Post your flashbulb photos!

Mark, I like your photo of Jean, and that she's bundled up inside. I sense there will be more flashbulb converts on RFF in the near future. My preference for what it's worth, is to take liberties with burning, dodging, brightness and contrast. My taste is to make her face and Jesus poster lighter, and the area around her progressively darker. Also you look to be about 10 feet away, so you now have a useful guide number for your bulb/film/developer combo.
 
wells46 said:
It took me a minute to figure out where I've seen this picture before. Hi Mark.
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Funny. Disney was right; it is small world after all. I've been meaning to call you, but fell down this rabbit hole (with a Crown Graphic for ballast).

You haven't seen that exact shot (taken Friday), but Jean is my ever tolerant muse who puts up with every new camera and lens I show up with. It is becoming an interesting, if a bit depressing, project seeing the store fade away over the years.

I'm a diehard available light guy, and the biggest surprise so far is has been how the flash gives the appearance of an even harsher reality to the shots. I can't seem to find a way to express that well, but it is some of that clear-eyed look I've seen in the FSA Depression work, etc. That is part of what interested me to try this, but I am a little surprised at just how much influence the flash has. It's sort of like - "Here is this pile of information all clearly illuminated for your perusal".

I'll be curious to see how much this carries over to more upbeat subject matter. "Teenie" Harris has interested me in this way. He used similar equipment and techniques photographing the incredible jazz scene (and every other aspect of life) in Pittsburgh's Hill District in the 30's and on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harris_%28photographer%29

It is interesting to get to see first hand just how much the media effect the message.
 
NY_Dan said:
Mark, I like your photo of Jean, and that she's bundled up inside. I sense there will be more flashbulb converts on RFF in the near future. My preference for what it's worth, is to take liberties with burning, dodging, brightness and contrast. My taste is to make her face and Jesus poster lighter, and the area around her progressively darker. Also you look to be about 10 feet away, so you now have a useful guide number for your bulb/film/developer combo.
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Thanks. I appreciate all your help on this. I've been a photographer for quite a long time, and yet this flashbulb thing and the handheld 4x5 are completely new for me.

I'm am trying to live an Adobe free existence, with only partial success. Gimp has been extremely frustrating and disappointing to me so far, but I plan to persist for a while. I may add Aperture in soon. That picture just has a curve applied, with no local adjustment since I haven't gotten around to sort that stuff out in Gimp. I can bail out and go back to PS on an older computer (or OS), but that is a PIA.

Actually, I'm really still a darkroom guy, as Wells46 can attest. I am anxious to wet print these last couple negatives, but just haven't had time. For me that is the reference standard. I just don't know what I've actually gotten until I see a print.

Still, my preference for my photos is for a natural look and making skin look like skin; flash already pushes that pretty hard for me. I have really wanted to do some burning in all my flash shots but just haven't gotten there yet with Gimp. I tend to use curves and the History Brush for that in PS.

I'll post another shot here soon.
 
css9450 said:
Thanks! Yes kind of like O. Winston Link except he shot actual moving trains with enormous hard-wired lighting rigs and miles of wire to fire them. Very ambitious but well worth the effort.

Here the locomotive was parked for the weekend so I just walked along and fired one bulb at the nose of the engine and three along the side. Exposure was f5.6 and ISO 100 for about four minutes or so.
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Ha! I was waiting all night to see if I guessed correctly. I guessed 3 minutes it was four -- not too bad. I guessed it was 400 ISO - it was 100 -- oh well -- I was trying to guess the ambient light and what was needed, and the streaks from traffic in the distance, and also an exposure that would give you enough time to fire the flashbulbs. One flash at the front and three for side -- Well I guessed 2 and 2 so that's 4, so I get partial credit :)

Yes, I read about O Winston Link's elaborate set-ups -- so cool. I have some of the more powerful bulbs and would love to photograph something large someday.

Here's a shot I did TMY 120 f/4 , 25 bulb, on 2/10/2013:
tumblr_n175ymecCj1r916qao1_1280.jpg
 
When I was doing a lot of large format architectural photography, I built a flashbox, and used the big screw-base 50B's for lighting certain architectural interiors (and a few exteriors, as well).

Here is a youtube lesson by the late Architectural Photographer Julius Shulman, describing how he would do it. I studied his techniques. Ever seen that world famous picture of the house floating over a precipice in Los Angeles? Shot with flashbulbs. Much more light than electronic flash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqV7qX6ZyR8

A short trailer about a Shulman documentary, and his most famous photograph, which I am describing:

http://www.juliusshulmanfilm.com/trailer-gallery/
 
Mark C said:
Funny. Disney was right; it is small world after all. I've been meaning to call you, but fell down this rabbit hole (with a Crown Graphic for ballast).
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Mark, I was out of town for a few days. I'm back now. Give me a call when the Mad Hatter finally lats you go.
 
So, no guesses on my mystery spot. Or maybe just no interest; I apologize if this was out of place. I did think you guys would get the link, I mean connection. Seems obvious to me now, but I remember that it certainly wasn't when we pulled in there.

Anyway, here's another shot of Jean with the Graphic and #5's. F16, flash bounced of the ceiling. I finally got into the darkroom last night, so this is scanned from a print.


Jean #2 by Yew Piney, on Flickr
 
For what it's worth -- saw the Robert Capa color exhibit at ICP yesterday. Read the letters of his on display too. One funny part -- he's annoyed with a fellow photographer and cheapskate and says words to the effect of -- I hope he dies with his flashbulbs. Struck me as funny. My epitaph -- He died with his flashbulbs blazing.

tumblr_n1ddyv7LdF1r916qao1_1280.jpg
 
I was surprised and amused to see pictures in Sunday's local paper taken with a 4x5 press camera and flash bulbs, especially so since I took them.


Flashbulbs in the DP by Yew Piney, on Flickr

I'd emailed small scans to the dance club and had given them permission to use them, but really figured the college student there with a Sony digital camera would have everything they needed. She was shooting beside me when I took the upper picture, but the #5 bulb may have had the advantage over her pop up flash for that one :)
 
I thought it was pretty funny. I don't think anybody at the paper even knows. I know one of their photographers pretty well and think he'll get a kick out of it next time I talk to him. The dance group organizer emailed and said that their college student's digital shots looked kind of muddy in black and white and that these had better contrast and composition.

We've got a Fasnacht celebration at a tiny Swiss community, Helvetia, West Virginia, this weekend. It seems crazy, but I'm thinking of taking the Graphic and bulbs instead of the Leica. So maybe some more pictures soon.

http://theintermountain.com/page/co...nal-Fasnacht-celebration-set-in-Helvetia.html
 
Old thread, but hey. M3 with an M-mount Voigtlander 15mm (version 2). Flash was a Tilt-A-Mite and an AG1 bulb, reflector stowed. Swiss truck driver a month ago (January 2019).
Zm19kYI.jpg
 
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