Wallace Koopmans Artlog

The Yashica Electro 35 rangefinders are wonderful cameras with an electronically controlled shutter and aperture priority.  The f 1.7 lens allows plenty of light for low light shooting, however there is no shutter speed indicator beyond the basic over exposure and slow shutter warning.  If you can live within those limitations it provides  sharp well exposed images.  I shot these images using Kodak professional plus-x.  Kodak describes the film thus ” PLUS-X 125 Film offers a combination of sharpness and fine grain that makes it the ideal film for beautifully printable negatives in moderate-to-bright light.”  I would agree and because it has been used for so many years it has a particular look that many people expect when they view a B&W image.

Here is a detail from one of the images.

In this image I have used several visual tools to draw the viewers attention to one specific area of the frame.  To begin with the manner that the lines of the wire converge at the point of interest leads the eye inward.  This is reinforced by the contrast of focus at the center verses at the edges.  This differential in sharpness was achieved by selecting a large aperture which provides a shallow depth of field.  This visual cue mimics one way in which we perceive depth in the real world.  The last thing I have done was during processing I increased the brightness contrast between the center of the image and the area surrounding it.  Whether this is a good image or not isn’t crucial, but it does achieve the intended outcome.

Not too long ago I posted about being productive, now I have followed that up with a lull in output.  I have been occupied with several thing including taking photo’s of dancers.  Rather than continuing to make excuses here is an example.