Framing with 6X6?

[MikeyGaGa]

Henle-last of the classical masters

Henle-last of the classical masters

Danke,Bertram for the kind words. It is always pleasant to find others who share appreciation of things you hold dear.

When I was a boy,my father,who was an aircraft mechanic sometimes took me to his office;on the wall were monochrome (BW) prints by Fritz Henle(who had shot them for a petrol company). I was struck by how the tones of black white and grey seemed as real to me as color. At the same time,I had a class in Italian language and the textbook was full of richly toned photos(not by Henle) of Italy. The photos made me want to be on that oil rig or tanker;it made want to go abroad and photograph those same places in my textbooks. Above all they made me want to make my own photos.

Sadly,Henle appears not to be included in most critics minds as having produced a significant body of work;however it must be said that his book "Casals" is worthy of attention.

Of all the arts,I think that photgraphy is the most solitary;it sometimes leads one to work in a vacuum. Let us not forget that all art is a form of communication;let us enjoy and respect the work of others as much as we enjoy and respect our own work.

For now,I am going to pull out my boxed set of Henle prints which Rollei published for his 75th birthday and enjoy a beer-Prosit!

 

[sf]

One thing with 6x6 is, you either look through the finder with the end product (standard croppings) in mind, or you wait till printing time to compose. I tend to see the world as a cropped shape - 35mm or 645 framelines. Seeing things 6x6 would slow me down at first, but it would give me lots of flexibility in PS come printing time.

 

[dazedgonebye]

2 cents

I find that I compose for the viewfinder. If I'm looking through a square, my final output will almost always look better square. I just can't seem to visualize a rectanglular composition while looking through a square viewfinder.
Conversely, just about everything I shoot 3/2 will tend to stay 3/2 instead of being cropped to 5/4.
Exceptions do happen of course.
It makes it interesting to pick up a 6x6 camera. I end up with a completely different result.

 

[Bertram2]

Sadly,Henle appears not to be included in most critics minds as having produced a significant body of work;however it must be said that his book "Casals" is worthy of attention.

A shame, but I am not too familiar with the German photogs, maybe it is because artistically they were not really in the center of my interest. In other words they could not touch my soul as the French masters could.
Maybe I should learn a bit more about the German photogs any way, at least because of reasons of general education 😉

Bertram

 

[smiling gecko]

...for those who missed it, geneW's " in the square gallery" is a treat. not sure how to do the link - yo soy techno-klutz - but here's the info: http://www.pbase.com/gwilburn/in_th_square

...terrific work...especially 'winter morning' , 'canoe' and 'day lily'. they really sing the virtues of the square.

...i've got to get some more of my 120 rolls scanned onto cd.

..."We few, we happy few, we band of brothers (and sisters); " ...hope the bard's spirit won't mind the inclusion. hmm, this thread has brought out quite a few practitioners of the square.

/////warning, warning, warning///// going OT now ...... one of my all-time shakespeare favorites was brought to the screen in the incredible "henry v" with kenneth branagh, derek jacobi, ian holm, the brian blessed, ian holm, robbie coltrane, the ever-memorable emma thompson and the too-brief appearance of dame judi dench. and a host of many, many, many teriffic actors. christopher ravenscroft just about makes off with the film as 'mountjoy'.

...ok, enough already, it's just one of those all-too-rare film adaptations of a great work of literature.

i hope the approaching weekend gives everyone good weather, good fortune and good light.

hasta la vista, adieu, dazvidanya, fino al prossimo tempo, auf wiedersehen, and later y’all
kenneth 😛
_______________________________________
"...patience and shuffle the cards" miguel cervantes
"nothing can be learned" herman hesse
"everybody knows everything" jack kerouac
"some memories are realities and better than anything" willa cather
" doo-wacka doo, wacka doo" roger miller
"we have met the enemy and they is us !" walt kelly (pogo)
“a mans cartilage is his fate” phillip roth

 

[DougK]

I have Branagh's Henry V on DVD. Truly a wonderful film.

Back on topic, it's been a long time since I've seen Gene's MF gallery and it was very nice to view it again. Love those shots.

 

[MikeyGaGa]

A Footnote

A Footnote

A shame, but I am not too familiar with the German photogs, maybe it is because artistically they were not really in the center of my interest. In other words they could not touch my soul as the French masters could.
Maybe I should learn a bit more about the German photogs any way, at least because of reasons of general education 😉

Bertram

Henle was never considered aGerman photographer,per se. He was born and raised in Germany,the son of a wealthy surgeon. He graduated from photography school in Munich,and left Germany in the mid-30s(apparently NOT for political reasons).

Henle became an Amerocan citizen,eventually settling in the Virgin Islands.

My impression was that he was ,all his life,wealthly enough not to have to worry about very much. He may haved moved in circles which gave him access to elite clients.

Photo critics and writers here in the US have always tended to the collectivist view of life,and prefered photographers of social consciousness;for these reasons perhaps he was ignored.Henle's work is purely pictoral and reportage.

Mikey

 

[Laurence]

SalmanA wrote: I've only shot one roll of 6x6 frames with my new (old really) Yashica Mat 124 TLR, and I didn't have any particular problems with it compared to rectangular 35mm framing. I had more of an issue with the left-to-right flipped image but not with the square framing. But it was only my first roll, so time will tell.

The good old Yashica Mat is a wonderful camera. Hopefully to whet your appetite and get you going again (I want to see some Yashica Mat shots from people! Why don't you break it out again, SalmanA?) here is one from the beach. The nice thing about beach shots, is you can just back up or go forward until everything looks balanced in the square frame! I like to feel that this one shows the balance that is inherent in square format when all the compositional elements fit together.

Yashica Mat 124
Velvia

 

[Bertram2]

The good old Yashica Mat is a wonderful camera. Hopefully to whet your appetite and get you going again (I want to see some Yashica Mat shots from people!
Yashica Mat 124
Velvia

Wow, this is a masterpiece, what a beautiful photo !! Whets my apetite now too, I must use my Mat 124 again, it rested on the shelf since 1 year or so. I lost one of the 4 little bolts in the bottom which serve as feet. This light leak messed up 3 films !!
I closed the leak but did not test later if it is o.k. Time to do that now 🙂)
🙂)

Thanks for sharing !

Bertram

 

[Laurence]

Thanks much, Bertram. On your very fine gallery, I am especially enamored with Tor2...a beautiful piece of work with great lines and shapes. The composition is really balanced.

Since I'm in a "showoff" mode for the great old Yashica Mat with the stunning Yashinon lens, here's a few more.

The creek is cropped from square, of course...and this ties in with what previous posters have indicated. The square full-frame just did not look balanced, even when looking through the ground glass, but I knew I could crop -- a super advantage when using the square format for sure. Scanned from the Reala negative.

The sundog is also a crop from the square, and I felt that the vertical linearity was better suited to the nature of the composition, and helped eliminate that feeling of being overwhelmed with the dark rocks on each side. Scanned from the Velvia tranny.

The cloudy-day image of Ignar Creek is, of course "full frame" 6x6. Things were quite dark this day, so after the scan I ran a Curves to help with the shadow areas. Scanned from Provia tranny.

The old Epson 2450 scanner is adequate for the big transparencies. Of course, the trannies on the lightbox are the soup du jur when viewing. Despite the degradation of knocking these down for the web, I feel that you can still see that the Yashica is not a camera to sneeze at.

Gosh, but I would LOVE to see others' Yashica Mat and other 6x6 -- whether cropped or not -- work on here. 😎

 

[RicardoD]

Laurence,

What have you done?!?

You GAS'ed me into a Yashica Mat 124G with that beach photo. Just bought one off another RFF member from the medium format classifieds.

I have a 120 stainless steel reel that came with my 35mm reel ebay purchase. How do I explain to my wife it needed a matching camera?

 

[Abbazz]

Square format lovers, have a look at Alain Astruc's pictures on Flickr. Most of them are taken with a Mamiya C330 TLR and they exhibit the dreamy bokeh of the f/3.5 105mm -- an Heliar type lens. Particulary love this one.

Abbazz

 

[Laurence]

Laurence,

What have you done?!?

You GAS'ed me into a Yashica Mat 124G with that beach photo. Just bought one off another RFF member from the medium format classifieds.

I have a 120 stainless steel reel that came with my 35mm reel ebay purchase. How do I explain to my wife it needed a matching camera?

Here's what you do Ricardo: You show your wife the stainless steel reel, and put a string of pearls inside. While she's all over you for the nice gesture, you casually pull out the new Yashica Mat acquisition and ask her to pose with the pearls. She may see that it's a new piece of equipment, but of course you will already be "in like Flint". Gawd, do I EVER know how to handle women! I'm very proud of me.

Oh man, the Yashica Mats are GREAT fun, and such underdogs in the TLR group! One of the best bargains out there. I have a print from the rain forest on the wall at 30x30...it's so sharp and clean that I almost can't stand it.

Congratulations of your GAS purchase! I am EXTREMELY happy that I caused a bit of GAS for you. After all, we only live once (I think). 😎

I just GASSED myself, so don't feel bad. Recently acquired a CLAd Agfa Isolette III with the clean/sharp Solinar 85 lens in a Synchro-Compur shutter. Yeah, ANOTHER square format...haha, the best of both worlds because as someone said above on a post, you can shoot it for "square" or shoot it for "rectangle"...how versatile is THAT?

I am ANXIOUS to see how the Yashica pans out for you. I'm tapping my fingers, waiting for some images.

 

[wlewisiii]

After getting caught up on this thread, I'm getting really bad thoughts about making a 24x24 mask for one of my cameras now... At least that would be cheaper than a Tenax II 😉

William

 

[Bertram2]

Thanks much, Bertram. On your very fine gallery, I am especially enamored with Tor2...a beautiful piece of work with great lines and shapes. The composition is really balanced.

Since I'm in a "showoff" mode for the great old Yashica Mat with the stunning Yashinon lens, here's a few more.

T

Laurence,
many thanks for the compliment (not sure if I earn it) , I have to give it back, the new pics are as impressive as the first one, seems you know how to handle "her" perfectly, you get the very best out of this camera , which is extremely underrated , especially by those who don't know much about photography and therefore only have NAMES for their orientation. 😀

Maybe you will find this dialog amusing:

http://www.pgallery.net/bertram/folder-5366.html
!
I got a 1938 Cord with a Triotar too,

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=22530&cat=5521

but people like him were the reason why I quit at the Rollei list tho there are really great guys like Eric Goldstein for example.

I haven't much Mat stuff up in the web, at the time only:

http://www.usefilm.com/Image.asp?ID=292776
http://www.usefilm.com/Image.asp?ID=887769

Maybe I should take the Mat to Paris in June ? Haven't got any 6X6 photos of Paris, and there are some Velvia 100 in the fridge, expired since 6 months.. 😉

Best regards, thanks for sharing,

bertram

 

[Laurence]

Bertram, a splendid idea on possibly taking the Mat to Paris! It seems like such a....such a MATCH -- Paris and Yashica Mat. Combine the Mat and a rangefinder and you have a great combination for Paris street shooting. The Mat can be surprisingly fast, as you know. And...it's still pretty damn discreet. Maybe consider some 400 speed black and white....