Some more film from NY
Last week I showed some BW material from the Yashica Mat 124, today it’s time for some color images I shot during our visit in New York.
My blog, although I don’t see myself as a blogger but as a Photographer I will try to blog some interesting material during the weeks.
Expect at least 2 updates a week.
Mamiya Leaf workshop New York
During our stay in New York I taught 2 different workshops.
The first one was for our friends from Mamiya/Leaf.
As you all probably know I’m a huge fan of shooting Medium Format, the image quality is “something else”.
I’ve started shooting medium format digital a few years ago and started out with a Mamiya digital back which, to put it mildly, actually didn’t life up to it’s expectations, my second back was much better, a Leaf Aptus 22. A 22MP back which at that time was a bump in resolution from my Canon 5D, but it was not the resolution I fell in love with, it was the dynamic range and most of all the look of the images, now this is very hard to explain but the images just look more 3D.
My very first experience with a medium format camera was during a professional imaging tradeshow some years ago when one of the Hasselblad representatives handed me one of their H2D bodies with back, at that point I thought I would never ever shoot medium format because of the price difference between a DSLR and medium format, however… when I retouched the files back home my mind changed and before I knew it I bought my first system.
New York in BW
During our stay in Atlanta I bought a new camera for myself.
As you all know I love analogue photography and vintage cameras, I don’t call myself a collector but if I see something cool I will try to grab it, if it’s not too expensive. Most of the cameras I have in the studio are bought on flea markets and can still shoot but ….. well they are not great cameras. I will often shoot the RZ67ProII and 645 with film backs (normally digital) but let’s be honest you don’t take those on the streets during a trip. So I wanted something small but still medium format and it had to have a meter (I don’t want to bother with a meter on the street). During a visit to a camera store in Atlanta (the camera doctor) I found a mint Yashica Mat 124 and fell in love with the camera. I did shoot 2 rolls of films with it during a visit to the Old car city in Atlanta but New York was the real testing ground.
The images I share today are still in the testing phase, I have to work up the speed to get the more interesting shots, but it’s cool to see what a camera like this still gives you in terms of resolution and detail. I’m scanning the film with a Reflecta MF5000 which gives you a pretty good resolution, it’s the next best thing to the Nikon Coolscan (which are sold for ridiculous prices). When scanning the resolution of the 6×6 film is app 13000×13000 pixels which seems pretty high, but always remember that the usable resolution is NOT what you scan with, although (especially with BW film) the images come out incredibly sharp for film. In lightroom I always use the 1:3 setting to judge the sharpness of my scans and I can honestly say that the Yashica stunned me, for such a small camera it’s amazing what you get, I guess that the 6×6 film renders something comparable to 40-50mp in digital which is not too shabby 😀
But enough of the technical mojo, let’s show the images.
Film : Kodak 400YMT
Scanner : Reflecta MF5000
Camera : Yashica Mat 124
New York in the rain
Now most people hate it when it rains and I have to be honest, personally I also don’t like the rain, but as a photographer I just love it. In this case it meant being soaked during the day, because we were not prepared for rain like this, but somehow it also has some magical and I just can’t resist the reflections, the people who are even more in a hurry than normal and ….. well so much more.
The colors just pop when you catch the right reflection, but sometimes a “contrasty” black and white conversion just simply rocks. So don’t just stay inside when it rains, get on your rain clothing and go out and shoot a totally different city. I think you’re gonna love it.
