Film portraiture using only natural light

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Leica M6, Summar 5cm. Ilford Pan400 in R09. Hawker @Tekka Market, SG.
 

Another beautifully restrained indoor portrait, Erik! I always admire your fidelity to the true dimness of the original scene in your available light portraits - something which is an increasing rarity in a world of photographic images which crank up the digital gain for a kind of inverse nuit américaine.

I wondered whether you have any advice about how to keep close to the original lighting levels, in exposing or in developing and printing?
 
Another beautifully restrained indoor portrait, Erik! I always admire your fidelity to the true dimness of the original scene in your available light portraits - something which is an increasing rarity in a world of photographic images which crank up the digital gain for a kind of inverse nuit américaine.

I wondered whether you have any advice about how to keep close to the original lighting levels, in exposing or in developing and printing?

I use a relatively fast lens - in this case a Summar - and a fast film, Tmax400, on a Leica III. In situations like this I use full aperture, f2 at 1/30 sec. I develop the film in Perceptol, 10 minutes 1+2 (one part developer, two parts water) at 20 degrees C. The print iis made on Ilford MG FB classic glossy with a Leitz Focomat IIc (split grade printing using filter 00 for the first exposure and filter 5 for the second exposure). Paper developer is Eukobrom. I dry the print on a very old German print dryer (temperature digitally controlled) and when dry it is flattened on a Seal Compress 110 at its lowest temperature. (Too hot will damage the surface of the paper.) Then the print is scanned on an Epson V600 and is edited with Photoshop Elements 2.

Thats all.

Erik.
 
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