I did some vertical portraits with the Deardorff 8x10 tonight. The photos were made on Ilford HP5 rated at 200ASA, exposure was 1/15th at F6.7 (wide open for the 250mm Fuji lens) with no bellows factor as the bellows extension was only 10 inches. I used a reflector to help fill in some shadows, I want to shoot more with backgrounds like this that help not hurt the portrait (thou the sky white spots are a bit distracting).
I developed the film in a Jobo expert tank with a 325ml D-76/275ml water dilution for 12 minutes at 24C with agitation set at number 4. The negative turned out OK, I might try increasing the development time next test. This neg is not tack sharp and has a very small depth of field, probably less than 6 inches. I know now I can shoot wide open at F6.7 with this lens, looking forward to trying more of this later in the week, thou I will try to shoot at F8 or so, I know I can go down to a shutter of 1/8 of a second successfully with people standing so might use that next time round. The ideal of course would be to have enough light to shoot at F8-11 with a shutter speed of 1/15 or higher. One thing I could try in the future would be to rate the HP5 and Tri-x at 400 and then add development (push the film a bit).
Here is a scan from the first test, I pointed the camera down but still lost sharpness in the feet even after my compensating tilt movement, I need to work on this more. Shooting at F6.7 allows for very little in the way of depth of field, but its a look I am trying to get. Later on if I move up to 11x14 or even 14x20 like Kenro Izu shoots his portraits I will have even bigger sharpness problems as I will be using a longer lens. If others can do it, if folks like Jock Sturges and Kenro Izu work this way successfully I can also learn to do it, it will just take hard work dedication and persistence.
I developed the film in a Jobo expert tank with a 325ml D-76/275ml water dilution for 12 minutes at 24C with agitation set at number 4. The negative turned out OK, I might try increasing the development time next test. This neg is not tack sharp and has a very small depth of field, probably less than 6 inches. I know now I can shoot wide open at F6.7 with this lens, looking forward to trying more of this later in the week, thou I will try to shoot at F8 or so, I know I can go down to a shutter of 1/8 of a second successfully with people standing so might use that next time round. The ideal of course would be to have enough light to shoot at F8-11 with a shutter speed of 1/15 or higher. One thing I could try in the future would be to rate the HP5 and Tri-x at 400 and then add development (push the film a bit).
Here is a scan from the first test, I pointed the camera down but still lost sharpness in the feet even after my compensating tilt movement, I need to work on this more. Shooting at F6.7 allows for very little in the way of depth of field, but its a look I am trying to get. Later on if I move up to 11x14 or even 14x20 like Kenro Izu shoots his portraits I will have even bigger sharpness problems as I will be using a longer lens. If others can do it, if folks like Jock Sturges and Kenro Izu work this way successfully I can also learn to do it, it will just take hard work dedication and persistence.
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| Lisa, Edmonton Canada 2013 |
