Simon R Galley
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Dear All,
I do not want you all thinking I am getting all 'alternative' or anything but I had honestly forgotten how much fun experimentation is......
I attended the FOCUS on Imaging show in Birmingham, England a couple of weeks ago and I was given a job to do on teh HARMAN technology stand.
I was given our SINAR 10 x 8 monorail and told to photograph people......in a 'make shift' studio, the old boy should be able to manage that...!!!
I took ( along with with lots and lots of help from photo students from Warwickshire College, 3 on call at a time, who had volunteered to help us ) 600 portraits in 4 days. But using paper negs and contacting them down:
So 10x8 slides loaded with ILFORD MGIV Cooltone ( its a bit faster than normal MGIV at 7asa or so ) a 0 grade filter stuck on the front of the lens, 1/60th second wide open : The lighting was fairly 'nuclear' I have to admit and not very subtle but it worked. The students then processed the sheets ( in an ILFORD 2150 processor ) contacted them down, under an enlarger 20 seconds at f8 and popped the positive through the processor: A complete positive monochrome print in 8 minutes or so for less than a dollar !.
I am not kidding they looked absolutely fantastic, a little punchy perhaps, but people just could'nt get enough of them, they just loved them, with a depth of field of about 3 inches we had that sharp eye, out of focus hair thing, I had people coming back to have more taken, groups, students, people from other stands like d****L suppliers... just non-stop for 4 days....and do you know they absolutely valued them...one girl cried when I gave her a 'roman' style side view portrait ( to avoid the dreaded teenage braces, that look OK to me, but they don't like them ). I guess 75% of the portraits were people under 30..
Every print was taken...none were left on the display board...
What does this say? to me it says analog is cool.. and lots of fun, if you are 7 or 70, and what we do is actually 'make things' that are really valuable, even if they are not 'technically' the best you could achieve.
Photo students are also great! fearless, these kids were 17 and 18 and they were managing the people, taking the photographs, getting great results and setting up the workflow, sharing out the taking and the processing, no time for lunch just 'got a job to do and doing it'. So full of confidence after just a couple of hours, I Completely had a blast.....
So : Whats this post for ? : this summer, I'm taking the 10 x 8 monorail out, I am going to photograph paper negs on RC of the English landscape, contact them down on ART 300 or FB , destroy the RC neg, and have my own limited edition for 'the summer of 2012' a set of 25 unique prints ( I hope ) for me to keep ( forever ) for less than $ 100...( actually a lot less for me, but you know what I mean ).
Enough.... inspired of Mobberley. I love my job.
Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :
I do not want you all thinking I am getting all 'alternative' or anything but I had honestly forgotten how much fun experimentation is......
I attended the FOCUS on Imaging show in Birmingham, England a couple of weeks ago and I was given a job to do on teh HARMAN technology stand.
I was given our SINAR 10 x 8 monorail and told to photograph people......in a 'make shift' studio, the old boy should be able to manage that...!!!
I took ( along with with lots and lots of help from photo students from Warwickshire College, 3 on call at a time, who had volunteered to help us ) 600 portraits in 4 days. But using paper negs and contacting them down:
So 10x8 slides loaded with ILFORD MGIV Cooltone ( its a bit faster than normal MGIV at 7asa or so ) a 0 grade filter stuck on the front of the lens, 1/60th second wide open : The lighting was fairly 'nuclear' I have to admit and not very subtle but it worked. The students then processed the sheets ( in an ILFORD 2150 processor ) contacted them down, under an enlarger 20 seconds at f8 and popped the positive through the processor: A complete positive monochrome print in 8 minutes or so for less than a dollar !.
I am not kidding they looked absolutely fantastic, a little punchy perhaps, but people just could'nt get enough of them, they just loved them, with a depth of field of about 3 inches we had that sharp eye, out of focus hair thing, I had people coming back to have more taken, groups, students, people from other stands like d****L suppliers... just non-stop for 4 days....and do you know they absolutely valued them...one girl cried when I gave her a 'roman' style side view portrait ( to avoid the dreaded teenage braces, that look OK to me, but they don't like them ). I guess 75% of the portraits were people under 30..
Every print was taken...none were left on the display board...
What does this say? to me it says analog is cool.. and lots of fun, if you are 7 or 70, and what we do is actually 'make things' that are really valuable, even if they are not 'technically' the best you could achieve.
Photo students are also great! fearless, these kids were 17 and 18 and they were managing the people, taking the photographs, getting great results and setting up the workflow, sharing out the taking and the processing, no time for lunch just 'got a job to do and doing it'. So full of confidence after just a couple of hours, I Completely had a blast.....
So : Whats this post for ? : this summer, I'm taking the 10 x 8 monorail out, I am going to photograph paper negs on RC of the English landscape, contact them down on ART 300 or FB , destroy the RC neg, and have my own limited edition for 'the summer of 2012' a set of 25 unique prints ( I hope ) for me to keep ( forever ) for less than $ 100...( actually a lot less for me, but you know what I mean ).
Enough.... inspired of Mobberley. I love my job.
Simon ILFORD Photo / HARMAN technology Limited :