Jean
Jean had the table next to a friend of mine at a market in the city last weekend. I had taken a couple of snaps of the market and we got chatting about photography. We eventually got onto the subject of portraits and she explained that she hated having her picture taken and that the photos never looked like her. I told her about my ongoing portraits of strangers project and I asked her to pose for a couple of shots so I could see if she liked them. She posed, I emailed………I never heard back.
Camera:Nikon F100
Film: Neopan 1600
Dev: Rodinal 1+100 90mins 20c
It’s a nice portrait. A shame you never heard back.
Thanks Chillbrook, glad you liked it.
Beautiful portrait. Let’s hope she liked it.
Thanks Simon, I will probably never know
Wow, this is a great portrait & even-though you did not hear back, I am sure she likes it! As a ‘dyed int eh wool’ Neopan 1600 lover, I am delighted to see you use it. Are you still able to get it? I saw a roll of it on Amazon the other day and they wanted $63.00 for it – no kidding. However, I have also seen it for much, much less. I can’t believe you are getting away with developing it in Rodinal. Is it the high dilution that lets you do it??? I did it a few times [don't remember the dilution] and boy, was it grainy – too much for even me.
Best wishes -c-
Thanks Christian, I am down to my last two rolls of 1600 and I don’t think I would part with that sort of money to get more. I only used it last week because it was a miserable grey day in Dublin and I thought I might need the speed. You are not the first to mention the surprising results with the Rodinal/Neopan 1600 combination. It is just the developer I pulled off the shelf when I wanted to do the roll. I done a quick search on the filmdev site and seen the results others got so I gave it a go.
My technique for this roll was:
1 Pre-soak for 5 minutes at 20C
2 Adox Adonal/Rodinal 6mm developer 600mm water
3 10 Gentle inversions initially.
4 Stand for 1 Hour 30 Mins
5 20c water as a stop bath-rinse for 5 minutes
6 Ilford rapid fixer for 5 minutes.
7 Final rise for 10 minutes
8 Photoflo bath for 30 seconds
and this is from the same roll.
Wow, that is truly impressive! The one hour development blows my mind and I love the fact that you are doing it. I am, of course, familiar with the theory that by not agitating the developer works on the shadows and exhausts itself on the highlights, but I have never gone to the extreme you have. Great to see the results!
Wonderful portrait, really wonderful! Such a shame she didn’t reply, she has to love it!
Thanks James,
People often think photos of themselves don’t “look like” them because it’s not what they see when they look in a mirror. The photographic image is a flipped version of what they expect to see and so it looks slightly “off.”
Nonetheless, it’s a very nice portrait and I’m sorry she didn’t respond. I hope she liked it.
Thanks Carissa, I am glad you liked it and I will let you into a little secret of mine but you are not allowed to tell anyone……….90% of the time I invert peoples portraits so it looks like their mirror image.
I guess that should do the trick as long as there aren’t any words anywhere.
.
“She posed, I emailed………I never heard back ”
send it again (from/to a different alias) I am pretty sure she didn’t get it
maybe not! ; >
A lovely picture, the child also has a special glamor.
Thanks.
It’s a great portrait! Well done.
Thanks very much, I enjoyed making it.
Love it. almost looks like silver gelatin
Glad you like it, Not Myra. I think it would be an interesting one to print but I am still struggling with the whole portraits of strangers thing and putting one on the wall may be a step too far.
I really like your portraits a lot. I love her expression. You can see a bit of her reluctance there.
Beautiful! I would love to run into a stranger taking portraits of strangers
She looks a bit wary! Lovely portrait.
I enjoy photographing strangers too! I’m disappointed you didn’t hear back from Jean because this is a pleasing portrait… I like Jean’s direct engagement with the viewer, and the DOF which effectively isolates the subject while still providing context… nicely captured!
Susie
Thanks Susie, I think she had a very natural pose that came through in the shot. I do a fair bit of this kind of thing and I always enjoy the results even if the shots don’t turn out I feel I learn a little every time.