Shooting live bands with an LTM

[cnphoto]

Shooting live (energetic) bands with an LTM LEica is an exercies in dexterity, patience, hope and a whole lot of fun 🙂

I took a Canon 50mm F1.5 for a spin on my IIIF to shoot some bands on the weekend for a free-press music mag i work on with a friend. No hood, cleaning marks... i dig it! This lens is not going anywhere.

F1.5

F2

Wide open again

TMax 400 in Rodinal 1:50. No meter, just shot at F1.5 and F2 at 1/200th and dev'd for about 3/4 an hour, sometimes I'll push it to an hour or more if it was exceptionally dark. 30 minutes if it was exceptionally bright 🙂

 

[johannielscom]

Respect. Great shots.

Interesting idea to vary dev time and keep shutter speed constant. Did you ever bring a meter to define 'bright' for yourself?

 

[cnphoto]

Respect. Great shots.

Interesting idea to vary dev time and keep shutter speed constant. Dix you ever bring a meter to define 'bright' for yourself?

for live band stuff, i just generally wing it and basically never meter - choose a shutterspeed i am comfortable using for that particular musician / band (depending on their level of movement/enthusiasm) and shoot at widest aperture i am comfortable with based on previous experience (as best as i can anyway).

the long developing times with very minimal agitation probably are essentially a semi-stand type of development and using a compensating developer i think it safeguards me a little. it's a bit 'seat of the pants' but it's fun 🙂

i have had a meter on me a handful of times and if i'm really stumped after i've shot i'll try to take a very quick light reading with my meter in the most 'average intensity' section of light i can get my hand/arm into and then adjust my dev time to what i think would work.

at this event, the band after these guys had much more lighting so i think i shot that set between F2 and F2.8 as opposed to F1.5-F2 and instead of developing for 45/50 minutes i'll develop those rolls for about 35 minutes 🙂 because of the different intensities of light and light sources i generally have more than enough usable and interesting photos. i have had some spectacular failures in the past though, and had maybe one barely usable frame out of 2-4 rolls.

 

[johannielscom]

Thanks for elaborating cnphoto!

Will definitely try this some time with a not too critical shoot to see if I can get a grip on this.

Last weekend I did RolleiRetro100 in Rodinal 1:100 and I had forgotten how good that combo actually is for my way of shooting. I did Tmax100 and 400 in Rodinal 1:100 before as well, gotta pick that up again as well!

 

[cnphoto]

400 in Rodinal 1:100 before as well, gotta pick that up again as well!

how did you find TMax 400 in Rodinal 1:100? and roughly what EI did you use? Also, any agitation at all?

sorry to ask a lot of questions 🙂 i've only used TMax 400 and Rodinal at 1:50 but have a short roll of musician portraits I need to develop and I know the lighting and exposure will be off, so 1:100 might be best to get maximum shadow detail and prevent blocking the highlights. it's an important roll too, trust me to forget a sync cable (and the back-up cables i always carry) for an important shoot :bang:

 

[alistair.o]

They are very nice. As Johan has said "Respect" you deserve it.

 

[cnphoto]

They are very nice. As Johan has said "Respect" you deserve it.

Thanks 🙂 I've had some pretty funny looks from other music photographers. A videographer asked if I was really going to shoot with that old camera, he gave me a thumbs up - but it's a lot of fun to shoot with these old Leica's (for me), I like the challenge.

I'll hopefully be shooting some small punk shows soon, I'll most likely run a 28mm lens and a flash on a cable on the IIIF and see how I go shooting synced at 1/30th.

 

[robert blu]

The photos are very good. I never tried this technique but I will in future. Thanks for suggetsions given.
robert

 

[Nokton48]

Yes Very Nice!

"Stand Development" seems to work really well. Need to try this in the future.

 

[Dralowid]

If only I could find them, somewhere I have pics of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers (inc Clapton) taken with III plus Summar using HP3 rated at 1200 ASA. We are talking some grain...my attempts that evening with a 73mm Hektor were an out of focus disaster

Michael

 

[johannielscom]

Michael,

I get a serious itch every time somebody says 73mm and Hektor in one sentence.
Unfortunately my wallet gets a nervous twitch at the same time! 😀

 

[Dralowid]

Johan,

In my humble opinion they are really not all they are cracked up to be. I've had two over the years (first rough, second much better) and now have none. The money was better spent on conversions!?!...I think.

I had a 75mm Angenieux once that looked like an enlarger lens in an ltm mount. To me it was a whole lot better and cost virtually nothing.

Looking forward to hearing more about your latest acquistion....

Michael

 

[bfffer]

this is great.

 

[robklurfield]

the results are great. thx for the tech tips on your process.

 

[bigeye]

The 3rd is particularly good. Great timing; motion and freeze. (I would be tempted to crop it square and burn the Exit light and security down to concentrate on the musicians).

Impressive use of Tmax 400 with rodinal - came out really good. Thanks for sharing the results.

- Charlie

 

[Luddite Frank]

I believe it was the great classical cellist Leonard Rose who was also an avid photographer, and Leica advocate.

He was principal cellist for the New York Philharmonic (? ), and had the conductor's permission to take pictures during rehearsals, as long as they were not disruptive... he favored the Leica IIIc or f and the 85mm Summarex. Most of his shots were taken from his place in the cello section.

Some of his photos are in one of the 1950's editions of Morgan & Lester's "Leica Manual".

One of Rose's shots is a great candid portrait of the wonderful American bass-baritone William Warfield.

 

[Paul Luscher]

Done it myself, in spite of Ken Rockwell's saying a LTM camera is really only good for landscapes.

A little slow in the set-up, since you have to crank in all the settings yourself (and don't forget parallax), but once that's done, shooting with these little beasties is just about as quick as yer auto-everything job--and a lot more fun....

 

[cnphoto]

a lot more fun....

exactly! 🙂 i'm in it for the fun, if i'm having fun then getting good shots is just a bonus.

 

[Paul Luscher]

Gotta admit--when you get good shots out of a LTM, you feell like you really EARNED it.....