Girl in Blue

[pentaxpete]

Took this at a photo-show in Birmingham -- the British one NOT the American one ! 1965 LEICA M2 + 1957 90mm f4 Elmar lens, Ilford FP4 film and I had a go to 'tone' it after scanning in my PhotoShop 7 -- in my darkroom I can tone prints blue with chemicals.

Girl-in-Blue by pentaxpete, on Flickr
here is one other 'Blue-Toned' photo with my Asahi Pentax LX, 120mm f2.8 SMC Pentax-M lens, ORWO NP22 film and I used a 'diffuser' of a bit of plastic with a hole cut in it !

Blue-Mood by pentaxpete, on Flickr

[rpcrowe]

I used the Leica M2 along with the 90mm and 35mm lenses and loved the combination. However, even though the U.S. Navy Leica kits came with these crappy folding fllash units, neither I nor any of my fellow photographers ever used one. We did have to keep the flashes with the kits for inventory purposes. I think that this is an M-3 or M-4 Leica. It doesn't look like an M-2...



I also remember using home made diffusers such as ladies nylon hose material stretched in front of my lens. The tan color of the hose also gave the portraits a warm glow. I remember white hose material gave an entirely different look.

In the old days, I was quite interested in, and fairly adept at soft focus portraits. Soft focus was fairly uncommon in those days since it took a bit of work. Smearing Vaseline on a UV filter was another way to get diffusion but, some stupid photographers tried smearing the greasy stuff directly on their lenses. What a mess, they never got the front element completely clean...

I still own a small collection of various commercially made soft focus and fog filters left over from my film days. My plan someday is to play with all of them and see the differences between the various filters and what I can do along the same lines with my digital images in post processing. I'll keep the darn things since I can't get a penny for them and they don't take up any storage space. Besides, it gives me another project that I will probably never get around to...

I wish that I had kept my hard copy images like you obvously have. Unfortunately, they ended up being misplaced after several house moves.

However once while killing time in a Walmart store waiting for my wife to shop (anyone else know what that's like?), I found a DVD on Vietnam which contained 3 films that I worked on. It was only five dollars and now I can bore my friends to death showing the films to them...

[pentaxpete]

Richard : Many thanks for your very interesting post -- I wish I had been issued with LEICA when I was in the British Army 1955-58 but I was in the 'MEDICS' and they gave out only microscopes and test tubes and bacterial culture gear !

[PRSearls]

Hi Peter,

Those are fine captures of lovely subjects. It sounds like you are still using a wet darkroom. I'll bet a lot of members here never had the experience of film development and making prints. This background makes me appreciate the convenience of digital and ink-jet printers. It was interesting to watch the print magically appear in the developer under the dim safelights.

I had an M2 once, purchased in Saigon in 1965. A wonderful camera and when loaded with Kodachrome, produced some stunning color transparencies. Years later in a weak moment, I traded it for an expensive stereo speaker (BIG mistake). I wish I still had it.

Paul S

[pentaxpete]

Paul and Richard -- I have more 'LEICA' photos to show you sometimes -- keep looking !
Regards -- Peter ( Old Darkroom Fart ! )

[casper]

hi Peter. Please keep showing them, I am sure there are many members that would be fascinated to hear about pre-digital darkroom techniques from yourself and others that develop(ed) their own photographs.
- Noel