Portraits with TLR

[MattKing]

Working with flash or available light? f/4 with available light and trying to keep the shutter speed up is not an easy feat.

Both. Of course, I was closer to what I understand to be your age when I did most of this
Usually using Vericololor II or III @ an EI of 160.
Some on a tripod, but just as many handheld with a short neckstrap and the left hand trigger grip.
Weddings are great crucibles of technique!

 

[Cholentpot]

C'mon guys. I haven't read this much BS and speculation in a long time. Does anyone here actually take pictures?

I take many photos but most are of a personal nature and I don't like posting them online. And I'm not going to post my clients photos without permission either so that puts most portraits off line for me.

I just developed by hand 45 rolls of 110, 135, 127 and 120 color film over the past two days. It's going to take a while to scan them all...

 

[Cholentpot]

Both. Of course, I was closer to what I understand to be your age when I did most of this
Usually using Vericololor II or III @ an EI of 160.
Some on a tripod, but just as many handheld with a short neckstrap and the left hand trigger grip.
Weddings are great crucibles of technique!

Right. So if I was walking around at an event with a potato masher and the lens stopped down to f/8 or more I can see the setup being more useful.

 

[MattKing]

Right. So if I was walking around at an event with a potato masher and the lens stopped down to f/8 or more I can see the setup being more useful.

Most of my weddings involved both available light and some flash. Thinking back to it, I didn't have nearly as many clients who got married at night than during the day, and a lot of them took place, in whole or in part, outside or in very well lit rooms.

 

[Cholentpot]

Most of my weddings involved both available light and some flash. Thinking back to it, I didn't have nearly as many clients who got married at night than during the day, and a lot of them took place, in whole or in part, outside or in very well lit rooms.

Copy that. It tracks.

I've only used that lens on full bright days. I don't have particularly fast film, shooting around 100 so I'm generally near full open. Hold still please. Hold still please. Oh look, the nose is in focus but the eyes aren't. Again.

 

[MattKing]

I admit that I also became very expert at finding locations where bounce flash and my big Metz 60CT flashes worked well.

 

[Pieter12]

Artificial light at indoor events is rarely flattering, some flash improves things a bit.

 

[BMbikerider]

I think someone got hold of a bone and isn't about to release it.

I wonder if this person has ever used one or is it only anecdotes (unhelpful ones) being related.

Parallax is only really a problem with close ups, once you get past a certain distance it fades into insignificance. Possibly around 3.5 feet which was the usual closest focus with a 'standard tlr' using a 75 or 80mm lens. Even then, with close up pictures using close up lenses, there are/were parallax adapters that could eliminate or significantly reduce the problem if the camera was on a tripod.

On the Mamiya series of TLR's (At least on the later ones, C330 onwards) there were markers visible in the focussing screen which moved the closer you got to a subject it indicated the point where parallax would present a problem and allowed you to make corrections to eliminate it.

 

[BMbikerider]

80mm equipped TLRs are superb tools that many skilled users create great work with - including "for taking focus-sensitive photos of faces and upper torsos".
The type of camera barely matters, and should be the last thing that a current Rolleiflex owner worries about.

100% agree

 

[MARTIE]

A good portrait is not about the technology, as illustrated in the earlier Julia Margaret Cameron image. Among many things, it is about the photographer’s eye, the rapport between the photographer and sitter, the light and general mood of the situation.

Photography was always about technology, wealth and privilege, especially in in the days of Julia Margaret Cameron.
Technology has democratised and levelled the playing field.

Vive le snap!

Let's just agree to disagree.

 

[Lachlan Young]

C'mon guys. I haven't read this much BS and speculation in a long time. Does anyone here actually take pictures?

People having 8 pages of strongly uninformed opinions is apparently cheaper than a Rolleinar 2.

It would seem that the kind of rather pleasingly visceral portraits that Rolleinars produce (owing to shortening the focal length) are apparently mortally offensive to the terribly delicate sensibilities of camera clubbing hobbyists.

 

[Don_ih]

Everyone knows the best camera for portraits is the Polaroid Big Shot.

 

[baachitraka]

C'mon guys. I haven't read this much BS and speculation in a long time. Does anyone here actually take pictures?

sir, its cold and windy outside!!! so, we try to mock shoot something...

 

[baachitraka]

People having 8 pages of strongly uninformed opinions is apparently cheaper than a Rolleinar 2.

It would seem that the kind of rather pleasingly visceral portraits that Rolleinars produce (owing to shortening the focal length) are apparently mortally offensive to the terribly delicate sensibilities of camera clubbing hobbyists.

none or rather very few would have shot with Rolleinars. That said, that one meter working distance with rolleinar I is plenty enough to shoot head/shoulder portraits. But to cover keens and toes, everyone knows what to do.

 

[Cholentpot]

Artificial light at indoor events is rarely flattering, some flash improves things a bit.

It's not about flattering sometimes. It's about getting the shot. Bride and Groom aren't standing still in the dim venue. Out comes the Metz or these days a bag of speedlights.

Anyhow, here's the closest I have to a portrait on a TLR. I masked off a Ricohflex VII to get pano like images and went to the zoo on a snowy day.

And here's a portrait of a bee taken on a Yashica Mat

 

[warden]

Here’s a casual snap (prob from 2013) of my son made with a Yashicamat LM. It’s a fun camera.

 

[loccdor]

My great great great grandfather, no doubt made on something more basic than a TLR. Square format though.

 

[ole-squint]

Hi,

I want to get more experience with portrait photography. Still no Pentax 67, but I have a beautiful Rolleiflex 3.5F with Rolleinar 1 and 2.

I have a Rick Oleson spilt screen ground glass in my Rolleiflex.

I lean on the coupled lichtmeter (yes I know....). I also use only natural light.

In some pictures I made, if found it hard to focus, and some portraits are slightly out of focus, maybe due to too open aperture, but don't know for sure.

Anyhow, tips and tricks are welcome!

Thanks in advance!

Hi. I use a Rollei also, and with a Rick Oleson screen. Three things that will help: First, replace the mirror. There's a guy on eBay selling them. Not expensive, easy to do. Secondly, keep a small flashlight in your bag and have your subject shine it at the viewing lens. Once you're focused in keep the taking aperture at 5.6 or 8. You'll have sufficient depth of field. Third, use a tripod.

 

[Mike Lopez]

My great great great grandfather, no doubt made on something more basic than a TLR. Square format though.

View attachment 410745

Wow! Lovely.

 

[GregY]

100% agree

+ another 100%

 

[baachitraka]

I visualise the entire discussion as 100 spirals, spiralling across a square board on there own....

 

[Analogski]

Hi. I use a Rollei also, and with a Rick Oleson screen. Three things that will help: First, replace the mirror. There's a guy on eBay selling them. Not expensive, easy to do. Secondly, keep a small flashlight in your bag and have your subject shine it at the viewing lens. Once you're focused in keep the taking aperture at 5.6 or 8. You'll have sufficient depth of field. Third, use a tripod.

Thanks! Do you have the splitscreen, or the microprism? I don't now witch one is better fot focusing when taking portraits. I have the splitscreen now.

Ow, and what is the idea with the flashlight? I don't understand this part...

 

[baachitraka]

Thanks! Do you have the splitscreen, or the microprism? I don't now witch one is better fot focusing when taking portraits. I have the splitscreen now.

Ow, and what is the idea with the flashlight? I don't understand this part...

flashlight is normal flashlight that you keep it in the house. Typically when the light is dim its difficult to focus on ground glass then you shine a bit on the subject face...

I use continuous video light

 

[Analogski]

flashlight is normal flashlight that you keep it in the house. Typically when the light is dim its difficult to focus on ground glass then you shine a bit on the subject face...

I use continuous video light

View attachment 410753

But you said something about the subject shining it at the viewing lens. Why is that?

 

[MattKing]

A small source of light at the desired plane of focus is actually quite easy to focus on, so I understand the rationale of the flashlight.
In that self-portrait I shared much earlier, I pre-focused on a feature on the camera body, and then positioned my near eye at the same plane.
Using a substitute focus target on the same plane as the eyes is another useful trick or tip.