This picture, like "Brook" was taken during my Nov. 10 shoot of these dancers. This particular shot, however, was a nightmare. I had to close my aperture all the way down to ensure good depth of field to get them both in focus. This underexposed my film by about two stops, so I had to overdevelope the film to compensate. Since the development time became 18 minutes, I used a plastic tank to try to keep the solution as close to a constant temperature as possible, but, alas, it warmed up about two degrees during development, so I ended up developing it too much. To reduce the contrast during printing, I used an old, unexposed but developed piece of color print film. If you've ever tried to make black and white prints from color negatives, you'll know that this gives VERY low contrast, so I also had to use a 2 1/2 contrast filter. The exposure time became close to five minutes, which caused the negative to become a little hot in my condenser enlarger...this may be the last useable print I'll ever be able to make from it. *cry* Oh well...live and learn. :) Anyway, after all the trouble that went into making this print, I thought I'd go ahead and post it...it may not be the best possible shot like this I could've taken, but after all the sweat I put into it, I've become rather fond of it. :)
Thanks for the comment. :) I took a picture just like that...showing his nose...well, half of it, anyway. The composition in that one just didn't seem as balanced for some reason. Not sure what it was, but this one just looked better. *shrug* I can post the other one if you like, though, so you can see the difference. Perhaps you'd have more insight as to why it looks so different. I'm stumped. :) Take care.
Larry I like the meaning you have in this and see your effort was great. The only pick i can think of would be to see the guy in the backgrounds nose. The ear seems to be in the way.
Thank you for your comment. And, you're the first person to really get the meaning I wanted this picture to have. :) Brook, the one in back, is VERY competitive, actually, having spent many years in high school on the track team and as a swimmer. Wil is more of the fun-loving type. He's ALWAYS grinning.
As for the lighting, well, it's a 240 w/s power pack with the option of turning down to 120 w/s, but no higher than 240. Using a slower shutter speed wouldn't have helped, as the modeling lights are rather dim, and I wanted these images to be as sharp as possible, so I wanted ONLY the strobes themselves to be the exposing light. When using 35mm for such portraits, this is the only sure-fire way to get the sharpest detail, especially when using films with an ISO rating slower than 400. I hope this helps you out, and, again, thanks for commenting. :)
Larry, You have given a fresh meaning to "If there is a Will there is Way", I would have no idea that what you did in a lab would be possible. But I will remember to ask my lab if the need comes up.
The photo itself is very good, I like the pose in particular in relation to the light. The expression of the one in back is almost of anger or a competitive drive to get ahead, while the front is enjoying is moment in front.
Dumb question, but would it not have been eaiser to simply turn up the lights to accomadate the smaller AV? Maybe they were all the way, but even moving the TV to 90 would have been less time consuming.
I really love what you did here Larry. I love the lighting and the way you posed the two fine looking young men. I just always wondered about two different people having two different skin tones. The one in the back is of course obviously darker than the one in the front so...Anyway...Love this. Great use of creativity and imagination.
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