3 Calla Lilies

The tones look magnificent! The print should be great. Nice going.

Jim

Thank you Jim,
I was a bit nervous about the reciprocity issue, but it seemed to be ok. I do wish there was a way to preserve these flowers for longer than 3 days. They wilt rather quickly.

This is gorgeous. I'm currently trying these sorts of shots as well. Controllable light is useful when learning LF. You've given me something here to strive towards! The texture in the petals is perfect. How are you setting this up? I've been using a black sheet as a backdrop, and window light with a small lamp to give a little extra side lighting. I place the backdrop on about Zone 2 and see where the highlights fall and develop accordingly. I don't understand flash photography very well, nor studio lighting (and I have no flash meter). I've always wondered how people make a subject stand out so well with a totally black background (first photos I ever saw like that were of fish when I was a kid- colorful fish, against black). I assume it has to do with flash- is it placed behind the subject pointing toward the camera a bit?

Tim

Simply beautiful.

Looks good from here to.

Thanks clogz, Tim,

Hi Tim, I have a piece of large black fabric draped over a wood cross-bar which is supported by two very old collapsable stands. The fabric is about 12 ft long, but you don't need that much.

The lighting is with a speedatron brown line and two lamps. One with a silver lined umbrella, the other was off white. I used them on the "modeling" setting, not flash. I don't want to count on natural window light because it keeps changing. You don't have to do it this way, this is just what I wanted to try. I also had to adjust for bellows extension and reciprocity correction, and apply tilts till everything was in focus. It was probably one of the most difficult setups I've done. The 4x5 I'm using has every twist & turn immaginable, so that helps too.

as for metering, I metered on the inside of the flower and placed it on zone VI so I wouldn't blow the highlights. Then used stand development to be sure not to blow the highlights, and decreased the normal dilution of 1:100 to 1:75 to give more contrast. It sounds like I know what I'm doing, but don't be fooled! I have no clue! I just am determined as hell to get one good image no matter how long it takes.

If I had to do it over again, (and I will), I'd use red Callas with a red filter. That's how I did my Tulips in 35mm.

I hope this helps.

Nicely done Dorothy!

It does help alot. Thank you. I am using a similar but much more primitive approach. At least I know I'm on the right track! I'll post the one I'm happy with so far- maybe you'll see it and let me know what you think. If asked to reproduce it, hopefully I'd be able to ;-)

Tim

Tim, something that works well for me on these shots is using polaroid 55. You get the print and the neg. I proof with the print and use the neg for my enlargement. Look in my gallery for the Callas I did using a simple one light set up with fill. My background was a black sheet on the wall. Just take time to figure in the extension and reciprocity and you will be surprised. I have some more flowers to post when the prints get done. I am going to try the Efke Pl-100 and do minimal agitation in tanks. I can develop by inspection and get my negs the way I need to with this process. It's nice shooting in the studio at times. No wind!!

Jim