Eléonore

Shortly after shooting with Amèl I had the great luck of shooting again with a young yet marvellous model. Eléonore is a young talented student with a wonderful pair of blue eyes, coupled with a very nostalgic and somehow ethereal look that is a pure joy to look through the viewfinder of the camera.

During the almost two hours that we spent together I shot 5 rolls, mostly black and white and one color negative. The big difference is that I decided to try a new developer as my DD-X was finished, so I tried my luck with Microphen, and judging by the results I can say that it was a good bet! The tonalities and grain are very well rendered, especially on Kodak Tri-X (which I pushed one stop) and even better on the roll of Fomapan 400 (I have maybe to review the impressions of the last time I used it). Even the Portra 160 roll came out very nice, which is something quite unusual for my taste.

Technical info:

• Hasselblad 501CM > Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm f4 CF + Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8 CFE
• Pentax 67 > S-M-C 105mm f2.4 + SMC 200m f4
• Kodak Tri-X4 @640 pushed 1 stop in Ilford Microphen 1:1 + Fomapan 400 @200 in Microphen 1:1
• Fuji Neopan Acros 100 @80 in Rodinal 1:50
• Kodak Portra 160 @125

 

Amèl

Last week I had the great pleasure of spending a couple of hours with Amèl, a young and extremely easygoing girl that accepted the challenge of posing in front of my bulky, slow and old-fashioned film cameras. I met Amèl a week before the shoot just to agree on the style and plan the logistics and I was impressed not only by her busy schedule (she studies, work and plays handball…when she’s not training in taekwondo!) but also by her calm and solid temper. I do hope to shoot again with her as she has such a great potential and I think I haven’t managed to portrait her at her best.

Before shooting I though a lot about the gear and the film I wanted to use; I knew I wanted to capture her eyes as best as I could, so I decided to go the TMax way. I also threw a roll of HP5 in the mix (because it was about to expire) and one of Portra 160. As for the gear, I took both the Hassy 501CM and the Pentax67, both with two lenses, the classic normal ones (80 for the Hasselblad and 105 for the Pentax) and the telephotos (150 and 200). In retrospective I think I should have been a bit lighter and maybe opt just for the 105 in 6×7…the thing is I think I almost want to “love” the 200mm but the 105mm seems to be so far better than it is almost a no brainer (especially when coupled with a 14mm close-up adapter).

I must say that I am a bit disappointed by the look of the Tmax…I pushed it one stop in DD-X but still it lacks punch and character; at the other hand I decided to do something quite unusual with the HP5+ and soup it in Rodinal (yes, you read it right!). To my huge surprise the outcome was quite impressive…and the grain was no bigger than any normal combination (I must confess I decided to rate HP5 at 400 which I usually avoid, and the agitations I did were reeeeally careful and slow).

Technical info:

• Hasselblad 501CM > Carl Zeiss Sonnar 150mm f4 CF + Carl Zeiss Planar 80mm f2.8 CFE
• Pentax 67 > S-M-C 105mm f2.4 + SMC 200m f4
• Kodak TMAX 400 @640 pushed 1 stop in Ilford DD-X 1:4 + Ilford HP5+ @400 in Rodinal 1:50
• Kodak Portra 160 @125