Everyday superpowers - a photo on Flickriver

            Sometimes I think working with ND filters to stretch the boundaries of time is kind of like having super powers.  But if that is true, then they are powers available to all of us.  And I must express my gratitude for having ready access to them.  They can take something relatively ordinary and change it to something extraordinary in a matter of seconds.

But here are some thoughts I have to share behind this image.

It was an 8 second exposure made with JCH Streetpan 400.  I rated the film at ISO 200 with the intent to pull it in developing.  This film can be quite harsh when shot and processed per standard recommendations but I have really become fond of it when shot at ISO 200 (over exposed by a stop) and then under developed by one stop.  It adds shadow detail and reins in the contrast.

As I said, this was an 8 second exposure.  It was the best I could seemingly do with only an R72 IR filter.  I had some serious NDs but I didn't want to use them in conjunction with my R72 because then the exposure would have been several minutes.  I did do that for other images but wanted to actually see the ghosts of people, which a multi-minute exposure would have blurred away.

But I felt like 8 seconds was too short.  Too many of these people were standing too still for an 8 second exposure.  So what I did was open the shutter, count off 1 second, place the lens cap on, wait 5-10 seconds, remove the lens cap and count off another second, repeat.  In this way I stretched that 8 second exposure out to something resembling a 30-45 second exposure.  It gave me the combination of blur and definition that I was hoping for.  And yes, I was thinking of Alexey Titarenko's wonderful photography while working on this.

It also really helps to be familiar with the film you are using.  My past experiences with infrared film told me the blossoms would be snowy white and the branches would stand out in stark contrast.  It was those two branches in the top of the frame that caught my eye and guided me to setting up this competition.  They made the photo, and my familiarity with knowing how IR would look helped me recognize that.

And when you put all this together, crowds mean something quite different... as done time I suppose.  I like how this photo turned out quite a bit, but what I like even more was the ability to turn the Quad at University of Washington into a scene like this.  As I said, it is like a super power.

Hasselblad 500C
JCH Street Pan 400

Taken on: March 26, 2022

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Camera: Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 22.3 (Windows)
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