I was nominated by Joyce Peng to do a 7-day self-portrait challenge: 7 days, 7 self-portraits, and 7 nominations to keep this going with other artists/photographers. I invite Edmond Lok-Yin Wong to take the time to extend the fun.
I put a small twist to this challenge as well. I will be composing self-portraits through the viewfinders of different cameras.
Today, I am viewing through my 2014 Canon 5D Mark III camera with 70-200 f2.8 II lens. In the photo, I am holding a 1970s Mamiya Universal + 50mm f6.3 lens with external viewfinder. Being universal, I can put in a Polaroid or 6×7/6×9 medium format backs.
Photo taken with Sony RX100II.
Viewing through Canon 5D Mark III with 70-200 f2.8 II lens.
Six months ago, I did some test shots with my Burke & James Grover 8×10. I finally got them developed and scanned recently. With a couple of flashes and remote (without any diffusion), I shot a few portraits when my friends Norris and Fiona were visiting. Here is the result.
Burke & James Grover 8×10 Portrait
I used Kodak Ektascan B/RA x-ray film metered at ISO50. Burke & James Grover 8×10 with Fujinon 250mm f6.3 lens. Lighting setup with two Yongnuo YN560II flashes on two YN622C and a YN622C-TX. Developed with Kodak D76 1+1 20C for 10 minutes. Scanned with Epson Perfection V700.
Lighting is harsh, this is due to the lack of deflectors (they were still being shipped from Asia at the time). The harsh lighting reminded me a bit of a prom shoot would of looked like in the 1960-70s. Nevertheless a decent shot for first trials.
I never shot Kodak Ektascan B/RA xray film at night. There were also no information online regarding the reciprocity of this film. This film is normally used for health x-ray applications and there is no need to worry about long exposure. I decided to do a test shot. Shanghai and TriX has terrible reciprocity characteristics. For 1 minute exposure, I generally compensate it by 8x and it worked well. I know Ektascan is probably equivalent if not worse, so I decided to try a 12x compensation for 1 minute metered exposure.
Here is the result. Burke & James Grover 8×10, Fujinon 250mm f6.3 lens, developed in Kodak D76 1+1 10 mins and scanned with Epson Perfection V700.
12x compensation for 1 minute metered exposure
It looks like a working combination. I think it might be slightly over-exposed, perhaps I need to try one with 10x compensation.
Early this year I was in Tasmania, Australia. Every time a long vacation comes headache as what photography equipment to bring. The digital department is quite set, usually the trusty Canon 5D3 + 24-105mm + 40mm pancake + one prime (usually 50mm f1.8, this time I brought a super wide 17mm) and the tiny Sony RX100 II. The film department is where the headache comes in. 35mm usually is out of the question as a full frame digital can cover this. It comes to either medium or large. The SG is manageable but not too good with a family trip, since you don’t want them to wait for you for too long setting everything up. At the end, I brought my Mamiya Universal, sort of somewhere in between. Next is film. I know there will be some large nature shots, but unsure what to use. At the end, I brought a handful of Fuji Reala and Fuji Velvia 50 films.
The photos are developed and here are the result. Photo taken with Mamiya Universal + 50mm f6.3 lens + 6×9 back. I had the luxury of several backs and I took the photo from the same location to compare. Which one will you prefer? The positive (Fuji Velvia 50) or the negative (Fuji Reala 100). Both look quite good, what’s better is for you to decide.
Day 3 of 5 of black and white photo challenge. Each day I am trying to post a photo that is taken from a different camera and a different medium. Today I picked a BW polaroid that I shot at the Sake Bar Ginn in Hong Kong a while back. Ayuchi was working late as usual that night while I took the photo. Photo taken with Mamiya Universal + 50mm f6.3 lens on Fuji FP3000b scanned with Doxie Flip. When it comes to Polaroids, it wasn’t too hard to name my next challenger, Charlie Xia. He has been the biggest ambassador for my Polaroids and we need more people like him to keep this alive! So Charlie, I nominate you to the BW photo challenge, in which to post one BW photo per day for 5 days and also nominate someone each day because it’s fun.
