Dancing in the streets
This is a street scene from Havana, Cuba. I shot this on a little Voightlander Bessa R3a rangefinder camera on Kodak Portra film (my favourite film for people shots). There’s something very nice about film that seems really ‘organic’ to my eye.
But it was really the chance encounter with these children that makes the image for me.
Cuba is a country full of music. You hear it everywhere – morning, noon and night, in peoples homes, in passing cars and out on the street too.
These kids were really getting into the swing of things as I came around the corner, and I just couldn’t resist taking this shot.
I appreciate your log allready. It ain’t easy finding a photogrpaher weblog that isn’t about pixel counting and showing of expensive equipment but is about the thoughts, ideas and concepts behind images. Hope to read more the coming months.
(however I can’t resist the question: after working slides for 3 years now I want to give print film one more try for people/portrait/street type of photography. is any Portra 160/400/NV/VC ok or would you recommend one particular? Enlargement would not be bigger then 0,5m by 0.5m but more likely 0.3m by 0.03m)
regards,
Marc
Comment by MarcIlford — 2 March, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
Hi Marc,
Many thanks for the feedback. I’m hoping to use this space to be more ‘interactive’ with others who would like to ask questions.
In terms of films for portraiture, it’s really down to personal taste, and I would suggest that you try out a few – preferably during the same session – I can appreciate that this may be cost prohibitive for you, but that’s exactly what I did. I took Kodachrome 64, Fuji Provia and Kodak’s Portra with me. My feelings were that Portra was superb. To answer your question, I prefer Portra 160 NC. The VC edition is too sickly in terms of saturation whereas the NC (neutral colour) is very nice and warm. For some reason it’s very strong on purples, and greens, but the skin tones remain natural. 160 is very fine grain, 400 is usable and I feel 800 should only be used when there’s no alternative (it’s too dark). Hope this answers your question, but to re-iterate – trying out different stock is fun and does give you a good idea of what your taste and style demand.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 2 March, 2008 @ 2:41 pm