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"Apug International Annual Weegee Shootout"

I tried for a long time to find a working Graflex flash without camera, but gave up and bought a $15 Leica flash unit instead. Works like a dream (if your dreams involve loud noises and very bright flashes of light).
 
The description of the third is interesting - from back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth!
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LOL, plus: or for a 1930's era reporter costume,

It still doesn't seem like a real picture unless there's the smell of flashbulb lacquer in the air.
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Wow, talk about repressed memories! I had forgotten about that, but now I remember that smell distinctly!
 

I have bought a Kalart Deluxe unit for something like 5$+ship a while ago (see the "TLR Flash" thread) and it works like a champ. I mean, nothing can really go wrong with a flashbulb unit, besides rust due to battery leaks. It's just a tube with two wires that close a circuit when you release your camera shutter.

Beware that some of the units you pointed at are meant to work with Kodak brownie, so instead of using a standard PC synch, they have their own dedicated terminal. Also, Graflex flashgunn are often big brutes, tall enough so that the bulb stands higher than your press camera. The Kalart units are meant for more compact 35mm or 120 camera, so the bulb to attachement distance is smaller.
 
mhv said:
besides rust due to battery leaks. It's just a tube with two wires that close a circuit when you release your camera shutter.
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I don't really know about these flashes but I once had an Agfa folder with a bulb flash (this was about 1975 so my memory is fading) which had the battery charging a capacitor through a resistor and the capacitor was discharged into the flashbulb via the shutter contacts. This makes it easier on the battery as it isn't being repeatedly shorted out and it gives a higher energy pulse to the bulb due to the capacitor's internal resistance being lower than that of the battery. It's not so kind on the shutter contacts though!
If I was going to use one of these old Kalart or Graflite flashes, I would probably do a bit of re-wiring to add the capacitor. I would probably add a buffer circuit to protect the shutter contacts too.

Steve.
 

The first one is probably the best choice, as it looks like it will fit on the rails often found on the rangefinder. That's also the model I think I have a spare of.
 
This is kind of a proof of concept, to see if I can come close to emulating the Weegee style and to do it with the equipment I already have.

Last week when I was in Las Vegas on business, I kind of snuck away one night and went to the old downtown area, where there are all kinds of people who congregate to look at a huge overhead light show. I figured this was a place I could get a whole bunch of people all paying attention to something.

Here's what I got. Anybody care to guess what equipment and film I used?

Comments?
 

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Ooh ooh ooh - I got it!

You used B&W film!

Am I right? Do I win? Do I win?

Actually, great shots and I have no idea!
 
In the link that Dave Wooten supplied there is an explanation of the "technical details" for Weegee's pictures. Basically he took all pictures with the camera preset to f/16, 1/125sec, focused at 10 ft.
Those flash bulbs put out orders of magnitude many times over what any electronic flash puts out.

Tim R
 
copake_ham said:
Ooh ooh ooh - I got it!

You used B&W film!

Am I right? Do I win? Do I win?
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Actually, I cheated. This was on Fuji 800 color negative film, desaturated in Photoshop and the grain reduced with Neat Image.

Yes, yes, I know ... {hiding} Hey, at least I didn't use the d-word.

For the shots when the light show was on, I used the (Vivitar) flash, but I did shoot some under available light as well when all of the casino lights were on.

I was trying for the style, look and feel, of the shots, as opposed to duplicating the equipment he used.

copake_ham said:
Actually, great shots
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Thanks. {blush} I am surprised at how that style came through in these, particularly on the first attempt. There are two events coming up in December and February where I want to try this style, this was kind of the test run.

Timothy said:
In the link that Dave Wooten supplied there is an explanation of the "technical details" for Weegee's pictures. Basically he took all pictures with the camera preset to f/16, 1/125sec, focused at 10 ft.
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I looked at this, and also Dave G's explanation of how he emulated the look with a (more powerful) strobe flash. Dave G. used a slower shutter speed to capture some subtle motion in the ambient light, thus emulating the longer burning traditional flash. I shot these at 1/30, f/11, with the strobe on manual, full, and focus preset at about 12'.

It's like you have to think backwards when taking in this style. You don't just stand in one fixed place and then compose and focus. You focus first to the preset, then move to the approximate distance, then compose without focusing and then shoot.

It's really a whole different way of thinking and shooting than what I'm used to. It's been an interesting experience.
 
Nice photos btw....a lot of the Wee Gee look also is format size used...4 x 5 press camera the common format for the era...also some of his most famous shots were quite planned....waiting for the arranged moment...
 
check out the new thread in the lounge: What a SURPRISE !

Tim R
 
Funnily enough I much prefer the shots Weegee took during daylight hours...


When is this little adventure going to take place? I have the Pacemaker Speed Graphic and a DDS but no film...(yet)

Thanks,

Lachlan
 
Surfing Weegee-style

So we're out casually shooting at Sandy Beach on 'O'ahu toward the end of our stay in Hawai'i this summer, and there's a surfing competition. I've got my Tech V 4x5", a cammed 150mm/f:4.5 Xenar, no tripod, yellow filter, and one sheet of Tri-X and one sheet of Efke PL100 left at the end of the day--all the wrong stuff. The guys with the DSLRs and long lenses seemed a little bemused, but still, the best camera is the one in your hand.

I saw some classic surf shots in B&W from the 1950s and 60s when we were there, and I think I want to try some more of this, but with a longer lens next time.

This one is cropped from the sheet of Efke PL100 rated at EI 200 in Acufine, f:11, 1/250 sec.
 

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Thanks Dave, it looks really nice on my monitor.....I just got a good stash of efke 4 x 5 from J and C and will begin in earnest on some "Wee Gee stuff". The completion of the darkroom is at hand, have been out of operation for the summer, I am planning on taking the graflex to London with me next month and getting some street scenes. Hopefully I then can come up with the knowledge, skills, and ability to post the results!
 
David A. Goldfarb said:
I don't have my big Norman barebulb flash here in Moloka'i, ...
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David I hope you're still watching this thread.

When you shot those Weegee-style shots with the bare bulb flash, did you have the bulb totally bare, just sticking there up in the air, or did you have some kind of a reflector on it?

Reason I'm asking is that I just came upon a huge honking Sunpak 120J which does have a "bare bulb" mode by unfastening the reflector. I plan to use this in my Weegee look experiments. I test fired it a couple of times with the bulb only, just pointed up and GEESH! that's gonna attract a LOT of attention if I use it that way.

This thing is a WEAPON! It's bright enough to wake up the dead! Probably more flash than I will ever use, but I think it will work well for the Weegee experiments -- it's larger than any camera I have.
 
I used a plain 5" open reflector.
 
David A. Goldfarb said:
I used a plain 5" open reflector.
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Thanks, David. This thing has a 5" reflector so I think that will work out fine. If I had this only a few weeks ago I could have tried to emulate your H'ween shoot. I will try to use this for some people-watching shots at an affair next week.
 
Did this ever actually happen? I kind of fell out of photography right during the middle of this thread, and I don't see any follow ups.

Either way, how about a Weegee shootout `08?
 
Yes, I'm in if it happens. My time and space right now is Feb 20, 2008 and I am with Sjixxxy, did not see any followups.....
 
Okay- let's do this!

I'm up for this... I have the Graflex & a bunch of bulbs- I'm ready to make cookies!

John "Alpha Flying Monkey" Moore

(Cookies are the floaties you see after the bulb goes off)
 
Sounds like fun. Rather than waiting to see if it's going to happen, lets just make it happen and do it! What a novel idea eh. I will have to use my Tech IV with a Metz potato masher as I sold my Speed. Although I have a 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 Pacemaker David Goldfarb sold me and it takes sheet film. Lets see, J&C 200 asa film, pushed to 400 ........

I head up a large format users group here in Calgary. I will send a notice out to all the members to check this thread out and see what we can come up with. Of course the member that uses an 11x14 might feel a little left out LOL.
 
Thought this idea was forgotten, but nice to see the thread revived. I think I can set-up my Shen-Hao for this, though perhaps someone could give me some help with one aspect. I made some focus distance scales using tape, marked on one side of the rails for my 135mm, and on the other for my 180mm. I know Linhof and a few other companies had engraved focus scales. So what I wonder is whether I could get those instead, fit them to my Shen-Hao, and have something more accurate than my tape with pen marks.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography
 
You could probably order some focus scales from Marflex and screw them to the bed of your Shen-Hao and make some sort of index mark (or more than one) to point to the scale.

On the other hand, I've made focusing scales empirically by focusing and measuring, and I've found them no less accurate for scale focusing than my Linhof scales.
 
Thanks David. I see those Linhof ones crop up on EBAY often, and I have wondered if they might be an improvement over my tape method. They certainly would look nicer. I don't think Marflex sells direct, but I can ask my local photography supply store about getting them . . . or I have to try the EBAY thing.

Ciao!

Gordon Moat Photography
 
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