Test Shots
My Kodachrome portrait project is crawling along. It's happening, but VERY slowly it seems. One nice thing about doing the digital backups is that I'm also able to test the lighting setups before committing them to film. Sometimes these test results are actually better than the "real" thing. For example, here's a couple from my session with Sten and Rebecca:
The Test Shot
The Real Shot
In the test shot, they are not posed and are carrying themselves normally. Then I intervened and screwed it all up. They look great in the test shot. They look uncomfortable in the real shot. Unfortunately, I kept them in that forced pose for the film shot. Ugh. Then again, I think I underexposed those shots on film anyway, so there's probably nothing but a black blob on the frame. I also learned that black is not a colour to be worn for this kind of night time shot. Sten sort of fades into the background.
Sometimes the test shots actually are bad though. Here's two from my session with Ryan and Coleen:
The Test Shot
The Real Shot
While the test shot actually has some humour to it in that it looks like alien spaceships descended upon us during the shoot, it wasn't at all what I was after. I didn't have a choice here but to white balance for the main subjects and not the background. The test shot shows the opposite. With this set up, I didn't even bother shooting any film frames because I knew they'd look all weird due to the mixed light sources. Next time I need to bring colour filters for the strobe!
I've got about 6 shots left on the first roll of Kodachrome and it appears that the remaining three are the only ones I'll have left to experiment with. I'm getting anxious to send off this first roll for processing though. I want to see what mistakes I've made with it. But it really feels like the old days since I'm waiting to "use up" the roll before sending it in. Normally, I'd just eat the fact that the roll had more frames left, but these four rolls will be an exception to that policy.
I'm still actively searching for volunteers for this project. Let me know if you are interested.
The Test Shot
The Real Shot
In the test shot, they are not posed and are carrying themselves normally. Then I intervened and screwed it all up. They look great in the test shot. They look uncomfortable in the real shot. Unfortunately, I kept them in that forced pose for the film shot. Ugh. Then again, I think I underexposed those shots on film anyway, so there's probably nothing but a black blob on the frame. I also learned that black is not a colour to be worn for this kind of night time shot. Sten sort of fades into the background.
Sometimes the test shots actually are bad though. Here's two from my session with Ryan and Coleen:
The Test Shot
The Real Shot
While the test shot actually has some humour to it in that it looks like alien spaceships descended upon us during the shoot, it wasn't at all what I was after. I didn't have a choice here but to white balance for the main subjects and not the background. The test shot shows the opposite. With this set up, I didn't even bother shooting any film frames because I knew they'd look all weird due to the mixed light sources. Next time I need to bring colour filters for the strobe!
I've got about 6 shots left on the first roll of Kodachrome and it appears that the remaining three are the only ones I'll have left to experiment with. I'm getting anxious to send off this first roll for processing though. I want to see what mistakes I've made with it. But it really feels like the old days since I'm waiting to "use up" the roll before sending it in. Normally, I'd just eat the fact that the roll had more frames left, but these four rolls will be an exception to that policy.
I'm still actively searching for volunteers for this project. Let me know if you are interested.
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