If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
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 |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
"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 |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
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 |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 11:51:10 +0100, "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! Many thanks, Jack Most sports photography in the early 20th C were done with Graflex and similar cameras with a cloth focal-plane shutter. To get shutter speeds high enough to stop fast motion they had to use a narrow slit. The Graflex was a SLR that was viewed through a tall leather hood from above--no pentaprism. They came in sizes from 2 1/4" X 3 1/4" (6x9 cm) up to 8" x 10". To set the shutter speed, you wound up the shutter to one of a series of tensions with a key. Then you selected the slit with another control. A table on the side of the box gave the shutter speed for each combination. The Graflexes I have seen went up to 1/1500 sec. Speed Graphic folding cameras (made by Graflex) had a similar shutter, although they are often used with a between-the-lens shutter in front. So, many photographers made pictures with the wheels of cars leaning forward, a feature which became an indication of speed. Cartoonists drew wheels the same way to indicat faste motion. More than you wanted to see, but I hope helpful. Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a "Wanting to meet a writer because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pate." Margaret Atwood |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
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/ |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
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/ |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
Dear Rodney,
Many thanks for your long and detailed reply - I'm always amazed by how generous people are on some newgroups. Thank you. I've mentioned this on another news group but I think this is relevant he Have you come across WikiPedia? It's an open-access encyclopedia which is editable by everyone. It currently doesn't have an entry for Graflex. 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 "Graflex" and then use the link near the bottom of the page which says "...use the following link to create an article...". I think WikiPedia is an excellent way to share knowledge and the more people who contribute the better. Thanks again for your reply, Jack "Rodney Myrvaagnes" wrote in message ... On Mon, 5 Apr 2004 11:51:10 +0100, "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! Many thanks, Jack Most sports photography in the early 20th C were done with Graflex and similar cameras with a cloth focal-plane shutter. To get shutter speeds high enough to stop fast motion they had to use a narrow slit. The Graflex was a SLR that was viewed through a tall leather hood from above--no pentaprism. They came in sizes from 2 1/4" X 3 1/4" (6x9 cm) up to 8" x 10". To set the shutter speed, you wound up the shutter to one of a series of tensions with a key. Then you selected the slit with another control. A table on the side of the box gave the shutter speed for each combination. The Graflexes I have seen went up to 1/1500 sec. Speed Graphic folding cameras (made by Graflex) had a similar shutter, although they are often used with a between-the-lens shutter in front. So, many photographers made pictures with the wheels of cars leaning forward, a feature which became an indication of speed. Cartoonists drew wheels the same way to indicat faste motion. More than you wanted to see, but I hope helpful. Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a "Wanting to meet a writer because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like pate." Margaret Atwood |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
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 |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
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 |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
Name of photographer who used slow slit shutter?
On Tue, 6 Apr 2004 10:53:51 +0100, "Daniel Kelly \(AKA Jack\)"
wrote: Have you come across WikiPedia? It's an open-access encyclopedia which is editable by everyone. It currently doesn't have an entry for Graflex. 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 "Graflex" and then use the link near the bottom of the page which says "...use the following link to create an article...". I think WikiPedia is an excellent way to share knowledge and the more people who contribute the better. I did that. It is, of course, a woefully inadequate entry for the heading. I hope someone with access to company history will edit and amplify the item. Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a Entering your freshman dorm for the first time, and seeing an axe head come through the door on your right. |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Shutter won't release on Bronica SQ-A | Drew | Medium Format Photography Equipment | 6 | May 25th 04 01:43 AM |
Hasselblad Auxiliary shutter question | rolento | Medium Format Photography Equipment | 14 | April 10th 04 01:40 PM |
Dial set Compur shutter help | st | Large Format Photography Equipment | 4 | April 6th 04 12:47 PM |
B&L compound shutter? | David Nebenzahl | Large Format Photography Equipment | 8 | February 28th 04 09:13 PM |
mamiya sekor shutter on C33 | Mr Ed | Medium Format Photography Equipment | 4 | February 9th 04 01:05 PM |