Three from the Rolleiflex

mudman · Mar 13, 2010

Finally got some developing done. What a fun camera.

Slixtiesix · Mar 13, 2010

The first one is great! It really has something personal and intimate. Are these neg-scans? Honestly, the first one deserves beeing printed on a large sheet of fiber paper.

Regards, Benjamin

PS: Which Rollei did you use?

mudman · Mar 13, 2010

Yup, scans. I have the MV-EVS. I got it for $40 at a junk shop . The first was done with a Walz close up filter @ F8.

rphenning · Mar 13, 2010

second one for me. cool photos

Shawn Dougherty · Mar 13, 2010

Third one for me - set against lovely textures with a sense of anticipation - and maybe a little foreboding...

36cm2 · Mar 13, 2010

Great shots, particularly the 1st. I was also wondering what Rolleiflex you were using. The first shot looks to be a tighter headshot than I have been able to get with a 2.8F. Are you using Rolleinars?

Jeff Kubach · Mar 13, 2010

Wonderful images. Just can't beat a Rollei!

Jeff

wclark5179 · Mar 13, 2010

I agree. You can't beat a Rollei! Or even tie it! Ha!

Keep up the good work.

benjiboy · Mar 13, 2010

What impresses me most Mudman is the the exposure on these shots are spot on, and a black girl wearing a light coloured coat isn't an easy call, the skin tones are just right and you've got detail in the herringbone pattern in her coat, how did you calculate the exposure ?

mudman · Mar 13, 2010

Hi All,
Glad you like them. I used a Minolta Autometer IVF, which unfortunately broke on me shortly after this shoot . I need to pick up another hand meter. For the first shot as I mentioned, I used a close up filter similar to a rolleinar but made by Walz (japanese company). It came with my camera. For some scenes I measured both light and dark areas and averaged the readings, others I just took a meter reading at her face.

hspluta · Mar 13, 2010

I love how nice the bokah is in the first one, just draws you to her face. The background is very pleasing yet not at all a distraction. The sun in her eyes is also really nice, I have problems getting the catchlight that perfect even with strobes. All three are very nice shots, but you really did nail the first one perfectly.

Hope she is more then just a friend of yours .

Best, -Harry

mudman · Mar 13, 2010

Just a model friend of mine. My girl's even prettier , but I haven't done a real shoot with her yet. just a few snapshots.

benjiboy · Mar 13, 2010

mudman said:
Hi All,
Glad you like them. I used a Minolta Autometer IVF, which unfortunately broke on me shortly after this shoot . I need to pick up another hand meter. For the first shot as I mentioned, I used a close up filter similar to a rolleinar but made by Walz (japanese company). It came with my camera. For some scenes I measured both light and dark areas and averaged the readings, others I just took a meter reading at her face.

I'm surprised that a reading off the models face gave such a dark skin tone without any modification I would have reduced the meter reading by about two stops to place it in Zone 3.

John Koehrer · Mar 13, 2010

Benjiboy,
Why? you don't know the model or the color of her skin. Her hair is obviously darker than her skin. She seems to be properly exposed in relation to her surroundings.
As I recall the Minolta lVf was an incident meter.

benjiboy · Mar 13, 2010

I'm not familiar with that particular meter, I assumed that the O.P was using a reflected meter, I don't need to "know the model' to see that her face and hair are much darker than the the mid grey tone that meters are calibrated for, and a reflected reading would make it too light.

mudman · Mar 13, 2010

Ben - the Minolta is an incident meter, not reflective unless you use a special plate in it. Thus I was measuring the average light around her, not reflecting off of her. I don't use reflective meters unless there's something gray near by that I can target, or if I'm using my Nikon's Matrix metering which nails it 90 % of the time.

Whiteymorange · Mar 14, 2010

Great shots, Mudman. I have the same camera and i found a Walz close-up lens in a box of goodies but haven't tried it yet. Now I will!

papagene · Mar 14, 2010

Whiteymorange said:
Great shots, Mudman. I have the same camera and i found a Walz close-up lens in a box of goodies but haven't tried it yet. Now I will!

What isn't in that box of goodies?!

mudman · Mar 14, 2010

Whiteymorange said:
Great shots, Mudman. I have the same camera and i found a Walz close-up lens in a box of goodies but haven't tried it yet. Now I will!

I really like it. Nice and sharp in the center, fades a bit to the sides though. Good for portrait work. One of my dog with the Walz filter on (I've posted this one before).

Wide open. DOF at that close becomes quite small.

John Wiegerink · Mar 14, 2010

At one time I would have figured that a black persons skin would give a much different reading than a average white persons skin, but not now. A college instructor ask our class that same question many years ago and almost all of use thought the average white skin reading would be much higher than the average black skin. Then he hauled out his Luna Pro with a 7 degree spot attachment and showed us how wrong we were. There isn't very much difference between the two and certainly not more than one stop in the same lighting. Try it sometime and you might be surprised. JohnW

mablo · Mar 14, 2010

Beautiful shots mudman! The Rollie seems to be the right tool for you. Well done.

Voyager13b · Mar 14, 2010

I agree with John W about 1 stop being the practical spread between average Caucasian and even fairly dark Black skin tones. If I can't use my L758 meter in incident mode to nail the EV for similar scenes, I have had good results using the reflected spot meter function on skin tones, and pulling back one stop, even when shooting chrome.

No matter though, as the entire set is great! I think mudman did a fine job, and deserves the credit. The choice of camera just happened to be one of many that do well in the "supporting" role.

mudman · Mar 15, 2010

I think it might have been just having a beautiful woman to shoot... two shots from my Nikon F100, 105 f2.5 that I was using at the same time.

jp498 · Mar 15, 2010

They all look good really. What film/developer was used?

36cm2 · Mar 15, 2010

They do say, "if you want a better portrait, bring a better face." Looks like you listened.

Three from the Rolleiflex

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