Tag Archive for: vintage

Using props… the chair

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Often people ask me “what is the perfect prop?”
Well let me start by saying that there is no perfect prop.
However if I had to choose one I would say it’s chair…
Now don’t get the expensive posing chairs you sometimes see in studios and online, in my opinion these are nice but also very overpriced and will limit the way you can shoot for the simple reason they are often not the most attractive chairs.

 

You can not only incorporate them into your set, but you can also make the model pose more dynamically. In other words add a lot of play into the shoot.

 

My favorite way to get chairs is to visit the second hand stores and get the more damaged, ugly, vintage looking chairs they have, the first advantage is that they are often cheap (hey I’m Dutch :)) plus they (in my personal opinion) have way more character than a new one. PLUS.. when you’re done with them… well you just cut them open and you have a second life for the chair.

 

Today some images I took during the test session with Marieke with 2 of our chairs.
Some might be considered NSFW so beware.

Marieke Jansen Oktober 2 2014 (49 of 107)-Edit

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Some random BW portraits

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I love shooting portraits in BW and thanks to the new MacPhun Tonality pro I’ve been shooting them a bit more lately 😀
Today some of my favorite portraits.

Ultimate weekend day 2 2379

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New York in BW Leica R

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During our stay in New York I shot some images with the Yashica Mat 124 which I shared on the blog a few days ago, however I also shot one roll of Kodak 400 BW in my Leica R camera. Today some of my favorite shots from this roll, scanned with the Reflecta MF5000 and Silverfast Studio Ai.

 

NY (2)

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Some film scans

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As you all know I love shooting film, there is something special about it.
I won’t say it’s better than digital, just different.
I do have to add that we recently switched from the Epson V750 scanner to a Reflecta MF5000 and that difference is pretty huge, I dare to say that the scans from my Mamiya RZ67ProII actually out resolves my 36MP Sony A7r but then again you can’t really compare the two, where digital is razor sharp film is very detailed but not “razor” sharp, it’s just ….. well pretty sharp. But that is judged on screen, as soon as you print it does look razor sharp and in essence that’s where it counts.

 

For me shooting film is that “different look” it’s a bit more organic and I love the large frame from the RZ67ProII, I use that camera also with my Leaf Credo60 but on the RZ it results in a pretty severe crop (although the Credo is actually slightly bigger than a 6×4.5). With film all that is gone and you can enjoy the huge real estate the camera gives you.

 

These shots were done during a shoot with Nadine on location and were shot with the RZ67ProII with a 110mm f2.8 lens (closed down because we used strobes) on FujiFilm RPII positive film. Development of the film I did at home with the appropriate E6 chemicals.

 

One tip if you are into film, make sure you invest in good scanning software, this makes a HUGE difference.
I’ve been using Silverfast studio for quiet some time and when I switched from the Epson software to Silverfast the difference was very noticeable, now with the Reflecta MF5000 Silverfast really shines, it’s not the fastest to learn software but if you scan in basic mode you pretty much are good from the get go, if you dive into it there is however an enormous amount of extra detail to be extracted from the files.

 

These files were scanned with one pass (double pass gives you a bit more dynamic range), and are straight out of the scanner, only thing changed is a slight touch up of the skin.
Nadine arnhem 12-Edit

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