoot falls in the latter. Helen sent me an image for inspiration and from there I decided I would only use black & white film and I took along four different cameras to experiment with (3 medium format and a 35mm). On the day Helen brought various outfits but I think it was a coincidence that we only ended up using black and white clothing. The images have a feeling of going from light to dark which was perfect as we raced against the fading sun. This is a story of a girl who’s man ‘did her wrong’. It was a fun shoot and I hope to do more of these.
[Tech info:] I used the following cameras, Pentax 67 with 105/f2.4 lens, Mamiya C330f with 80/f2.8 lens and a Mamiya M645 1000S with 80/f1.9 lens. Film used was Kodak Tri-X and Fuji Acros 100. All of these shots were processed in Rodinal 1:50 (Acros for 10:00, the Tri-X for 13:30).
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait | 1 Response »
Tags: 645, 6x6, 6x7, acros, black&white, c330, film, helen, pentax, portraits, rodinal, Tri-X
Thursday, September 6th, 2012
I had another photo shoot with Helen recently and here are some of the results. We went to University Parks but used a different area to our last shoot and thanks to some nice late after summer sunshine we had everything we needed to make some nice images. This was a really relaxed shoot just like our previous one and I think that comes through in the images. I’ve had more compliments from people on my shots of Helen than any others on this blog and I look forward to collaborating more in the future.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67, 110mm and 150mm lenses, Fuji Acros 100 pushed one stop in HC110 (8 mins) dilution b.
First shot
Lounging
Near the river
Catchlights
Lotus
The sun was going down directly behind Helen so I'm amazed at how good this turned out.
Last shot
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, acros, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, portraits, RZ67, students, summer
Monday, September 3rd, 2012
You might recognise Peter from the punting photo shoot I did a couple of weeks ago. Having recently finished his masters degree he’s due to leave Oxford very soon to do a little travelling so we arranged to make some pictures before he leaves. For these images I used a large format camera from the 1940’s with a lens from World War II that was designed for the US military to do aerial photography at night. It’s renowned for its shallow depth of field that has a very unique signature. I don’t get to use this setup all that often partly because of the size of the lens and partly because it’s difficult to use it if the conditions are too bright but on this day it was perfectly cloudy with the sun trying to burn through. I took 6 sheets of film with me and all of them are here below.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic camera with Kodak Aero Ektar lens on Ilford FP4+ processed in Rodinal (1:50).
On the steps.
Take it to the bridge
Distinctive bokeh
I think the gloves make this shot
Wider shot
No jacket required
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aero, black&white, film, fp4, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, speed graphic, students
Friday, August 31st, 2012
Some more images from my punting photo shoot on the river Cherwell here in Oxford. These shots were all made on film whereas the previous ones were all from Fuji instant pack film (similar to Polaroid). Part one is here. More to come from this photo shoot.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm and 150mm lenses on Fuji Pro 400H film, processed and scanned by me.
I love how this image turned out. One of the first frames of the photo shoot.
Looking at the setting sun.
Despite this being underexposed I like how this has turned out. Note the heavy colour shift towards green.
We kept the punt turning to vary things up. Some shots have the sun to camera right, others to the left.
A lovely bit of rim lighting and lens flare.
Posted in film, People, Photo shoot, students | 1 Response »
Tags: 6x7, film, oxford, people, portraits, RZ67, students, summer
Thursday, August 23rd, 2012
Yesterday I had the most amazing photo shoot with a very creative and photogenic couple, Peter and Alexandra. They hired a punt and we all travelled slowly along the river Cherwell while the sun was setting. It was pretty much perfect and felt like I was in a movie. I first met Peter and Alexandra while I was photographing the Oxford Union Society summer ball back in May and I knew that I wanted to do a photo shoot with them but the idea of doing it on a punt was all Alexandra’s. This is a little taster of some of the images I made because I haven’t processed the film yet. These shots were made with Fuji instant pack film (the same as Polaroid) but for these I scanned the negative part after bleaching the black backing off. I can’t wait to see the film shots. Please note that none of these images have been retouched in any way, they are all straight scans. More to come.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm and 150mm lenses. Fuji FP100C instant pack film.
First frame
We are all still in the punt for this shot. The Willow was overhanging the river. Zero Photoshop effects, this is a straight scan.
Looking at the setting sun.
Leaning back.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, students | 6 Responses »
Tags: 110mm, 6x7, fp100c, fujiroid, oxford, people, photo shoot, portraits, punt, students, summer
Saturday, July 7th, 2012
During my second test shoot with Helen I was able to test out a number of different rolls of film. The shots below are all from the same roll (with this particular camera I only get 10 shots on a roll). This was towards the end of the shoot and we decided to change things up a bit by making use of a nearby tree. Helen showed her excellent climbing skills, barefoot! It was tricky to find a comfortable spot in such a cramped space but I think Helen did a great job. The film I used here is Kodak BW CN which is sadly no longer made. I bought some expired rolls from a photographer who was having a clear out. The advantage was that you could have the film processed at any regular photo lab because it requires colour film chemistry even though it’s a black & white film. This is only the second roll I’ve used of my batch and I really like it so far.
[Tech info:] Pentax 6×7, Kodak BW CN (expired 2009). Processed and scanned by me.
Branching out.
Backlit.
Lean back.
Perched on the edge.
Eye contact.
Looking at the horizon.
Last frame.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, film, helen, oxford, pentax, people, portraits, students, summer
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2012
Here come the girls! I was asked to photograph some students in their ball gowns before they attended the Oriel 2012 commemoration ball and I have to say it turned out to be a really fun photo shoot. These shots are all on film, I previously posted some Polaroid shots from the same shoot. You can see there’s a huge difference in the colour and clarity of film compared to scanning a print.
While we were photographing in the middle of Oxford’s High Street at Queen’s lane the girls literally stopped the traffic (I later found out from someone who happened to be walking past that the traffic was tailed back to Carfax!). I found it hard to choose between these shots so I decided to post more than usual because you get a sense of how fun this photo shoot was. It’s a shame that Oriel didn’t reply to any of my requests to photograph at the actual ball itself.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RB67, 90mm lens, loaded with Fuji NPH 400 rated at ISO 100 and processed as normal. Processing and scanning by me.
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Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, students | No Responses »
Tags: ball, film, oxford, portraits, rb67, students, summer
Monday, June 25th, 2012
These images are from the first test shoot I had with Helen during my lunch break. At this time of year the light between 12 noon and 2pm is not particularly flattering so it can be a bit of a challenge to find nice natural light to use during my lunch break which falls between those times. My mantra is there’s always good light to be found, you just have to find it so it’s something I’m constantly looking for on my photo walks around town. A slight difficulty for photography at this time of year in Oxford is the volume of tourists around so it can sometimes take a while to wait for them to clear from the background of a shot and because I only usually have around 30 mins for photography during my lunch break after I’ve travelled to and from the centre of town from my office my test shoots are usually fairly rushed. There isn’t much time for my subject to ease into the shoot but fortunately Helen was ready from the first frame and a complete natural in front of my camera. It was difficult to reduce the amount of shots to post here.
I’m very pleased with the tones in a lot of these images and I put that down to the possibility of using a slightly different agitation method when I processed the film. There seems to be slightly more contrast. I also scanned these images slightly different from my normal method so that’s probably a factor too.
[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 1000S, 80/f1.9 lens, loaded with Fuji Acros 100, processed in Kodak HC110 (dilution b).
Railings.
Passageway.
Against the wall.
Around the corner.
Railings.
Steps.
Bottom step.
I really like this kind of light where you're in the shade but there is bright sunlight being bounced up from bright stone.
Last frame.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 645, acros, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students
Saturday, May 26th, 2012
There’s a Shakespeare festival here in Oxford at the moment and a few weeks ago I was contacted by the director of a one-off performance to see if I’d like to do some photography at one of their dress rehearsals. The actual performance is on 29th May 2012 at Blackwells Bookshop on Broad Street but these images were made at Lady Margaret Hall a few days ago. Only one of the cast is in elizabethan costume and I felt she’d make for better images than the others. For the colour shots I was experimenting with some film that expired in 2005 and I quite like the results. The black & white shots were made with fresh stock. If you do go and see it please leave a comment.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66 and 80mm/2.8 Zeiss lens, loaded with Kodak 160NC (rated at ISO100) and Fuji Acros 100. Processed with a Rollei digibase C41 kit and Kodak HC110 dilution H (8.5 mins).
LMH has nice gardens.
Window light.
Bounced light from the floor.
Dramatic.
LMH gardens.
Cast group shot.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, backstage, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, people, portraits, students
Friday, May 25th, 2012
These shots are from my last test shoot with Hai Lin it’s just taken me a while to process the roll of film because it was colour. With black & white film you can mix up the quantity of chemistry you need to process a single roll. With colour the chemistry is different because you can reuse it so I save up some colour rolls so that I can do them in batches. These shots were made on Kodak Ektar 100 film which I haven’t used very much. I like it so far.
[Tech info:] Mamiya M645 with 80/1.9 lens. Kodak Ektar 100 film. Processed and scanned by me.
Late afternoon sunshine.
Broad Street. I like the shadow in this shot.
Fading light. In the shade the colours look a little funky.
The light level was really low after the sun had gone down behind buildings.
I like the bokeh in this shot.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait | 3 Responses »
Tags: 645, film, people, portraits
Monday, May 21st, 2012
These images are from a quick lunch time test shoot I had with Jessica last week. Test shoots are great for testing out different cameras, lenses and films which is very difficult to do with my usual street photography because I only tend to make one shot of each person and I don’t want to risk losing any shots or having them not turn out well. There were so many great shots on the roll so this is just a quick preview. More testing to come…
[Tech info:] Nikon F90 (35mm) camera with Nikon Series E 100mm/2.8 lens, loaded with expired Ilford XP2 film. Processed and scanned by me.
Next to the Bridge of Sighs
We had a natural wind machine.
Between the columns.
I don't usually give my images any kind of colour treatment but I thought I'd try it with this one.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, film, oxford, portraits, students
Saturday, April 7th, 2012
After the photo session with Hai Lin and my Aero Ektar setup (here) went so well I arranged to do another session a couple of days later because the late afternoon light was really nice and I wanted to test out a different camera, this time a medium format one that was more portable and faster to use than my 5×4 Speed Graphic. I shot a roll of colour film as well as b&w but I haven’t processed it yet.
[Tech info:] Mamiya RZ67 with 110mm and 250mm lenses on Kodak Tri-X film. Processed in Kodak HC110, dilution B (1:31) for 7:30 at 20c. Processed and scanned by me.
Looking towards the sun with the shadow from the Bridge of Sighs
Looking towards the Clarendon Building
I like the shadow on the ground and how much detail there is in this shot despite Hai Lin being backlit
The sun was starting to get quite low at this point
I really like the vintage look and feel of this image. It feels like a movie still or promo shot to me.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait | 2 Responses »
Tags: 110mm, black&white, hc110, oxford, portraits, RZ67, Tri-X
