TECHNICAL NOTES
DIGITAL GEAR:Nikon Df DSLR camera
Various vintage Nikkor lenses from 1971 up through the mid-1990s
Leica M (Typ 240) digital rangefinder camera
Vintage Leitz Wetzlar lenses from 1946, 1953, and 1970
ANALOG GEAR:
Hasselblad 500CM camera
Carl Zeiss Lenses from the 1960s and 70s
Nikon F SLR camera
Nikkor lenses as described above
Calumet 4x5 view camera
Hand-built pinhole camera
50mm equivalent focal length
ALTERNATIVE PROCESSES:
Pinhole Camera
A pinhole camera creates photographs without the use of a lens. It is basically a small version of a camera obscura which is a device, or in some cases even a room, that can make use of the phenomenon whereby rays of light passing through a small hole will form an image projected on a wall or other surface opposite the hole. This image is upside down and reversed left to right. These devices in the form of tents and boxes were used by early astronomers, scientists, and artists. In the 1500s, primitive glass lenses were added to the camera obscura which led directly to the invention of the telescope and the science of optics.
During the early days of the Pandemic lockdown, John undertook a project to design and build his own pinhole camera using wood and aluminum sheeting. The resulting camera uses 4x5 film and has a pinhole with the equivalent lens aperture of f/161 and a focal length of 50mm. Because of the very small diameter of the pinhole, a sturdy tripod and long exposures ranging from several seconds up to many minutes are required. The resulting photographs have a wide angle perspective and a dreamlike quality often showing the blur of objects that moved during the exposure.
Polaroid Type 55 Positive/Negative Film
Before digital cameras, this film was used by professional photographers in 4x5 and 8x10 view cameras to verify exposure and composition. The usual practice was to give the print to the client and then discard the negative portion of the Polaroid packet. However, this negative is an actual piece of film and it can be preserved. The Polaroid developing goo can be removed by bathing the film in a clearing agent, such as Heico PermaWash, and then washing normally. The negative can then be scanned or printed in a conventional darkroom. The film has a beautiful, soft tonal range and the ragged edges give the photographs a unique vintage or antique look. Type 55 film was discontinued by Polaroid in 2008 after the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001. If it has been stored carefully, the film’s developing pod might still be viable.
Infrared Photography
Infrared photography, as the name implies, utilizes film that is sensitive to the part of the infrared spectrum known as near-infrared (as opposed to far-infrared which is where thermal imaging occurs). The film used by John is Rollei Infrared 400 which is sensitive to both the visible and near-infrared spectra. Infrared photography is characterized by foliage that looks like it is glowing white and very dark skies that almost look like night time. This is known as the Wood Effect after Robert W. Wood, an American physicist who observed the effect around 1903 and invented the filter required to pass infrared but block most visible wavelengths. This Wood Effect is caused by foliage like tree leaves and grass strongly reflecting infrared radiation much like visible light is reflected from snow.
Mosaics
What John terms a Mosaic is a photographic process whereby an entire roll of 120 size film is shot in a very specific order so that when the negative strips are laid out contact sheet style it forms one large image. A contact sheet is a tool from the days of film photography where the strips of negatives from a roll of film are laid out on a piece of photographic printing paper, exposed to light and processed. The resulting print is a record of every frame from that roll of film and is used in the editing process to choose which frames deserve more attention.
John uses a Hasselblad camera which produces twelve 2¼ x 2¼ inch frames on a roll of 120 size film. It requires careful planning to decide the composition of each frame and the order in which they are shot. Each frame depicts a small part of the overall image exactly the way a traditional mosaic creates a large image out of small pieces of stone or tile.