Collegial Triptych
Another in the recent series of half-frame triptyches. These are three of my former colleagues – we went out for lunch on one of my last days in the office. It was snowing, and you can see the snow flake streaks.
This was a very poor exposure – horribly underexposed, so there was a lot of recovery time put in with the scanner and then Lightroom. Which made it very gritty and contrasty. I like it for the grittyness, though I would have preferred to get there through more legitimate reasons than blowing my exposure guesstimate.
(Click on the picture for a bigger version)
Once again this is a single digital image scanned from three frames on the negative.
One of the more pleasing surprises discovered during processing is the faint wavy line on the wall behind them, and the way it lines up at the joins. Something to keep in mind for future pictures – it helps tie the images into one, while still being three. I came pretty close to lining up the pavement line as well.
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Olympus Pen, half-frame camera, ca 1961. Ilford Pan F Plus, ISO50, 1/50th, ~f8.
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burnt embers 
Really wonderful. Ehpem. I like the half-frame work you are doing!
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Thanks Karen – I am having a lot of fun with it, and learning stuff too, a great combination!
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This is great – I love the grittiness (no matter how it was achieved) because it adds to the overall feel of the images. I like the subtlety of the wavy line and the way it leads the viewer’s eye across the images.
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Thanks Melinda. I am pleased with the grit as well. I am not sure that the wavy line is noticeable under normal conditions. I looked at other photos I have of this location, in colour, but none are exactly at this spot, and none show any subtle wavy lines. I will have a look the next time I am in the area, but I suspect that this might take just this kind of contrasty treatment to make the wavy line visible. In fact, I just looked at it in street view and to the left of where I was shooting I can see that some graffiti has been painted over and there is a ghost of it still visible through the newer paint. However, in this area I can’t make that out at all. Very faint, whatever it is.
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Great shot (shots?). You even managed to get good expressions on the three people. I would have to have used a tripod to line it up so well.
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Hi Ken. They were very patient while I framed the shot (I tried pretty hard to line up the pavement edge), even though it was snowing and chilly and we already were a bit late getting back from lunch. The middle expression was lucky – always having two others watching while doing the individual frames resulted in a certain amount of hilarity, which I caught in the middle frame. I think the shots captures quite a bit of the personality of each of them. I am already wondering if I can attached a grid over the view finder that would allow me to better line things up – right now I am using dirt specks on the frame marker which is translucent.
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This one works really well, the gritty 19 th century quality and the very modern funny looking women. Irresistable!
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Thanks Val! They are very funny indeed. (At least when they are not Alluding to aged colleagues as Allosaurs).
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Hello.
Nice post, I like your blog.
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Hi – thanks for dropping by and commenting. I hope that the tag “film” was not disappointing to you. I am not a film (movie) buff but your blog looks like a very interesting compilation of information about many great films.
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That is a fascinating triptych, Ehpem. That wavy line is an unintentional link but it works. I also like, particularly, the way you have ordered the three images. The central image is well framed by two images that have certain similarities to them. The grittyness and contrast feels very appropriate too.
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Hi Andy. I can’t take a lot of credit for the ordering either – I just gave them a choice of who goes next and this is what I ended up with. But it very much is something to keep in mind for these kinds of shots – there are so many things that affect the composition of the triptych. I had not idea quite how complicated this format is, and being (self) limited by what is adjacent on the negative, things have to be thought about even more carefully. The gritty feel is a good one for this location which is a wall rising up to the entrance of one of the least salubrious apartment blocks in town. Though I hasten to add that my friends are very salubrious!
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Great work!! I love these spontaneous portraits.
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Thank you Malin! They were such cooperative friends, maybe I can do this again sometime..
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You are good at this, so yes – you can do it again. 🙂
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