A couple of days at work with the KHAF

M

merciful

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I shot for two days last month in July at a Salvation Army camp for kids. Took my M2, M3, and lenses from 35mm to 135mm, but every roll save one was through the Hexar AF. I put this down to a combination of unwillingness to spend a lot of time focusing on twitchy kids, and a growing appreciation for the 35mm FL.

Tri-X at 50 and 100; Kodak 160VC. The post is a bit rough in spots because I really haven't had the time to do finished versions.

http://www.andrewmurphy.ca/SA_2007/index.htm
 
That's a great series and a great application for the AF. I guess the tri-x 50 really helped to get your subjects popping like that in daylight, but did you use any other filtering?
 
Thanks a lot, Steve. No other filters. Usually, I have an ND8 on with the AF outside, but it was sometimes overcast enough not to bother this time (and sometimes I just let the Hexar in "P" mode stop down a bit for me). The good tones will be mostly down to Photoshop work (and the ridiculous range of greys the pulled film gives).
 
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I'm very curious as to how you got this look. I love it!

Did you push the film at all?

I tried using 125 speed film (Ilford HP4+) but i noticed that anytime i got into lower light i was finding myself screwed because i began to need a tripod... even for some outdoor shots.

Thats why 50 speed film outdoors seems odd.

Anyway, love the shots.. . they came out great! Wish i had the time and ability to do that.
 
Guys, thanks very much.

JBF: this is all pulled TX (from its nominal EI of 400) to 100 and 50. I'm surprised you had problems with Plus-X outside. Here's why: assuming the Overcast F5.6 rule to be in effect (as it was for much of my shoot), the camera would be set at f5.6 • 1/125 sec. I shoot wide-open, almost all the time; so I would have been at (if the Hexar AF had fast shutter speeds) f2 • 1/1000 sec. (Since the Hexar's fastest shutter is 1/250 sec., I had to use an ND8 filter to reduce the light getting to the lens). So, unless you were stopping down and using a longer lens, you shouldn't have had problems with slow film. Get me?

As for the look: well, that's just making things look as I want in Photoshop.
 
Well, if Tri-X isn't the cockroach amongst films!
I've seen you shoot it at 12,800 previously, and to now see the same film shot at 50 almost baffles me--at least a 9-stop difference, all from the same emulsion.
 
i think a documentary series like this of kids is near impossible to get right and you did! wry and black, insightful into the mind's eyes of these subjects. a coffee table collection for sure, if not hanging on a wall somewhere. it isn't the film at all, it is the skill understood in the camera not exuding a threat to these young people. the film is merely the medium.

but a very successful and intelligent use of the medium.

dj
 
I like the cockroach analogy a lot, as well. (I've used it at 25,600 and 25, too.)

Thanks a lot, hammer. There's nothing I'd rather shoot (save my little girl, I guess) than kids in need of some help: it's a lot of fun and I get the feeling that I just might be making a little bit of a contribution. (Not that it'll make a difference, but one has to try.)
 
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