Gaucho
As part of my romance with the Contax 645 system, I now have multiple film backs for it, which is a really nice way to go if you want to shoot different types of film.
This is the nub for me. What I love about film is the different characteristics that each type produces. Velvia is supersaturated, unrealistic in colour providing vibrant landscapes, Portra has great skin tones and then of course there are a myraid of black and white films to choose from… each with their own look and feel.
This was shot on Kodak Tri-X 400 and scanned on my Nikon 9000 ED film scanner with ICE turned off. What this means is that I had to go around spotting all the dust and dirt on the negative after scanning. It was a pleasure to do it. Perhaps I’m too old school.
While I was on my workshop in Torres del Paine national park, Chile, I like to take the participants along to see some real working Gauchos in the park. There are a few locations where it’s possible to do this.
Anyway, I shot many images on Portra but also tried out Tri-X. You might argue that I could have shot this on colour film and then desaturated it in Photoshop to make it into a Black and White. You’d be correct, but desaturated colour films don’t have the same grain properties that Tri-X has. For me, grain is part of the artistic look and feel of a picture. I’ve tried all those software emulators with digital, but have to say that it still looks digital. If you want the film look, go shoot some film.
I agree totally. ICE scans are never as good.
I love my Contax 645, especially the 80mm lens. The flexibility of having several film backs means you can shoot in both colour and b&w as you said. No need for digital :-)
Comment by jeremy — 12 May, 2009 @ 6:09 am
I find ICE is fantastic, and I havent’ seen any degradation of the image when using it on it’s Normal setting.
I was referring to scanning of Black and White films that are Process Gelatin-silver – ICE has to be turned off because it does not work with these kinds of films. The newer Black and White films such as Kodax BW400 use the C-41 process which will work with ICE, but I feel these films have a similar look to a colour film desaturated in Photoshop.
Comment by Bruce Percy — 12 May, 2009 @ 6:58 am
looks like Spanish partisan around 30-40 of the last century :) great portrait.
Comment by goosetea — 12 May, 2009 @ 9:09 am