I've been doing a few portraits with my LF camera, using a 300mm barrel lens with polaroid (52) as well as film. I'm discovering now how much I miss the luxury of short shutter speeds I got with shuttered lenses! Since I'm using a barrel lens I have to get exposures down to 1-2 seconds, which makes capturing spontaneous expressions practically impossible! What is the best method of creating portraits, given this limitation? It's a completely different kind of experience for a sitter to be aware and be able to move (though he/she shouldn't) and think DURING an exposure. Much more pressure... I know, for instance Avedon coaches his subjects it a way to produce the objective/constructed reality/fiction expression that he wants to create, but I haven't found much in the way of reading or guidance on how to go about this... My normal method is to simply build rapport with a sitter, and capture (with a fast shutter speed) a brief expression that embodies something about what I think about the sitter, but that becomes much more difficult when I have to ask the subject to sit still for seconds at a time. How should I approach this?

-- Josh Wand (josh@joshwand.com), April 13, 2000

Answers

See my answer on PhotoNet.

jkantor@mindspring.com), April 13, 2000.

Well, my link to PhotoNet didn't work, so here's my answer:

Think you have problems? Try painting a portrait sometime.

Three options:

1) Buy a 35mm.

2) Gain an understanding of why our greatgrandparents looked so morose in those old pictures and make more like them.

3) Go with the flow. Your subjects will need to be relaxed, both mentally and physically to handle these exposures without looking stiff. And I think you are going to have to redefine your idea of rapport. Your subjects are going to have to feel completely at ease posing for you - not just amused by your presence. Look at traditional (painted) portraiture forinspiration - as the attached picture by my favorite artist, John Singer Sargent.

http://photo.net//bboard/big-image.tcl?bboard_upload_id=29984

-- John Kantor (jkantor@mindspring.com), April 13, 2000.

1) Take a look at Packard shutters.

http://www.hubphoto.com/ packardshutters.htm

I have never used one myself but the website explains a lot. Apparently they fit in front of or behind of the lens.

2)I have taken a few "portrait" type pictures with 4x5 camera and availible light with shutter on "b" so I know it's not convenient but it can be done. You are limited in the types of poses you can ask your subject to assume, but when I look at the work of some 19th century portraitists, I don't see this as a liability...

August Sander worked for most of or all of his life with barrel lenses, no polaroid and film with an ei of 12 or so and his pictures are fantastic.

-- alan (adale6@excite.com), April 14, 2000.

I'll be getting a Packard in about two weeks, but even then I'll have to manufacture a device to mount it in front of the front standard: it's a tele lens, and the rear diameter is 3 1/4", far too big for the smaller Packards I could fit inside. The smallest Packard that fits the lens is a 6" model. In the meantime, I'm going to experiment with shorter times and open flash. The most significant change I'll make is to stop working with Polaroids--that way I can concentrate less on getting the exposure perfect and concentrate on the subject. I'll fix any exposure errors when I print.

-- Josh Wand (josh@joshwand.com), April 14, 2000.