6x7 portraits

Hi,
few shots from last two films of portra 400 and ektar 100
1.


2.


3.


4.


5.

Very nice but the slight green tinge in 1 and 4 is a little off-puting for portraits.

I used Ektar 100 and portra 400, 1 and 4 it's a portra 400, also all shots are scanned straight to jpg. Maybe needs some profile for the scanner app.

They have a certain style and depth that is immediately apparent, I presume caused by the larger format. In particular I notice the distinction between subject and surrounds, most apparent in the first and last, that I doubt could be reproduced easily on 35mm film, (or indeed digital FF & APS-C either). They have a feel of 3D space which is really effective.

The colour balance in the last one is perhaps the best, although it would be nice if a bit more blue could be brought out from the sky. Maybe some adjustments in the scanning software would be effective.

Thanks for showing these, they demonstrate something tangible about larger format photography. All too often we see images shot on FF digital that show little that distinguishes them from aps-c (and even smaller) formats.

I notice you list an AF-540FGZ in your gear list ..... have you thought about trying shots like these with some direct on-camera High Speed Sync flash? You would potentially be able to significantly improve the dynamic range and colour depth by underexposing the backgrounds a little, while popping the subject a little .... the way you have your first two subjects posed suggests that adding a bit of exaggeration and drama this way would complement the style.

Having said that I will admit I don't know anything about the flash capabilities of your camera and whether its capable of the HSS, but I do know that the AF-540FGZ supports the film 6x7. By using HSS you wouldn't have to stop down the apertures at all, but rather could lower the background exposure a little with a shutter speed faster than the max sync.

Very nice!

Makes me want to try medium format film, just need the camera, the Pentax 6x7 results look really great.

How are you scanning the images etc.?

Regards
Mike

These really do show the benefits of Medium Format - glad to see you're getting plenty of use from your 67

Top class images - I love that classy MF look.

Great images, a very good demonstration of what MF (and 6x7 in particular) is capable of. Print film negatives usually have a base colour designed to make printing easier (usually an orange hue). Different films are however different and you may need different scanning/post processing profiles for them.

As for high speed flash, the P6x7 has a blistering flash sync speed of 1/30th and no ability to use HSS flash. If you'd like faster flash sync, you need one of the leaf-shutter lenses which will sync up to 1/500th with any flashgun or studio strobe.