25/4 for environmental protrait

[Alan]

I can only use wide angle lens with my L and it's the only camera I have. is the 25mm to wide for environment protrait? I know you should use a short tele for protrait, but would it work? Thanks

 

[FrankS]

Alan, you'll have to be very careful not to let the wide angle perspective distort the subject (unless that's what you want to do) but a 25mm lens could be quite effective, if you have an interesting background. Give it a try, and post the results here, and we could identify the things you did well and maybe give you some ideas for improvement.

 

[nickchew]

I'm not experienced enough to answer that question but I have seen wide angles artfully used in environmental portraitures.

How wide to you think this arnold newman pic is?
(it is from the Masters of Photography website)

http://www.masters-of-photography.com/N/newman/newman_reagan_full.html

I'm thinking at least 24 or 28mm (but this was more likely medium format?)

Nick

 

[Bertram2]

I can only use wide angle lens with my L and it's the only camera I have. is the 25mm to wide for environment protrait? I know you should use a short tele for protrait, but would it work? Thanks

First of all: You can use a 50mm also on a L using a 50mm finder and guesstimating the distance. Of course this won't work wide open , but from f4 on it is possible if you are not too close and the person does not move.

The CV 4/25 will work for portrait too, again only if are not too close but from another reason. Wides tend stretch the faces towards the edges and this can cause an ugly unnatural look. If you are careful it works:

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/1624/sort/2/cat/500/page/5

Bertram

 

[VictorM.]

Why not? Shoot lots of film with the subject in various parts of the frame. The supposed "distortion" will show most when he/she is near the edges if you're up close. but that may not matter. Look at Eliot Erwitt's site for "portraits". The one of Buckminster Fuller in a helicopter was taken with a 21mm lens (if memory serves...). (Why do I always use those three periods? And parentheses!). Using a 90mm may isolate the subject from the background. Not exactly a good way to show the subject's environment unless you back way up. Arnold Newman liked to use 4X5 a lot.

 

[tedwhite]

Bertram:

I thoroughly enjoyed your Paris photographs. Brought back recherchez du temps perdu. (I lived on Rue du Bac in 1971). As I have just ordered the Bessa L and the 25/4 your photos reassured me that I had made a wise choice. (Please don't think that because I used a few french words that I speak French. Actually that's the title of Marcel Proust's novel, as I'm sure you know).

During that year there was considerable resentment toward Americans. I could speak no French at all. However, I did speak Spanish, so I reinvented myself as a Mexican and got along rather well. I would walk right into a restaurant, accost the maitre de, and say, "¿Buenas noches...que hay de comer?" Sometimes he would summon a Spanish menial from the kitchen who would steer me toward a good meal at a reasonable price.

I worked under the table as a consultant to a publishing company (Gallimard). They were translating some US paperbacks into French. Great fun.

I have the Bessa R with the 35/2.5 and it's a great and sharp lens. But I needed something wider.

Thanks again for the fine photographs.

Ted

 

[akalai]

Hey check out some of Lee Friedlander's work, he has shot quite a lot of stuff wth a Hasselblad SWC, and that lens while medium format converts to something like a 24mm.

Go to this Amazon.com link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_7/102-1855807-4112109?v=glance&s=books

This book, "Lee Friedlander at Work" is a series of portraits taken with the Hasselblad SWC of people in work situations, might be of help for you to imagining such wide angle "environmental portraits". Keep in mind this was a commission so people had to put up with him being right in their faces! 😉

Other books, that I know of, that he has shot with the Hasselblad SWC are his latest book, "Lee Friedlander: Sticks And Stones: Architectural America":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/102-1855807-4112109?v=glance&s=books

AND "the Desert Seen":
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...=sr_1_10/102-1855807-4112109?v=glance&s=books

 

[Doug]

Yes indeed, Alan; actually rather a fine choice. Bertram has done some great urban shots with his 25mm. The Arnold Newman shot is at least as wide an angle, looks to me. I'm no master of photography, but here's one environmental shot I made with the 25mm Snapshot Skopar on a Minolta CLE, with grainy outdated Fuji 1600 film...

 

[RML]

I'd say you can use the CV 25/4. Many of the photos in my galleries are taken with the very same lens, on a Leitz Minolta CL but that doesn't make a difference. Run through my galleries and try to guess which photos are taken with the 25/4 or my J8. I think you'll pick the 25's out quite easily but you'll probably be nicely surprised about how little annoyingly noticeable distortion the lens has.

 

[Peter]

I used to have a 25mm/4 for my L before I sold them. They are definitely useable for environmental portraits in good light but in dim indoor shots you need to use faster films or push process. This is why I sold the combination and opt for the R2 and the Ultron 35mm/1.7.

 

[Bertram2]

Bertram:

I thoroughly enjoyed your Paris photographs. Brought back recherchez du temps perdu. (I lived on Rue du Bac in 1971). As I have just ordered the Bessa L and the 25/4 your photos reassured me that I had made a wise choice. (Please don't think that because I used a few french words that I speak French. Actually that's the title of Marcel Proust's novel, as I'm sure you know).

During that year there was considerable resentment toward Americans. I could speak no French at all. However, I did speak Spanish, so I reinvented myself as a Mexican and got along rather well. I would walk right into a restaurant, accost the maitre de, and say, "¿Buenas noches...que hay de comer?" Sometimes he would summon a Spanish menial from the kitchen who would steer me toward a good meal at a reasonable price.

I worked under the table as a consultant to a publishing company (Gallimard). They were translating some US paperbacks into French. Great fun.

I have the Bessa R with the 35/2.5 and it's a great and sharp lens. But I needed something wider.

Thanks again for the fine photographs.

Ted

Ted ,
many thanks for your friendly compliments, glad you like the Paris pics ! 😀
"A la recherche du temps perdu" I have read only in parts but there once was a ingenious book made by a New York publisher which showed some of Atget's photos with quotes of this book attached. Perfect !! The title of this book and Atgets style is always the headline for my photo work in Paris. I'll be there in June again.

Makes me sad to read that you had problems with an anti-american mood 71, it was the year I've been there too the first time and I remember that time very well, Vietnam war was still in our heads and the city still lived under the impression of the 68 riots .

You will have a lot of fun with the L+25 combo. If you shoot often architecture I'd recommend you a level. After 0ne year full of disappoinments I gave up and bought one. I simply was tired to correct converging lines and tilted horizons with PS.

Best,
Bertram

 

[tedwhite]

I have seen some of the Atget photos with Proust's quotes. Very well done.

As for the level, I'm not sure I understand. If you are in front of a building by necessity (most of the time) you will have to tilt the camera upward. How does a level solve that problem? If a building is 20 feet tall then ideally the camera should be 10 feet off the ground? Possible solution follows:

I have an old beat up Chevvy station wagon that I use to go into the desert on bad roads to make photographs. My friend, a welder, is making a steel ladder on the side and a platform on top so I can get up there with tripod and camera. This might help with photographing buildings? Inside I sometimes use a step ladder.

Ted

 

[Alan]

Thanks alot for all the responses. My first roll of film with the L is coming back on wednesday I will see if I can get them to scan it so I can put it in my gallery. It's a roll of Xp2 super, I asked them to print it on black and white paper but they said they will have to charge more. I paid 17 dollars for the roll (processing included). then I would have to add 15 bucks if I want it printed on B&W paper so I'm better off just using regular B&W films. I'll see how the prints come out on color paper first to decide.

 

[tedwhite]

My Bessa L came today. To my surprise it was the "chrome" model, not the black model. As I looked at my email order to CameraQuest I realized I didn't specify because I thought all the bodies were black.

I really wanted a black body. So should I just shut and learn to love the un-black body. Stop acting like a spoiled child, etc.? It's tempting to keep it as I could start using it tomorrow. Besides, Stephen Gandy won't be back until the 27th. 😕

I need some counseling here.

Ted

 

[Bertram2]

As for the level, I'm not sure I understand. If you are in front of a building by necessity (most of the time) you will have to tilt the camera upward. How does a level solve that problem?
Ted

Not at all of course. For that purpose you need a shift lens or a LF camera. If there is no room to step backyou MUST tilt normal camera backwards of course. But the level helps to avoid tilting where you can avoid it. And that happens very often.
Best,
Bertram

 

[RML]

Ted, drop a note to Stephen to explain the situation. Most likely he'll be reading his email anyway and might return a solution.

 

[Alan]

I asked Stephen about the black L and he only had the the chrome models left. so I decided to get it at my local camera shop.

 

[Roman]

Yes, same her - I wanted a black L, but Stephen had only silver ones left - so I simply covered mine with gaffer's tape - makes it less damage prone, too, and since I don't 'babay' my equipment, just throw it in the bag/jacket, this is necessary with the slightly flimsy build quality of the L (even the Bessa R feels solid in comparison).

Roman

 

[tedwhite]

Roman:

I decided to keep it. And I was thinking of doing the same thing with black tape, cut very carefully to conform to the lines of the camera. What's "gaffer's tape?" Is it the same as electrician's tape? And taping will indeed protect the finish from those inevitable scratches. I have found that a product called "Goof Off" works wonders at wiping away any traces of tape or decal sticky stuff. Actually, that's what it's designed to do.

The 'L' does feel a on the delicate side. On the other hand, we don't have to worry that a bit of jostling is going to knock the rangefinder out of alignment.

Ted

 

[Roman]

Hmm, 'gaffer's tape' is what it was called in my past as a bass player in a band - a textile-based, thick black sticky tape (we used it to tape down elctrical cords, microphone leads, etc. on the stage...); maybe there is another term for it, as well?

Roman