Film portraiture using only natural light

[JohnBeeching]

Leica M6, 35mm, Tri-X.
S by John Beeching, on Flickr

 

[PKR]

We could call it "modified natural light" 🙂 of course opposite to "pure natural light" ! Just kidding a little bit of course, I'm not pragmatic at all!

Thanks PKR for bringing us your knowledge of the way many Pros work with light, always interesting.

At the end isn't the light the main component of photography ?

I'm sure your Latin is better than mine..

In school, i took a beginning photography class taught by George Craven. Craven was more a photographer than an academic. But, his academic foundations were strong. He taught that Photography, from the Latin, was Light Painting. I've always thought of it that way.

From the French:
Etymology
From French photographie. Surface etymology is photo- +‎ -graphy, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines", "drawing". From φωτός (phōtós, “of light”, genitive), and γράφω (gráphō, “I write”).
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/photography

Below is a small photo of my friend and photographer Terry Heffernan. Window light. Tri-X, M6, 35/f2 shot at 1/30 at f2 for the gear heads

.

 

[Erik van Straten]

LeicaMP/Summilux50mmf/1.4v1black/TMY400/AdoxMCC110

Erik.

 

[peterm1]

Marshall Bennett Islands, East Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea circa 1988(?)

Shot with Fujichrome on a Pentax SLR. Digitized using Sony NEX 7 and bellows outfit, converted to monochrome in Nik Silver Efex.


Eye of the Wind - Marshall Bennett - Laughlan Islands - New Guinea_4 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

 

[PKR]

Sure, those would count as natural (non-artificial) light in my book. But what do I know, I'm just some schmuck on the internet. 😉

Perhaps we could classify scrims, reflectors, parachute cloths and the like to be light modifiers? And modifiers could also be used with artificial light sources, like they often are with umbrella strobes and flash softboxes...?

I forgot to ask.. Is it still Natural Light if fill flash is used?

 

[Taipei-metro]

Burbank, Los Angeles County


Burbank, Los Angeles County pre Covid19

a Taipei-metro photo

Canon EOS Elan7, Tamron 70-300
Kodak g200 print film

 

[peterm1]

Marshall Bennett Islands, East Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea circa 1988(?)

Shot with Fujichrome on a Pentax SLR. Digitized using Sony NEX 7 and bellows outfit, converted to monochrome in Nik Silver Efex.

Life in Shadows Eye of the Wind - Marshall Bennett - Laughlan Islands - New Guinea_6 by Life in Shadows, on Flickr

 

[dourbalistar]

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Ultrafine eXtreme 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes.


2020.08.11 Roll #254-05057-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[JohnBeeching]

Leica M6, 35mm, Tri-X.
C by John Beeching, on Flickr

 

[dourbalistar]

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Ultrafine eXtreme 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes.


2020.03.14 Roll #239-04503-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[narsuitus]

Portrait by Narsuitus, on Flickr

RB67 SLR
Mamiya 150mm soft focus
Fomapan 100 BW film
Shaded sunlight
f/4
2-bath divided developer
Epson V850 scanner

 

[Erik van Straten]

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[Erik van Straten]

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[Erik van Straten]

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[Erik van Straten]

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[JohnBeeching]

Shoebox 38: Throwing a pot. by John Beeching, on Flickr

 

[Dguebey]

Leica M7, Summarit-M 50/2.5, Kodak TMY (TMax 400)

A quick snapshot (stay here, cheese!), film processed approximately, scanning full auto (this part of technicity bother me)

 

[newst]

My apologies, I somehow missed the "Film portraiture" part of the thread title.

 

[Timmyjoe]

Nikon FM2n, AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S, Ultrafine eXtreme 400, developed in LegacyPro L110 at 1:31 for 5.5 minutes.


2020.08.11 Roll #254-05057-positive.jpg by dourbalistar, on Flickr

Hi dourbalistar, really like this shot. As for the lens you used, you have listed AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S Can you share with us what lens that is, I am not familiar with a Nikon 50mm f1.8S. Have not seen that "S" suffix with any Nikkor lens. Thanks.

Best,
-Tim

 

[dourbalistar]

Hi dourbalistar, really like this shot. As for the lens you used, you have listed AI Nikkor 50mm f/1.8S Can you share with us what lens that is, I am not familiar with a Nikon 50mm f1.8S. Have not seen that "S" suffix with any Nikkor lens. Thanks.

Best,
-Tim

Thank you for the kind words, Tim. It's the Nikkor 50/1.8 AI-S pancake, the Japanese domestic market version that focuses down to 0.45m. I admit the "S" suffix is a bit unusual, but I followed Nikon's (official?) designation in their Thousand and One Nights story series. There's also a thread about this particular lens here on the forum:

https://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164503