Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?

Hi,

I'm searching for the name of a famous photographer. I think he was active
during the 1st half of the 20th Century. His camera's shutter consisted of
a slit which moved relatively slowly across the negative. The result was
that any movement of the subject produced a slanted image because the top of
the frame was exposed before the bottom. I think a couple of his famous
photos were of a racing car and a horse.

I'll be most indepted if you can help me find this guy's name!

Many thanks,
Jack

"Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack)" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm searching for the name of a famous photographer. I think he was
active
during the 1st half of the 20th Century. His camera's shutter consisted
of
a slit which moved relatively slowly across the negative. The result was
that any movement of the subject produced a slanted image because the top
of
the frame was exposed before the bottom. I think a couple of his famous
photos were of a racing car and a horse.

I'll be most indepted if you can help me find this guy's name!

Many thanks,
Jack

Sounds like you are talking about a Focal-Plane Shutter or 'Slit-Scan'
photography.

Could the guy be called Henri Lartigue?

He (and others) are mentioned here...

http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-slit-scan.html

Hope that helps

--
Sorby

Genius! Thank you so much - that's exactly what I needed to know!

Jack



"Sorby" wrote in message
...
"Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack)" wrote in
message
...
Hi,

I'm searching for the name of a famous photographer. I think he was
active
during the 1st half of the 20th Century. His camera's shutter consisted
of
a slit which moved relatively slowly across the negative. The result
was
that any movement of the subject produced a slanted image because the
top
of
the frame was exposed before the bottom. I think a couple of his famous
photos were of a racing car and a horse.

I'll be most indepted if you can help me find this guy's name!

Many thanks,
Jack

Sounds like you are talking about a Focal-Plane Shutter or 'Slit-Scan'
photography.

Could the guy be called Henri Lartigue?

He (and others) are mentioned here...

http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-slit-scan.html

Hope that helps

--
Sorby

Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack) wrote:

Hi,

I'm searching for the name of a famous photographer. I think he was active
during the 1st half of the 20th Century. His camera's shutter consisted of
a slit which moved relatively slowly across the negative. The result was
that any movement of the subject produced a slanted image because the top of
the frame was exposed before the bottom. I think a couple of his famous
photos were of a racing car and a horse.

I'll be most indepted if you can help me find this guy's name!



It was Jacques-Henri Lartigue, as indicated, and his shutter did not
'run slow' - it actually ran at exactly the same speed as all other
focal planes of the day, which was pretty slow. This kind of shutter
still existed right into the 1950s, in the VN Press Camera and the
Thornton-Pickard (and many others). It had separate controls for
tensioning the shutter (a twin blind), setting the gap (the slit width)
and setting the running speed of the shutter (slow, slower, or very
slow!). A skilled operator could set the exposure without needing the
table printed on the side of most cameras, which showed the equivalent
combination of the slit and running speed for each fraction of a second.

Lartigue was very young when some of his famous action pictures were
taken. He did not know you couldn't really shoot action, so he took
'snapshots' (the correct term) when other photographers would even have
tried. Several of the results, because of the vertically-run focal plane
shutter of his camera, have that slanted look which made them
distinctive and gave them appeal to the
Expressionist/Modernist/Vorticist schools - depiction of movement, by
multiple images, blur or distortion was one of the neglected aspects of
still photography which was explored by photo artists in the 1900-1930
period.

Lartigue was also famous because he liked women, particularly actresses
and singers or models, and society beauties. The fast cars, small
aeroplanes, horses, boats etc were very much part of his wealthy family
background and many of his shots show family or friends indulging in
expensive new pastimes. This, and the survival of the albums he put
together starting as a teenager, ensured his recognition in later years.
In many ways he was a naive photographer, and again, it was his family's
prosperity which meant he took snapshots using a very costly focal plane
shutter camera and the latest materials.

But that effect was not engineered on purpose; it was a 'discovery',
really a fault which more professional photographers would have avoided.

You can get the same effect with a Pentax 6 x 7cm SLR - traverse time
for the horizontal focal plane shutter 1/40th - or an old Pentacon Six -
traverse time for only 6 x 6cm about 1/25th. You need to hold the camera
sideways (vertical composition for the Pentax, makes no difference for
the Pentacon/Kiev/Exakta66 etc but using the viewfinder is impossible!)
and set a shutter speed like 1/500th (1/1000th on some models, also
works with the old Hasselblad 1000F), tripod mount the camera do not pan
with the subject - panning removes the effect. Four different effects
are possible - speed-effect stretching (front leans forward), braking
effect stretching (front leans backwards), stretching (shutter direction
same as subject) and compression (shutter direction opposes subject).
You must remember the image on film moves in the opposite direction to
the subject in front of you - subject goes left to right, shutter need
to go right to left to 'track' it. With most older focal plane cameras,
the best effect is achieved with subjects moving from right to left
across the frame, which is regrettably the opposite of the best effect
for visual motion signalling (for western viewers and Japanese - any
culture which reads left to right across a page will 'see' forward
motion in a picture more positively if this is left to right too).

One of two other older cameras can do this - the Exa (drum-shutter small
version of the Exacta with variable slit), the Contax I-III or similar
Kiev, and old Leicas with a vertical composition. The Contax is best
suited to it because the shutter runs vertically, as does the Exa
1/1a/500, and this means you can use a landscape shaped composition. It
does not matter which way the motion goes, with a vertically run shutter
using a downward action (most shutters) the effect will always be
'speed' with the top of the subject ahead of the bottom.

The slit traverse time of modern focal plane 35mm cameras is typically
1/90th to 1/200th, which means that to achieve a speed of 1/1000th at a
typical traverse time of 1/125 the slit is 1/8th of 24mm in width - 3mm.
This is a bit wide relative to the format to get Lartigue-like images
even of the fastest subjects.

DK
Look out for f2 magazine - launch in June 2004, replaces 'Freelance'
See http://www.freelancephotographer.co.uk/

Dear David,

Thank you so much for your very informative reply. I think I can safely say
that I've never come across such a genorous donation of knowledge in News
Groups.

Have you come across WikiPedia? It's an open-access encyclopedia which is
editable by everyone. It currently doesn't have an entry for Jacques-Henri
Lartigue. Perhaps you could cut and paste your reply to me into WikiPedia?
It'll only take a second or two. Just go to www.WikiPedia.org , do a search
for "Jacques-Henri Lartigue" and then use the link near the bottom of the
page which says "...use the following link to create an article..."

Thanks again for your reply,
Jack



"David Kilpatrick" wrote in message
...


Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack) wrote:

Hi,

I'm searching for the name of a famous photographer. I think he was
active
during the 1st half of the 20th Century. His camera's shutter consisted
of
a slit which moved relatively slowly across the negative. The result
was
that any movement of the subject produced a slanted image because the
top of
the frame was exposed before the bottom. I think a couple of his famous
photos were of a racing car and a horse.

I'll be most indepted if you can help me find this guy's name!



It was Jacques-Henri Lartigue, as indicated, and his shutter did not
'run slow' - it actually ran at exactly the same speed as all other
focal planes of the day, which was pretty slow. This kind of shutter
still existed right into the 1950s, in the VN Press Camera and the
Thornton-Pickard (and many others). It had separate controls for
tensioning the shutter (a twin blind), setting the gap (the slit width)
and setting the running speed of the shutter (slow, slower, or very
slow!). A skilled operator could set the exposure without needing the
table printed on the side of most cameras, which showed the equivalent
combination of the slit and running speed for each fraction of a second.

Lartigue was very young when some of his famous action pictures were
taken. He did not know you couldn't really shoot action, so he took
'snapshots' (the correct term) when other photographers would even have
tried. Several of the results, because of the vertically-run focal plane
shutter of his camera, have that slanted look which made them
distinctive and gave them appeal to the
Expressionist/Modernist/Vorticist schools - depiction of movement, by
multiple images, blur or distortion was one of the neglected aspects of
still photography which was explored by photo artists in the 1900-1930
period.

Lartigue was also famous because he liked women, particularly actresses
and singers or models, and society beauties. The fast cars, small
aeroplanes, horses, boats etc were very much part of his wealthy family
background and many of his shots show family or friends indulging in
expensive new pastimes. This, and the survival of the albums he put
together starting as a teenager, ensured his recognition in later years.
In many ways he was a naive photographer, and again, it was his family's
prosperity which meant he took snapshots using a very costly focal plane
shutter camera and the latest materials.

But that effect was not engineered on purpose; it was a 'discovery',
really a fault which more professional photographers would have avoided.

You can get the same effect with a Pentax 6 x 7cm SLR - traverse time
for the horizontal focal plane shutter 1/40th - or an old Pentacon Six -
traverse time for only 6 x 6cm about 1/25th. You need to hold the camera
sideways (vertical composition for the Pentax, makes no difference for
the Pentacon/Kiev/Exakta66 etc but using the viewfinder is impossible!)
and set a shutter speed like 1/500th (1/1000th on some models, also
works with the old Hasselblad 1000F), tripod mount the camera do not pan
with the subject - panning removes the effect. Four different effects
are possible - speed-effect stretching (front leans forward), braking
effect stretching (front leans backwards), stretching (shutter direction
same as subject) and compression (shutter direction opposes subject).
You must remember the image on film moves in the opposite direction to
the subject in front of you - subject goes left to right, shutter need
to go right to left to 'track' it. With most older focal plane cameras,
the best effect is achieved with subjects moving from right to left
across the frame, which is regrettably the opposite of the best effect
for visual motion signalling (for western viewers and Japanese - any
culture which reads left to right across a page will 'see' forward
motion in a picture more positively if this is left to right too).

One of two other older cameras can do this - the Exa (drum-shutter small
version of the Exacta with variable slit), the Contax I-III or similar
Kiev, and old Leicas with a vertical composition. The Contax is best
suited to it because the shutter runs vertically, as does the Exa
1/1a/500, and this means you can use a landscape shaped composition. It
does not matter which way the motion goes, with a vertically run shutter
using a downward action (most shutters) the effect will always be
'speed' with the top of the subject ahead of the bottom.

The slit traverse time of modern focal plane 35mm cameras is typically
1/90th to 1/200th, which means that to achieve a speed of 1/1000th at a
typical traverse time of 1/125 the slit is 1/8th of 24mm in width - 3mm.
This is a bit wide relative to the format to get Lartigue-like images
even of the fastest subjects.

DK
Look out for f2 magazine - launch in June 2004, replaces 'Freelance'
See http://www.freelancephotographer.co.uk/

Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack) wrote:

Dear David,

Thank you so much for your very informative reply. I think I can safely say
that I've never come across such a genorous donation of knowledge in News
Groups.

Have you come across WikiPedia? It's an open-access encyclopedia which is
editable by everyone. It currently doesn't have an entry for Jacques-Henri
Lartigue. Perhaps you could cut and paste your reply to me into WikiPedia?
It'll only take a second or two. Just go to www.WikiPedia.org , do a search
for "Jacques-Henri Lartigue" and then use the link near the bottom of the
page which says "...use the following link to create an article..."



Didn't know about that but I would be inclined to go back to books
instead of relying on the inbuilt memory bank - JHL could do with some
dats, for example, which I did not include since I can't remember exact
dates for each photo... but I do have references here.

Anything to stop people posting completely fictitious entries about
persons or things which have never existed and words which don't appear
in any dictionary? :-)

David

Anything to stop people posting completely fictitious entries about
persons or things which have never existed and words which don't appear
in any dictionary? :-)

There's an infinite page history - so every edit is saved and you can go
back to a previous page with a single click. I guess the hope is that 90%
of people want to contribute good stuff... so the 10% who write rubbish will
have their writings corrected pretty quickly. The system does seem to work
very well - WikiPedia has some excellent articles on it. But you're
entirely right - there's nothing to *stop* fictitious postings... you just
have to trust that the majority of people are good natured.

Thanks,
Jack



"David Kilpatrick" wrote in message
...


Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack) wrote:

Dear David,

Thank you so much for your very informative reply. I think I can safely
say
that I've never come across such a genorous donation of knowledge in
News
Groups.

Have you come across WikiPedia? It's an open-access encyclopedia which
is
editable by everyone. It currently doesn't have an entry for
Jacques-Henri
Lartigue. Perhaps you could cut and paste your reply to me into
WikiPedia?
It'll only take a second or two. Just go to www.WikiPedia.org , do a
search
for "Jacques-Henri Lartigue" and then use the link near the bottom of
the
page which says "...use the following link to create an article..."



Didn't know about that but I would be inclined to go back to books
instead of relying on the inbuilt memory bank - JHL could do with some
dats, for example, which I did not include since I can't remember exact
dates for each photo... but I do have references here.

Anything to stop people posting completely fictitious entries about
persons or things which have never existed and words which don't appear
in any dictionary? :-)

David