Legends: Argus C3 Camera

The Argus C3 is a 35mm camera first manufactured in 1939 with production lasting into the 1960's. Because of its boxy shape and durability it was often referred to affectionately as "the Brick".  It had a manually focusing 50mm f/3.5 Cintar lens, a top shutter speed of 1/300 second, and a coupled rangefinder. It has a cool, art deco, retro design, and came in different colors.  Working models can be found inexpensively on eBay.

This is my personal model. It is in pristine shape and still works perfectly. I keep it at my studio where we haul it out occasionally to  use as a prop that gives our photos a retro look.

Girl with butterflies - playing around in Photoshop

 

 

Central Park in the rain

It rained on Sunday and I began a new project photographing nature in New York's Central Park for both a limited edition book and print portfolio. At this time of year the vegetation is lush and full with the light rain saturating the colors. I plan to photograph primarily on overcast days to eliminate the harsh contrast of the sun. I photographed digitally with the Nikon D800, and on black and white film with a Hasselblad 500cm. Below are some of the Nikon photos I took.

I began at Betheda Fountain and did a circuit around part of The Lake and into the natural woodland area of  the Ramble. One side benefit of photographing in the rain is that it kept the crowds away, even on a Sunday.

For the most part I photographed with only one lens, the Nikon 24-120mm zoom because I did not want to be changing lenses too often in the rain. The only other lens I had with me was a Tamron 90mm macro, which I used to take this image of rain drops on pine needles.

I wanted an extreme depth of field for most of the shots so I worked primarily around f/22 using a tripod, of course.

Rain drops falling on the lake.

My Nikon D800 was covered in water by the end of the day.

The falling rain added a soft, Impressionist mist to this panorama with the Bow Bridge.

Self-Publishing a Photography Art Book

This past weekend I attended another event at the Center for Alternative Photography. This all day course was about self-publishing an artist book. The class was taught by Lauren Henkin, a dedicated art photographer and publisher whose work is widely collected. Her presentation was extremely thorough with plenty of samples, and a very complete handout listing everything you need to know to get started on your own.

I don't know when this lecture will be repeated, but I can highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning how to self-publish a photography book.

Lauren brought plenty of samples for the class to peruse.

Details:

Center for Alternative Photography

36 East 30th Street

New York, NY 10016

917-288-0343  

www.http://capworkshops.org/

 

Lauren Henkin's website: http://www.laurenhenkin.com/

Lauren's book imprint: http://www.velanoche.com/

Psychedelic glass of wine

I was at a party where the room was lit in a blue glow. Using a Fuji X-Pro1 with a 35mm f/1.4 lens wide open, I took this photo of a glass of white wine in the available light accented with some candles on the table.

Replicating the Autochrome process

Recently, a friend asked me if I knew of any simple way of achieving the look of the autochrome color process with digital images. I was intrigued enough to do a bit of research and give it a try. I had an original autochrome glass transparency so I scanned it to use as my sample control image.

This is an original Autochrome plate which I scanned in to use as a control sample for imitating the process. Click here to download a hi res version of this file.

Autochrome was the first color process. It was invented by the Lumière brothers in France and introduced in 1907. It was an additive process consisting of three color layers each dyed a different color -- a blue-violet layer, red-orange layer, and green layer -- and resulted in a glass plate transparency. The exaggerated grain structure was a result of its being composed of tiny grains of potato starch. The muted, grainy look of Autochrome echoed the contemporary artistic look of Impressionist and Pointillist paintings. To me, the results also bear a strong similarity to the look of the Fresson photographic printing process.

Click here to download a hi res version of this file.

I experimented with a few Photoshop techniques to achieve the look and feel of Autochrome, but settled on using the one that comes included as part of Alien Skin's Exposure 4 Photoshop plugin. I found it necessary to do some minor tweaking to the results to come closer to the grainy look, and then muted the images to fade them a bit.

In addition to using the plug-in I also added a color layer in OVERLAY mode, as described below, and added some noise to a level of 5-7. I found that the noise broke up the pattern of the grain a bit, added some more color to it, and also lowered the contrast. For some of the images I found it necessary to mute the colors even more by applying a Vibrance adjustment layer in Photoshop.

A full effect of the process requires seeing the images at full size so I included high res downloads with each file. Click on the caption links below the photos to download them.

I found the Autochrome grain structure difficult to mimic and modified the default Exposure 4 settings as illustrated above.

To provide a faded color cast and lower contrast similar to what I noticed in Autochrome images I added a color layer over the above image , and changed the mode of this layer to OVERLAY. I then decreased its opacity until it look right. For the tone of the color layer I chose a dominant color in  my image and selected it using the color picker in Photoshop.

Click here to download a hi res version of this file.

Click here to download a hi res version of this file.

 

Click here to download a hi res version of this file.

For the photo above and below I added this color layer in OVERLAY mode with opacity set to 35%.

Click here to download a hi res version of this file.

An evening with the Wet Collodion Process

Last night I attended an introductory demo of the wet collodion process at the Center for Alternative Photography in New York. Wet plate was the principle photographic process from the 1850's through the end of the 19th century. The process was used to sensitize metal plates to make tintypes, and glass plates to make ambrotypes.  The solution is very cumbersome to apply because the collodion, which is the carrier for the light sensitive silver nitrate, needed to maintain its wet state during the entire process, including the taking and developing of the image. For landscape photographers this meant having a darkroom tent with them when they were out in the field.

The Center for Alternative Photography in New York presents a variety of lectures, classes, and demos relating to older forms of photography.

The wet collodion process was used by most of the famous 19th century photographers, including Nadar, Mathew Brady, W.H. Jackson, Carleton Watkins, and Roger Fenton. It is still used today by artists and purists who love the process for the unique characteristics.

The demo was conducted by Eric Taubman, founder of the Center. After a brief intro, Eric took us through a step-by-step demo of the entire process from coating the plate to taking and processing the image.

Collodion looks like maple syrup and has a similar consistency. Once a plate is coated with the collodion it is dipped into a tray of silver nitrate, which then adheres to the collodion and makes the plate light sensitive. The plate must be then put in the camera, exposed, and processed all within about a three minute period so the collodion  does not harden.

Collodion is poured onto the plate and any excess is drained off leaving a thin, even coating. From this point on the photographer has about three minutes to complete the entire picture taking process including processing the image while still wet.

In the dark the wet plate is dipped into a solution of silver nitrate to sensitize it.

The camera and subject are set up ahead of time in preparation for taking the photograph.

As soon as the plate is sensitized it is transferred to the camera and the photographer guesses from experience what exposure time to use. The exposure is very slow so any portrait subjects had to hold very still.

Developer is poured over the exposed plate in the darkroom. Developing takes only about 15 seconds, after which the plate is immediately rinsed in water to arrest the process.

Rinsing the plate after development. Once the plate is rinsed it is no longer light sensitive.

For added permanence, the plate is run through a fixer bath.

The finished plate is then put out to dry and after a day or so is coated with varnish to make it permanent and protect it from scratches.

The wet collodion process is extremely fine grained, and with proper prep and processing also has exceptional resolution and permanence. Its sensitivity to the color spectrum gives it a unique look much coveted by artists who use the process today.

Bottles of prepared collodion and developer.

A 19th century book, The Silver Sunbeam, describes early photographic processes including wet collodion.

If you are in New York and interested in learning about early photographic processes, or want to know how to do them, I highly recommend the Center for Alternative Photography as a valuable resource. It is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving all forms of early photography. Many of the courses are done in conjunction with ICP (the International Center of Photography) in New York, and encompass cyanotype, wet plate, calotype, salt paper, palladium, and many other interesting topics.

In addition to the courses, the Penumbra Tintype Portrait Studio is located on the same premises. You can arrange to drop by and for a very nominal fee ($75and up depending upon size) have your tintype portrait taken.

If you're really into early photographic processes, this place has a lot to offer.

Details:

Center for Alternative Photography

36 East 30th Street

New York, NY 10016

917-288-0343  

www.http://capworkshops.org/

All photos in the post were taken available light with a Fuji X-Pro1 using either the f/1.4 35mm lens or 18-55mm zoom.  ISO was normally around 1600 except for the darkroom shots where I had to push it to 6400.