Photo Discussion
Category: To Be Categorized

SK Smiling

	SK Smiling SK is a good friend of my wife. Look closely at her glasses. They are tilted upward very slightly to eliminate glare from the lenses. Zeiss Ikon Contax IIIa Color Dial; 50mm f/1.5 Carl Zeiss Sonnar; f/8 @ 1/50; Agfa Scala 200X John A. Lind

A couple of remarks about the film used. It would not have been my first choice (Tri-X is my preference for portraits). It's what happened to be the B/W in the Contax at the time and the use of B/W was a "spur of the moment" idea. I was initially worried about the high contrast of black backdrop and white blouse, and transparency film in general which has notoriously high contrast which could lose highlight and shadow both in this situation.

When the mounted transparencies were projected onto a large screen, I was very pleasantly surprised that the Scala had not only retained both highlight and shadow, it had contained very fine detail down to the irises in her eyes. Agfa's Scala 200X is a real "sleeper" among the B/W films, and if you want B/W transparencies, this is really something to try. BTW, the mid-tones don't get muddy either. I've got a few low contrast (nothing but midtone) transparencies specifically shot to test this, and the detail in them is nice too.

-- John

To love this question, log in above
September 09, 2000