# retro camera lmages



## mysteryscribe

this is a camp meeting building shot on film...with a anastigmatic lens from the thirties.


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## terri

What a freaky image. I don't even know what to make of it - but I really do like it!  Crazy, blown out thing. 

It's like a picture of a memory, faded and thin, but you can still see what's there. :thumbup:


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## mysteryscribe

yeah i know freaky is the best discription for most of my later stuff.  Its like a faded old newspaper shot.


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## mysteryscribe

okay maybe i cant get the pinhole right today but I can still shoot a paper negative


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## mysteryscribe

or the faded newspaper version


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## mysteryscribe

another whored up paper negative...


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## mysteryscribe

just another paper negative from sundays failed pinhole shoot


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## JamesD

Good stuff!  I like the lake shots.


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## mysteryscribe




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## mysteryscribe

I saw something tonight on antique road show. Prints from a late 1800 photographer. They were almost exactly like the ones I have posted here.. In the printing style and the lack of intricate detail. I like them..

It is what I am shooting for and only because I don't have to please anyone else. I really do like that look the blown out high key yellow background print.

I have no idea why but I'm fascinated with that look, probably because the whole era has begun to fascinate me.


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## terri

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> I saw something tonight on antique road show. Prints from a late 1800 photographer. They were almost exactly like the ones I have posted here.. In the printing style and the lack of intricate detail. I like them..
> 
> It is what I am shooting for and only because I don't have to please anyone else. I really do like that look the blown out high key yellow background print.
> 
> I have no idea why but I'm fascinated with that look, probably because the whole era has begun to fascinate me.


They really do have eye appeal. I like a lot of them, especially your lake shots and the cemetery shots you've put up. Those are fabulous subjects for that look. :thumbup: 

And no, of course you only have to please yourself.


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## terri

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> just another paper negative from sundays failed pinhole shoot


 This one is a real beauty. I love this tint, and the suggestion of the lone fisherman at the bottom. :heart: Don't call this one a failure.


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## mysteryscribe

Na the pinholes were a failure... the paper negatives i was very happy with.


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## mysteryscribe

another lake image


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## mysteryscribe

this and the last one are paper negative prints


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## mysteryscribe

Funny thing... and this might help someone else.  I had to buy a new flatbed scanner my old one died.  I finally bought a cannon lide25 because it was the cheapest one i could find.  I figured I would use my home made backlight to scan negs.  

I cut a 4x5 hole out of the center of a piece of water color 9 x 12 paper.  I put it down on the scanner glass and began trying to adjust my back light.  It kept burning up the negatives.  Figuratively.  So somewhere along the line I had the top up as I would have to use my back light.  I had one thin piece of disfustion frosted plastic film over the 3x4 negative and I scanned it.  It was a freak accident I tell you.  The negative scanned perfectly.  No back light at all.  Just the illumination from the overhead light in the room.

I had to tweak it of course but it was better than any backlight I had used all day.  So if you have a cannon lide at least the 25 you dont even need a back light to scan negatives.  I haven't tried color yet since I'm not sure where a color neg is except in my old stuido files.  Anyway thought you might be interested.

It is daylight now... I have no idea what it will do when the sun goes down and the room illumination is less.  Or on a rainy day but for now it works pretty good.


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## mysteryscribe

paper neg from yesterday at the park


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## castrol

The first one really messes with your mind. The really, REALLY old looking photo
of a pretty old looking building, with a 2003 Trailblazer sitting next to it.

Weird.


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## mysteryscribe

blows my mind that you know the year of the car lol..... But yes most things will be modern in an old style. If you are old enough to know about the wpa photo projects they were to shoot ordinary daily life things. By now that's how the old archived pictures look. So I'm going to try to mix modern objects with old techniques. this project keeps evolving.


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## castrol

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> blows my mind that you know the year of the car lol.....  But yes most things will be modern in an old style.  If you are old enough to know about the mpa photo projects they were to shoot ordinary daily life things.  By now that's how the old archived pictures look.  So I'm going to try to mix modern objects with old techniques.  this project keeps evolving.



I'm a car freak. Remember that commercial with the kid lying in bed, naming
the cars driving by from the sound they are making while his friend looks out
the window to check? Yeah, that is me. 

Kind of a party trick, or used to be. I am not as good as I once was. I used to
be able to name the make, model and year by the headlights at night. Was fun
to freak the friends out. It's harder, now that cars are becoming so generic.


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## mysteryscribe




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## mysteryscribe

3x4 film negative in the big retro camera 4.5 anastigmat kodak butchered from a 116 senior from the 30s
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




I shot this on paper at the same time and it was trash.  It has to do with the light source not being intense enough for paper.  I am convinced of that now even more than before.


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## mysteryscribe

just to show what I meant about the paper neg being trash


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## terri

Interesting.....I wouldn't call the paper neg trash, though it lacks the DOF. But it's still an interesting print, with decent contrast and nice tones. 

note to self: buy Charlie a silk flower arrangement in a nice vase. :mrgreen:


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## mysteryscribe

Careful Lady T... I fall in love very easily lol


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## mysteryscribe

retro potato day one


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## terri

But then we could have Retro Flower Vase Day instead of potatoes.....not that I don't like potatoes....


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## mysteryscribe

ROFL YOU ARE THE BEST ROFL


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## mysteryscribe

this is from a camera I built just to shoot still life close up.  Polaroid 250 frame with a kodak anastigmat f11 zone focus front glass lens in a cheap shutter.


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## mysteryscribe

that was no lady bug... that was my ......


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## JamesD

Glad you found a use for those RC Cola cans!  Good deal!  And great pics, too.


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## mysteryscribe

Well Terri hates my pics of flowers in trash so I have to keep her in material to think about.

I actually love this camera now that I have it worked out.  That f90 aperture makes a huge difference.  Im not so sure the focus does at that small an aperture but what the heck I have it might as well use it.

How did your view cam build go?  When you get tired of messin with it all, Ill send you the download site to build one from a polaroid packfilm model.


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## terri

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> this is from a camera I built just to shoot still life close up. Polaroid 250 frame with a kodak anastigmat f11 zone focus front glass lens in a cheap shutter.


I love this one!


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## mysteryscribe

you just dont like my tinting.  Its a darn good thing I stopped camping.


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## mysteryscribe

Now this is something interesting I think....

I set this shot and forgot to light the candle so I lit it at 2min into a four minute exposure.... then I reshot it lit the whole time. I was curious.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	









Not a lot of difference... i could clone out the light trail if I wanted to use it.  And yes terri i know I got the composition wrong by two inches


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## mysteryscribe

and my favorite version... I would fix this compsition but I already ate the donut.  Oh well


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## JamesD

The view camera is sitting next to me--or at least, the parts for the front and rear standards.  Still gotta put it together, plus the lensboard, ground-glass holder, film back(s), rail and rail mount, and bellows.  Not really a lot of work, except for the film backs and/or ground-glass holder.  Just a matter of getting it done.

Re: the phot where you lit it two minutes in... I like the trail, and how it goes straight to the candle flame.  It catches my eye, and makes me wonder, til I figured it out.  I'd keep it--but then it'd be my photo, and not yours.


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## terri

> And yes terri i know I got the composition wrong by two inches


Why, yes. Yes, you did.  I suppose you think you can get away with this type of thing, just because you can rip into these old cameras and patch together a new one that takes great retro-looking shots. 

Well, ya can't!


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## mysteryscribe

But.... But..... I already ate the donut before I figured it out....

Two comments I would like to make looking back on the last couple of shots.  The white rose that you like terri... I just noticed how 1940 ish that looks.  I half expect to see Joan Crawford come walking by.

The screwed up composition is less noticeable in the fancy tint copy, but it really slaps even me in the face in the black and white shots.   Mia coppa


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## mysteryscribe

This is the right composition
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




but the donut is history...


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## mysteryscribe

and then there is the poster


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## terri

there ya go.....  Much more appealing.


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## mysteryscribe

yeah thats what happens when you do it right.... only two setups thats not bad for me...


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## JamesD

So I can't be held responsible!  

Here's my interpretation of one....


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## mysteryscribe

I like it a lot .... A little more faded maybe but I like it just the way it is Terri whatdaya think


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## ElectricHarmony

Something about retro images is very appealing


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## mysteryscribe

It stopped raining and I got out of the house


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## JamesD

Nice! I like this.  Can you post it larger?

Paper negative? Or cut film?

Also, I've been meaning to ask:  what graphics editor do you use once you've scanned the images?


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## mysteryscribe

actually i cropped it wrong this one is right





note where the road ends in both... You can see a difference the road makes part of the natural frame in this one in the other it hung in the air.

I take it in in paintshoppe pro an older version... Then i work it in three editors. One does the color degradation. This is a paper negative and I love the way it came out.

I am leaving the first shot so people can compare them to see the difference the minor crop made.

Also I am finally getting a feel for the paper negative. It can be a great tool and I have just the camera for it. this 3x4 camera makes a negative large enough that the gross details almost make up for the loss of the minor ones.

I have a new temporary rule... film in 2x3 and paper in 3x4


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## mysteryscribe

One more interesting thing about this shot... it is really two pictures.  if you let your mind float a little you will see the bridge is a set of lines that makes the shot have the three d illusion.  I takes your mind and pushes it across that bridge and into a second picture.   Its kind of neat and mostly you wouldn't realize what was happening just by looking casually.


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## mysteryscribe

It's 68 and raining here this morning, line from a Sammy Smith solg from the seventies. (Alright terri name that tune)
So I decided to sort through some old cd images. Originals lost in computer crash. I hope I have a couple from a different civil war encampment I shot a while ago.

The gist of all that crap is that I found an old poster I did thought it might be good to post here out of the line of fire.


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## mysteryscribe




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## mysteryscribe

retro portrait sample


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## mysteryscribe

Its about the repeating lines


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## mysteryscribe

A man and his musket


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## mysteryscribe

we go on and on about contrast in the picture how is this for subject contrast,,


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## mysteryscribe

Must have been early in war he is quite well fed.


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## mysteryscribe




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## mysteryscribe

Poster for my grandson's first birthday


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## mysteryscribe

This is a paper negative from the civil was reinactment.  Wonder if I could pass if off as just an old pic from back then.  Probably not the guy is too well fed.


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## JamesD

Nice! Pinhole or lens?


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## mysteryscribe

lens these guys wont stand still for three or four minutes that was iso 5 at 1/10 f4.5


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## mysteryscribe

I almost threw this out.  I scanned it as a test for the others that will be coming in a minute.  After I worked with it a minute I realized that it had something I wanted to keep.  It looks authentic..


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## mysteryscribe

this is a paper negative shot of a woman at the civil war camp... period look attempted


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## mysteryscribe

Another image from the retro FrEaK


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## JamesD

Hey, that's cool... looks almost like lith film or something, I dunno.  How'd you do that?


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## mysteryscribe

I have a freeware program with all kinds of neet things.  It is the one that fades the colors for me.  This filter is called ink outline.   The working name is photofilter but I dont see any about page in the program to tell me where i got it.  Bet you can google it.  Its freeware.


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## mysteryscribe

This is the first film image from the reinactment.  It is a shot on 2x3 400asa film developed for speed not low grain.


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## mysteryscribe




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## mysteryscribe

Today's freaky retro photograph.  It was shot with a camera cobbled together by me 2x3 cut negative lens is from a 30s kodak low end consumer folding camera.  Shot at f90 (aperture fixed and added by me) on 100 asa film.  tinted on the computer but not photoshop.


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## mysteryscribe




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## terri

Nice one! What kind of tint did you use here?

Good to see you, Charlie.


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## mysteryscribe

Its one of those preset sepia filters then I tarnished the color and I think i changed the gamma as well.  It was made with a 3x4 polaroid camera shooting film..

Thanks I just stopped in to drop off the print.... I'm staying busy writing again.  I'll stop by from time to time just to keep the children and their plastic cameras at bay.


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## mysteryscribe

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> Its one of those preset sepia filters then I tarnished the color and I think i changed the gamma as well. It was made with a 3x4 polaroid camera shooting film..
> 
> Thanks I just stopped in to drop off the print.... I'm staying busy writing again. I'll stop by from time to time just to keep the children and their plastic cameras at bay.


 
here is something blown out and freaky for you lover


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## terri

Great texture!!    Even better than the first rendition.     :thumbup: 

Well, I've not released you from the chains here, so you're expected to come by and post every freaky image you take.    :mrgreen: 

Good luck with the writing!


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## mysteryscribe

so it's one of those freedom of my chain things.


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## terri

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> so it's one of those freedom of my chain things.


Well, yeah.  

But it's a specially made chain, of a unique alloy which is both attractive and lightweight. :thumbup: Geez, I'm not completely heartless.


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## mysteryscribe

ah.... lounge lizard chain... I had one of those in the seventies...


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## terri

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> ah.... lounge lizard chain... I had one of those in the seventies...


Here's hoping you've lost it by now.


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## mysteryscribe

yes in the back of a chevy


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## terri

Oh, everyone claims to have lost their....jewelry....in the back of a chevy!    I'm not buying that one.


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## mysteryscribe

That's gonna be chevy's new adv campaign....  Retro chevy remember when you lost it...


todays freaky shot.  Made with a worlds ugliest 4x5 camera cobbled together from a polaroid 250.  Lens is from around 1910 or so...


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## mysteryscribe

Since I am forever being teased for building the ugliest camera on earth, I just turned one into the most garish camera on earth


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## terri

I won't be impressed until it has some red leather on it.


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## mysteryscribe

I was thinking 8" black patent leather pumps.... a wad of gum and short red leather skirt... on a streat corner under a very dim light.


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## JamesD

And a Chevy driving by?


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## mysteryscribe

with my jewelry somewhere in the back seat...


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## terri

Y'all are a couple of nutters.....


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## mysteryscribe

ah hell terri go shoot a pinhole.. rofl


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## mysteryscribe

I posted this on a different thread without doing anything much to it, so I thought I would post the final version here where it belongs. Paper negative no a homemade view camera.  No its both...


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## terri

Fer cryin' out loud, Charlie....this is one of the nicest images yet, and you leave those clips in the frame? 

Did you run this image through some gimmicky "action" - or is this really fabulous textured paper? It looks awesome. :thumbup:


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## mysteryscribe

Im tricky and the clips are supposed to be there... Haven't you figured me out yet lol..l
Gimmic crap I dont do paper at all anymore.


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## terri

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> Im tricky and the clips are supposed to be there... Haven't you figured me out yet lol..l
> Gimmic crap I dont do paper at all anymore.


I figured you left them there, but eww. Such a nice shot.  

I like the end result, the texture thing looks great. :thumbup:


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## mysteryscribe

please to note miss terry how close they are to the bottom.  Cropping is everything.

Besides I should have been hanging upside down from a trapeze.


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## terri

mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> please to note miss terry how close they are to the bottom. Cropping is everything.
> 
> Besides I should have been hanging upside down from a trapeze.


You'll never convince me. :mrgreen:


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## mysteryscribe

lol  have to anchor the vase somehow.....


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## JamesD

You know what, Charlie?  I've been thinking for a while about getting a nice, cheap vase or two and some flowers or other stuff, and doing some shots like this for practice.  I think you've just convinced me to do it.  This is some nice work!  Now that I've reclaimed my dinner table from my computer monitor.... I'll have to try.


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## mysteryscribe

still life like that is where you learn about what light does and about composition. You start by setting it up and making only one shot so you want everything as perfect as you can. 

If you see the shot and it didn't work, you go back and do it again. But only one at a time. Takes days to get it right sometimes./ But the lessons learned that way are hard to forget.

It's how I was taught back in the old days.

Don't tell a soul but I finished a 4x5 version of my view camera today.  Just need to paint it and I'm good to go.


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## terri

Are you going to put black clips in your vase pics, too, James?  

...all right Charlie....where are the pics of the new 4x5? I expect to see a tarted-up red 'ho looking thing.


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## JamesD

I might.  Or, I might put tarted-up red 'ho-looking clips in it.  Of course, with paper negatives, they'll look black....  Unless I bust out wid the Panalure!  Oooh!  Aaaah!

Seriously, though, like charlie said, it's all about the lighting, and 4X5 PN, with PNs' short exposure latitude, would be ideal, forcing the lighting to be exactly spot-on...  That's one reason I was thinking about doing it.  I need to learn lighting.

First, if I'm going to do one shot at a time, though, I need to either finishe the view camera, or rig up a box-camera using the lens.  Hmm.

Where is my drawing-board....?  -digs under his monitor-


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## mysteryscribe

The box camera is having a new re awakening on some of the retro sites.  I have given some thought to making one myself.  You are allowed to use a film holder type back as well as the simple box.

My 4x5 is actually on the same design as the 2x3 I built.  It just has a bigger back on it.  Still has the same yoke design but the pivot point is closer to the center of the lens.  It's a nice simple design using a cheap camera frame and really simple inexpensive parts.  I promise you can build one in a day.  But alas nobody wants to use the humble polaroid carcus except me and a couple of other weirdos.

Ps I'm gonna shoot a paper neg in the new one today.  Most likely this one will be from the studio.

Yes if you shoot one negative you need to get your lighting the way you want it first.  If you are shooting a big negative on a smallish object, you can crop it with your paper cutter.  Assuming there isn't much to crop.  You can trim it, center it on the sheet you plan to make the contact print from and have your own lil built in border.  Then of course you can whore up the black border to make a little built in matte.  You know draw sea horses in it lol.


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## mysteryscribe

whored up print from the ugly 4x5... I think it needs a different lens but it might be ideal for a pinhole since the shutter only opens and closes at the moment.  Nonetheless here it is


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## JamesD

This is an interesting shot...  Do you use real flowers, Charlie?  I'm curious...


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## mysteryscribe

this is silk... I bought it when i was still in the business. Had if to little girls to hold.(retching sound in the background)  Now my vinegar bottle holds it when it isnt filled with stop bath solution.


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## mysteryscribe

I don't know if I posted this before or not but I thought  it was interesting and belonged here.  There is of course no photo shop tricks on this.  It's all in the camera.


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## terri

Isn't this the store window shot...?

hmmm. a fake flower in a vinegar bottle.     What are trying to say here, Charlie?    :mrgreen:


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## mysteryscribe

The donugt shop is a simple double exposure but it is so easy with a ground glass back.....

Oh the rose is one of those from the lab camera test things... its called acidic rose lol.  It is loved on one of the other sites.  but then I'm an oddity.


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## Jeff Canes

i like these two a lot, but not for the same reasons



			
				mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> ---...


 



			
				mysteryscribe said:
			
		

> ----


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## JamesD

terri said:
			
		

> Isn't this the store window shot...?
> 
> hmmm. a fake flower in a vinegar bottle.     What are trying to say here, Charlie?    :mrgreen:



Sometimes, I think,  a fake flower in a vinegar bottle is just a fake flower in a vinegar bottle.

We're guys.  We don't usually do sublime very well.

Or, at least, not that we'll ever admit...


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## terri

JamesD said:
			
		

> Sometimes, I think, a fake flower in a vinegar bottle is just a fake flower in a vinegar bottle.
> 
> We're guys. We don't usually do sublime very well.
> 
> *Or, at least, not that we'll ever admit...*


See....this is what I know.  But that's okay. Cling to your cigar. :mrgreen: Hell, I'll light it for you.


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## mysteryscribe

On come now surely you see the symbolism there.  Forget that it's a FAKE rose.  For goodness sake I deal in absurb contrast in subjects when I do still life.   rofl of course barbara always said if you have to explain it you shouldn't bother.  rofl


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## JamesD

Please excuse me while I absorb the fact that Terri just said she'd light my cigar....

Oh, damn, there's no cigar-smiley!

Hmm... methinks pimpalicious will do. 

:twisted:


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## mysteryscribe

now i tried to not mention that lol.....


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## terri

> Oh, damn, there's no cigar-smiley!


There isn't...?!?

Here, try this guy:


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## JamesD

How on _Earth_ did I miss that? Grargh!

Edit made! :mrgreen:


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## terri

Glad I could help!


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## mysteryscribe

Not to change the subject but:


I have begun to learn a little more about why things progressed as they did.  I took the 4x5 field camera I build out to make todays shots.  I came to the realization that I was carrying a cindar block to get the same picture I could get with a camera half the size.  

Since I need a better lens on my studio 4x5 camera (that I also built) guess what.....


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## JamesD

Yeah... my 645 is a brick.  The Argus is pleasant, though...  I should have it back soon.  I plan to shoot my view camera (when I get it done) a lot.  I'm going to start on the bellows today.  Any suggestions, Charlie?


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## mysteryscribe

I never made a bellows, but I have a few polaroid ones around if you can use one but they are 3x4 not 4x5...  Good luck and I think I am going to shot my views more.  I like to take a camera into the field but I'm beginning to rethink the huges ones I lug around.  Still it is nice to be recognized as a photographer not a pervert.


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## JamesD

For my bellows, I was figuring on a simple 6 inch across square bellows to facilitate moving it around, making a convenient size, and allowing both vertical and horizontal compositions.  I read somewhere that you can make the ribs out of strips of card, with 45-degree angled clippings at the end (making them a trapezoidal form), and lay them out in rows... with black cloth for the substance of the bellows... harder to describe than to do.  I was going to use that method, then paint it black on the outside, and probably the inside, too, with some sort of opaque, flexible paint.

Despite my claims, I didn't get around to it today.  I will in the near future, though.  I'm also going to do a brief redesign on my camera structure, to make it more suitable to what I want to do.  Eventually, I'm gonna get some pictures of the in-progress states... so far, all I've got are the cut-out pieces of wood, which need to be dadoed and glued together.  I'll get around to it eventually.  I also need to devise some sort of a back... which I will also eventually get around to.


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## mysteryscribe

by far and away the polaroid bellows is the best made period.  the inside is indeed cardstock but it is covered outside with vinyl like you would find covering a camera today.  I know you can buy the stuff at the fabric story pretty reasonable.  I covered a desktop in it once.

Unless you want to pay a c note for the back go for the homemade version that I sent you plans for.  It works great.

Good luck by the way...   Remember it's just a light proof box with a glass hole on one end and a bigger rectangular hole at the other.


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