Spring has Sprung: Part I - Tulips

With the amount of rain drenching California this winter, I decided it was time to try my hand and eye at photographing flowers. Although I have shot flowers in the past, digitally, I wanted to see if I could create a Fine Art image by taking it through the entire analog process resulting with an 11 x 14 enlargement.

To have a usable negative for enlarging to 11 x 14 or larger, I decided to shoot using both Medium Format and Large Format films, which meant using Ilford Delta 400 (I was out of TMAX 100) for my Mamiya 645 and Arista Ultra EDU 100 for my Speed Graphic. I also wanted to use Natural light to give a more natural look to the images.

My garage faces the southwest and by Noon I get a lot of reflected light bouncing around the garage interior when the door is open.  Using my Zone VI Pentax Spotmeter,  I determined the tonal range for my image by taking at three readings: 1) highlights, 2) mid-tones, and 3) shadows while ensuring that I maintain detail in the shadows where needed. As you can see below, I was shooting at f/5.6 and 1/8 shutter.

Tangent: For those readers that are new to film, it’s recommended to set your exposure to open up the shadows because once you develop your film, areas of true black will end up clear on the negative (assuming your film didn’t get fogged) and when printed, they will be just black.  Exposing for the shadows is only a guideline and shouldn’t hinder you from creating your image.

In addition to photographing the Tulips, I wanted something a little different so instead of using a solid black backdrop I decided to use a mottled grey muslin to provide some depth to the images.  After reviewing the images, I should’ve shielded the grey background from the sun by changing the angle of the backdrop and removed some of the hard wrinkles. 

For the 4x5 images I switched to the black backdrop and used a reflector to bounce light onto the tulip. I also used a yellow filter to brighten portions of the tulip, but after developing and scanning both formats Ive decided to choose one of the Medium Format images to enlarge.

I haven't had the time to enlarge any of the images, but plan to do so before the end of April.  A few things I learned after the shoot were:

• Fix your background, spend the time to remove the wrinkles
• Buy wire for the flowers to make them pliable for posing
• Buy a Macro lens for closer focusing

To Be Continued...