I would like to compose a B&W inmage of hands and am looking for any advice. I was considering shooting the hands in front of some freshly tilled earth for contrast. I was going to use natural sunlight, probably not direct maybe in a shadow or low sun angle. What I am trying to capture is the 'textural' detail of the hands. I would also like the hands to be the focous of the picture over the backdrop (f-stop suggestions ?)I have seen this in other photos and would like to capture it. Was thinking of Kodak Tmax 400 or TCN-400. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-- DDB (dbell@env.gov.mb.ca), May 17, 2000

Answers

Well, let's see. For texture you would want light coming from one side so as to have shadows in the wrinkles etc. Maybe with the hands in somewhat bright light with a deep shadow background to set the apart. If you are near a library or book store look for the book about Stiechen and Georgia O'keefe. He made some beautiful photographs of her talented hands.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), May 17, 2000.

Slip of the lip, Joe. Stieglitz did O'Keefe's hands. Unbelieveably expressive photos. Then the guy took up with Dorothy Norman.

-- Jeff Polaski (polaski@acm.org), May 18, 2000.

Of course. Sometimes my mind slips out of gear. Thanks.

-- Joe Cole (jcole@apha.com), May 18, 2000.

I have an image of hands at http://www.flash.net/~jmlacy/photo. Go into the gallery you will see them. I think it's frame two or three.

Joe

-- Joseph Lacy (jmlacy@flash.net), June 10, 2000.

You can use natural light (soft) or harder light, but to capture the real detail use large format. Nothing beats it for capturing detail.

To exaggerate the texture, use soft light, under expose a stop, and expand your development. I recommend traditional emulsions for this (not TMax or Delta) approach because its harder to control expansion on the new emulsion (the development gets carried away and you can end up with too much contrast), unless you've figured out your normal and expansion development times for the TMax. You probably cannot do the expansion thing with TCN.

-- Charlie Strack (charlie_strack@sti.com), July 14, 2000.