365.92 BlowUp

(For those of you who haven’t seen the Antonioni film of the same title, this likely makes no sense.)

I’ve done a bit of film-shooting lately with the old Ricoh 35-ZF, and I took a roll of Ilford HP-5 400 film to be developed and scanned, and the nice people gave me a 4×6 version of a proof sheet: all the images printed out on a 4×6 sheet of paper, 7 shots per line, at something approaching 16x11mm.

I taped this proof sheet to something sturdy, reversed the 24mm f/2.8 on 104mm of extension tubes, and started looking…

Is that a body behind the bushes?

So this image began as a 35mm negative, was shrunk to less than half-size, printed, and shot at 8:1 reproduction ratio.

I had a tough time focusing, since the print is so incredibly grainy and blurry at these shrinkage/magnifications, and the first round of shots were marred by dust on the print: invisible to the naked eye, but massive and wildly textured on the screen. But I think this one came out fine, and at the 600×800 resolution I’m sharing this, perhaps you see what I see… if not, go watch “Blow Up” by Antonioni, and then come back and see what you see.

HA!

D7000, Nikon 24mm f/2.8, reversed on 104mm of extension tubes. ISO100, 3 seconds, f/2.8. Some slight alterations to exposure, saturation, contrast, definition, black point, and then a conversion to Black & White in Aperture.

365.91 Ohne Titel (niedlich auge)

A second set of attempts (see 365.15 for the first set…) to capture my right eye with a reversed 75-150, this time with flash to minimize the effects of the eye shake focus, but still fail.

I tried reversed, reversed with 52mm of extensions, reversed with 104mm of extension, and mounted straight, but with 104mm extension, at apertures from 3.5 to 11.

I got 4 or 5 shots that were pretty much in focus (on the bloodshot corners, anyway), but well off center. (An articulated screen would come in handy, for sure… maybe the next body I buy (in ~3 years) will have one. Until then, I’ll make due with what I have, and you’ll likely get to see some more soft focus self-portraits like this, say ‘Yay!’)

I had light pipe (see this post right here for more details) rocking, with the SB700 set to 1/8th power, and was handholding it about 3 inches in front and to the right of my eye. (No, I didn’t go blind, this time…)

I sorta sat around after uploading the first set of failed attempts, then tried again, then shot some other stuff, then came back and saw this one and two others, did some simple and minimal tweaking of exposure, black point, brightness, contrast, definition, saturation and levels, and *poof*!

D7000, 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, reversed and extended by 52mm. ISO100, 1/250, f/3.5. SB700 at 1/8th in the light pipe, near camera left.

365.90 Part III: Bad 1970s Concert Poster

(See Part I and Part II)

Just for kicks, I decided to copy the original and see what Topaz Labs had to offer the 365 today…

I thought about writing down all the presets I went through, but thought I would remember and was sure I wouldn’t mess around too long…

and 5 or 6 or 7 presets later…

I found I had created an outtake from an Edgar Winter Group or Mountain or Grand Funk Railroad or, hell, Black Sabbath record cover design… or something wretched…

365.90 Part II: Girl’s Best Friend

(See Part I for more information)

And so the adjustments began with my usual pulling back exposure, pumping black point, messing with brightness, and a slight tweak of the saturation, I decided to see what full desaturation looked like… nice, but missing something.

So I returned saturation to its original point, and tried out various built-in b/w presets in Aperture: none satisfied.

Back to desaturated, and full doubling of Vibrancy just for fun and BAM! That’s it…

A few tweaks later, and Girl’s Best Friend was born.

Stay tuned for Part III.

 

365.90 Part I: the Orignal

In honor of the 3 full Months I’ve been on this now, today’s 365 project comes in 3 parts…

Part 1: the Original

D7000. 24mm f/2.8 ai, reversed, on 104mm of extensions, and mounted on a GorillaPod and attempting to focus on the dust on the MacBook Pro, when I scooched when I should’ve leaned and banged the lens against the front corner of the computer…

No damage to the mbp or the 24mm, but a bit of paint scuffed off of the mount and stuck to the computer. This is the black bit in the center of the photo.

This version has only straightening applied, about 2 degrees worth.

ISO100, 1/250th, f/2.8. SB700, zoomed to 70mm, at 1/128th power, handheld and aimed straight down on the corner from about 4 inches, and triggered with the Cactus V5 triggers.

Stay tuned for Part II: Girl’s Best Friend and Part III: Bad 1970s Concert Poster.

365.89 Abstraktes Bild

After making 150-odd pictures with the 24mm f/2.8 ai, reversed and on 104mm of extension, and having extreme difficulty with composition and framing, and cursing the quick grip ball head and its extreme lack of precision (and actually quite desperate for a wider angle), I went back to the old standby: the 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series (also reversed and on the same 104mm extension), and ordered a much heavier geared head. GoGo.

2.4:1 is not nearly as impressive as 8:1, but it’s much easier to deal with, for sure.

D7000, Nikon 75-150mm f/3.5 E Series, reversed, on 104mm extension. ISO200, 1/20th, f/3.5.

365.88 Longboarding UTD

From the UTD Photowalk/Hipstamatic recipe test with momma this morning, and born out of much grinding of teeth and horrible fear, this photo was shot with Hipstamatic on an iPhone 4. I used the Loftus lens and Big Up film, and this kid knew I was shooting him. I stood in on spot, phone raised in an I’m-obviously-taking-a-picture motion, and I smiled and said thanks after I tapped the screen and captured the image.

I probably should’ve waited another 1/2 second or so to let him get more fully in the frame, or turned to get more of the path behind him and whatnot in view, so this picture has some problems, but for a super-saturated, tilt-shifty, not-really-a-street-photo street photo from a self-described agoraphobe, I’m quite happy with it!