Our second assignment involving the pinhole camera involved shooting portraits. Keep in mind the long exposure times involved in working with the pinhole (because of such a small aperture), and you can immediately see the reoccurring problem of motion blur with the subject trying to hold still for minutes at a time, and this time I wanted to shoot closer to the subject, showing maybe chest up, headshot style. Because of a closer shot, there’s an even higher risk of movement and motion blur.
Now, I did consider embracing this characteristic of this type of camera, forgoing my clean, straight style, which I did for a few (and printed one). But I also had another thought, linking it to techniques I’ve been working on for the past two years. So I decided to incorporate flash into the pinhole work, even working in the studio, relying completely upon strobes for light sources.
This is one of the first shots I worked on, involving Brittany in her “horse girl mode” mentality and attire. I decided to work away from the face-shot-style portrait here, revealing more about her personality by showing parts of her body and wardrobe than relying on her face. A rider’s boots (like many other kinds of shoes) can really say a lot about the person who owns them – what they do, what their style is, etc. I think these boots are unique because of the dirt and clay that go onto them, and the work that they see.
Continuing the “horse girl mode” portraits, this is a more typical portrait, revealing defining characteristics of the subject. But this time, something more was put into it, as it was shot in a studio. This was a bit of a stretch for me, and I wasn’t sure exactly how it would turn out, but I gave it a shot. Knowing the camera was f/352 (as I had the “normal” camera), I did a few calculations from a more workable f/8 aperture and found out how many times I would have to set off a strobe, set to full power, to produce a printable negative on my 4×5 Ilford 100 sheet. Which it took about thirty times. So here’s the situation: she’s sitting there, holding perfectly still while this huge monobloc strobe with a standard 7” cone reflector stares her down from less than five feet away. And it blinds her once every 5 seconds for about a minute.
Yeah, it was a bit painful, even for me. But she’s a trooper.
In this shot, I was really going for the gritty look, showing the work that goes into her hobby. So, harsh light and a stern, accomplished look. Not much more than a portrait showing her dirty work.
This is my real pride and joy of this set. The technical settings: about a 3 minute exposure using window light. It’s very “straight” photograph, not even having any distortion or exploits of a pinhole camera. I felt that I had already accomplished that, so I wanted to go back to my roots.
Window light is always beautiful, and with the combinations of her long legs, and how the light is split and filtered through the blinds made it a shoe-in for a great, sharp photograph. And with a large 4×5 negative (though without the sharpness of having an actual lens), it’s a very sharp looking print as well.
This was another strobed shot. What happened: instead of having her hold still for another 30 cycles of the strobe, we split it up between ten strobe cycles on each pose, thus showing the different faces.
I could go into some mystic, deep meanings into stuff like this, but I don’t think it really needs that much of an explanation. My intention for this shot was much more of a technical exercise with strobes and an extremely small aperture – just to see if it works.
In the end, I believe I achieved a few very strong images from these large negatives and small apertures. And it’s a great experiences to work with a medium format camera.