Wednesday 12 July 2017

Shadows and lines

The strong Portuguese light on these steps in Porto caught my eye:

FP4+ on Ilford Cooltone paper (I think)

I know, not quite on a par with Metzker.

I was expecting more light like this in Porto but a lot of the days the sun was kind of hazy, coming through thin cloud.  In anticipation of better light I'd armed myself with a bucket-load of FP4+ but given the haze combined with the narrow streets and high buildings of the old city it was actually on the slow side.  It probably wouldn't have mattered so much had I the M6 with me, since it is much more usable at slow speeds.  But I only had the Nikon with me, so I abandoned FP4 in favour of my go-to film, HP5+.


4 comments:

  1. Keep after it and you'll be the next Metzker!

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    1. Haha - I'll settle for the next Michael McNeill ;)

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  2. Metzker, the old master of light and shadows. Thanks for the reminder, and the link :)
    Looks like we're having more or less the same thoughts about film and which one to go into where. Me to use the faster ones inside the Nikons these days, and try to go for slower alternatives inside the rangefinders. You can normally easily earn a stop or two inside them old germans for some reason. They seem to be rather easy to operate hand held at slower shutter times.
    But we already knew that, of course.
    Oh, and I love your print mate! Can't help myself from wondering what would happen if you crancked up the contrast a notch, but then again I've not seen the original paper, and would have no idea what it looks like in flesh.

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    1. You raise an interesting point, Mr Karlsvik. Come to think of it, I have some old Russian paper - Slavich Unibrom or similar arty paper - lying about the darkroom somewhere. I'm reluctant to use it as it needs the right negative - but perhaps this might be a contender. I'll let you know if it works (or if it doesn't)...

      Do you ever get the feeling that it's all been done before? I mean, the Metzker thing, the Ravilious thing, the Capa thing, the HCB thing, the well-you-know-where-I'm-going-with-this thing? But then, I suppose, everyone does it just that little bit differently and maybe that's the thing that makes it all OK. Perhaps.

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