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Old Weyba Bridge and Bird, Soft Focus.

Posted: 29 Mar 2018, 10:54
by Maris
Image
Old Weyba Bridge and Bird, Soft Focus
Gelatin-silver photograph on Agfa Classic MCC 111 VC FB photographic paper, image size 16.3cm X 21.4cm, from a 4x5 Kodak Tmax 100 negative exposed in a Tachihara 45GF double extension field view camera fitted with a 250mm single meniscus lens

Re: Old Weyba Bridge and Bird, Soft Focus.

Posted: 29 Mar 2018, 14:22
by Barry Kirsten
Very nicely seen and executed, Maris. I don't think there are many subjects that respond well to soft focus lenses, but this one certainly does. May I ask how you maintained 'focus', by aperture alone or swings, or both. It must have been tricky, but you did it well. A lovely image.

Re: Old Weyba Bridge and Bird, Soft Focus.

Posted: 30 Mar 2018, 15:27
by Maris
Thanks Barry Kirsten. I reckon the subjects that go well with soft focus are much the same as suit pin-hole pictures:
High contrast detail that's easily resolved by the optics.
Light things against dark backgrounds.
Close to even diffusion over the picture area to keep things coherent. Excessive corner fall-off is hard to compose with.

The 250mm meniscus lens was a +4 dioptre close-up lens turned around with the plano side facing the bridge (Wollaston configuration). Focus, as such, was aligned by swinging the back of the Tachihara. If I'd swung the front the sweet spot on the optical axis would have moved to the side of the film and the fuzz would come out asymmetrical. The bird delivered itself, didn't charge me a cent, and no council planning permission was required. A good day.

Re: Old Weyba Bridge and Bird, Soft Focus.

Posted: 31 Mar 2018, 08:16
by Walter Glover
Maris,

What a cracker! I am a huge fan of 'soft-focus' with large format where the resolution (particularly through contact printing) renders a wondrous plasticity to form and substance. My greatest ever regret with having Ebay as a friend is that I flogged off a 1948 Kodak Portrait lens with which I used to shoot almost wide open. As Mary Hopkin once sang: "Those were the days, my friend, we thought they'd never end ....."

I have also had Rodenstock Imagons, but something similar just isn't the same.