On Wed, 15 Sep 1999, claire wrote:
> >Our son has asked that I take some posed and casual outdoors black and
> >white portraits of him and his girl friend. I told him I have not done any
> >b/w in almost 30 years but he is insistent! They are both in their mid 20s
> >and will be good photogenic subjects.
> >I have an Om4t and various lenses from 28mm to 135mm but no b/w filters
> >other than u/v.
> >Not wanting to disappoint my son can someone please advise me which:
> >1. Filters I should get or borrow........ yellow, blue, etc
> >2. Film is likely to be the most appropriate .........good for clear or
> >cloudy skies and with good exposure latitude.
> >Seems that my son wants to wear black and white and conjur up something
> >like the 1956 "James Dean in a leather bomber jacket" look!
> >Any other get-up-the-learning-curve-advice will be greatly appreciated.
My two cent's worth on the James Dean Portrait...
1.- No white T-shirt. Light gray, off-white, anything but white. It
will look close enough to white in the print, and lower tonal
contrasts.
2.- Go to your local library and study Dean biographies and film
books to learn the poses & "look"
3.- Borrow a Harley or a 356 Porsche as a prop. You can trade out
an 11x14 of the prop to the owner in exchange for its use.
4.- Find a 50-ish building for a backdrop. Ask for permission to
shoot there beforehand.
5.- Shoot in open shade, avoid direct sunlight. This means sciencing
out the location and getting there early AM or late PM. Bring
and use the tripod. That should eliminate most contrast problems.
Of course, shooting in direct sunlight as well may be desirable
to emulate that "Rebel without a cause" look...:-)
6.- I'd stick with lenses between 35-85mm, the former for 3/4 length
portraits, the 50 for 1/2, the 85 for bust-length & closer.
A good zoom can speed up the shooting quite a bit. Shoot much more
film than you think is needed. Bring an on-camera flash. Even
though shooting in open shade means your subjects are looking into
a brighter area than that in which they are lit and usually that
will give sufficient catchlights in their eyes, you may still
need to augment that with a small flash.
7.- I'd go with chromogenic film, and to me the Ilford XP-2 seems more
in line with the 50's look. Bracket, specially on the over side.
the increase in grain might be desirable.
8.- Buy a big piece of white foam core at an arts store or Staples
office place and take along at least one assistant so you can
throw fill light where you need it. Two might be better.
9.- Scope out everything ahead of time, so your subjects can just
be posed and shot, without annoying delays. Let them see
the pictures of Dean and try to get some sense of what they
like best, and what props should be involved, etc. Maybe they
(and you) should rent and see some Dean movies as well. Encourage
your subjects to work on their make-up before the shoot, and to
bring a kit along to refresh it as needed. Preparation is the key
to a successful location shoot.
10- Have a ball !
*= Doris Fang =*
Ps. This mighty seem like overkill to some, but it will raise your
confidence level, and communications with your subjects, eliminating
many potential problems.
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