Question on Getting the Classic B&W Look Seen in White House Pictures from the 1960s

I have a Minolta SRT-101 and XE-7. I like shooting B&W sometimes; the
indoor B&W look I love is that seen in the 1960s shots of White House
meetings featuring Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon looking
serious, consulting with their assistants. These photos are sometimes
featured on TV documentaries concerning these Presidents or the 1960s.
Indeed, the look is so classic that even when used in photos of the
current President Bush holding meetings in the White House, the shots
look like they were taken in the 50s and 60s. Recognizing I'm being
very general about the look, does anyone have clues on appropriate
film speed and brand, lighting (all natural, I assume), aperture and
shutter settings to attempt to replicate the look with the manual
focus, film cameras I've identified above?

Thank you.

On Oct 23, 6:58 am, esb100 wrote:
I have a Minolta SRT-101 and XE-7. I like shooting B&W sometimes; the
indoor B&W look I love is that seen in the 1960s shots of White House
meetings featuring Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon looking
serious, consulting with their assistants. These photos are sometimes
featured on TV documentaries concerning these Presidents or the 1960s.
Indeed, the look is so classic that even when used in photos of the
current President Bush holding meetings in the White House, the shots
look like they were taken in the 50s and 60s. Recognizing I'm being
very general about the look, does anyone have clues on appropriate
film speed and brand, lighting (all natural, I assume), aperture and
shutter settings to attempt to replicate the look with the manual
focus, film cameras I've identified above?

Thank you.

It might surprise you to discover that until quite recently, "black &
white" prints were not black or white. The papers used in the 50's and
60's were off white and got even further off white as they aged.
"Fibre (Fiber) based" is a description often used for them.

The paper coatings used in that era were not a polymer like those used
today either, and didn't produce a true black. "Silver gelatin" is
often used in their description. Traditional papers are hard to use
with modern chemicals. What might be a better solution would be to
scan your negatives and use a computer program like "Photo Retouche"
to produce the traditional and aged look for printing on a colour
inkjet printer using Moabe's antique papers which look very much like
paper from the 50's and earlier.

I do a lot of restoration work and find the only way to duplicate the
look of original photos is to make them as de-saturated colour prints
with a colour cast of the desired tone. I use an Epson R2400 printer
exclusively for this work.

As for the taking of the pictures in the first place? Panchromatic
film, processed for low contrast may do the trick. I've long held the
belief you should do any contrast adjustments with paper grades, not
photographic techniques. This way you keep shadow and highlight
detail.

Newspaper photographers of the era often push processed their films
and universally used grade 3 paper, resulting in little or no shadow
detail and high key in the highlights... Quite the opposite to what
the paper's printer's needed!

I hope this helps.

Doug,
Brisbane Australia
http://weddingsNportraits.com.au

On Oct 22, 4:58 pm, esb100 wrote:
I have a Minolta SRT-101 and XE-7. I like shooting B&W sometimes; the
indoor B&W look I love is that seen in the 1960s shots of White House
meetings featuring Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon looking
serious, consulting with their assistants. These photos are sometimes
featured on TV documentaries concerning these Presidents or the 1960s.
Indeed, the look is so classic that even when used in photos of the
current President Bush holding meetings in the White House, the shots
look like they were taken in the 50s and 60s. Recognizing I'm being
very general about the look, does anyone have clues on appropriate
film speed and brand, lighting (all natural, I assume), aperture and
shutter settings to attempt to replicate the look with the manual
focus, film cameras I've identified above?

Thank you.

I admire Stanley Tretick's work with JFK. His work is legendary
photojournalism. Judging from the pics I've seen of his work, I would
think he used both mediums: 35mm and medium format. I would say most
of his work was available lighting, judging from the poses facing the
window and the contrast of the pics. I'm not sure of the film, but it
would be a good guess that one of the films he used was Kodak Tri-X
Pan. You can pretty well tell the ISO of the film by viewing one of
the images enlarged. Is there a lot of grain? The more grain the
higher the ISO. When shooting next to a window like that you need to
take a reading of the subjects up close with a meter. That would be
your best judge of proper shutter speed and aperture. And of course
bracket.....(using different shutter speeds and apertures). Trial
and error, that's how we learn. Good Luck!
Helen

On Oct 22, 4:58 pm, esb100 wrote:
I have a Minolta SRT-101 and XE-7. I like shooting B&W sometimes; the
indoor B&W look I love is that seen in the 1960s shots of White House
meetings featuring Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon looking
serious, consulting with their assistants. These photos are sometimes
featured on TV documentaries concerning these Presidents or the 1960s.
Indeed, the look is so classic that even when used in photos of the
current President Bush holding meetings in the White House, the shots
look like they were taken in the 50s and 60s. Recognizing I'm being
very general about the look, does anyone have clues on appropriate
film speed and brand, lighting (all natural, I assume), aperture and
shutter settings to attempt to replicate the look with the manual
focus, film cameras I've identified above?

Thank you.


I admire Stanley Tretick's work with JFK. His work is legendary
photojournalism. Judging from the pics I've seen of his work, I would
think he used both mediums: 35mm and medium format. I would say most
of his work was available lighting, judging from the poses facing the
window and the contrast of the pics. I'm not sure of the film, but it
would be a good guess that one of the films he used was Kodak Tri-X
Pan. You can pretty well tell the ISO of the film by viewing one of
the images enlarged. Is there a lot of grain? The more grain the
higher the ISO. When shooting next to a window like that you need to
take a reading of the subjects up close with a meter. That would be
your best judge of proper shutter speed and aperture. And of course
bracket. Trial and error, that's how we learn. Good Luck!
Helen

On Oct 22, 4:58 pm, esb100 wrote:
I have a Minolta SRT-101 and XE-7. I like shooting B&W sometimes; the
indoor B&W look I love is that seen in the 1960s shots of White House
meetings featuring Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon looking
serious, consulting with their assistants. These photos are sometimes
featured on TV documentaries concerning these Presidents or the 1960s.
Indeed, the look is so classic that even when used in photos of the
current President Bush holding meetings in the White House, the shots
look like they were taken in the 50s and 60s. Recognizing I'm being
very general about the look, does anyone have clues on appropriate
film speed and brand, lighting (all natural, I assume), aperture and
shutter settings to attempt to replicate the look with the manual
focus, film cameras I've identified above?

Thank you.

Poorly pricessed and printed Tri-X Pan. Why would you ask about that
kind of ****? A lot of that work was horribly exposed, processed, and
printed.

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:58:04 -0700, esb100 wrote:

I have a Minolta SRT-101 and XE-7. I like shooting B&W sometimes; the
indoor B&W look I love is that seen in the 1960s shots of White House
meetings featuring Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon looking
serious, consulting with their assistants. These photos are sometimes
featured on TV documentaries concerning these Presidents or the 1960s.
Indeed, the look is so classic that even when used in photos of the
current President Bush holding meetings in the White House, the shots
look like they were taken in the 50s and 60s. Recognizing I'm being
very general about the look, does anyone have clues on appropriate
film speed and brand, lighting (all natural, I assume), aperture and
shutter settings to attempt to replicate the look with the manual
focus, film cameras I've identified above?

Thank you.

I have the book "Life in Camelot", which is about the Life photographers history
of taking pictures of the Kennedy's...

Unfortunately it doesn't mention film or cameras, but if you can find
information on 60s press cameras, you'll have your answers.

It seems there are 2 kinds of pictures here, one is very high contrast, almost
no detail, and the other is very grainy, both suggest that they were 'pushed'
somehow to get the picture, not under the best conditions.

Remember that press photos were meant to be half-toned and printed by a one
color press.

I bet your equipment of today is too good!

wrote in message
...

I have the book "Life in Camelot", which is about the Life photographers
history
of taking pictures of the Kennedy's...

Unfortunately it doesn't mention film or cameras, but if you can find
information on 60s press cameras, you'll have your answers.

This is typical....When non-artists write about the arts, they never seen to
write anything about the equipment the artist uses. People who write about
musicians do the same thing....As a trumpet player, I am interested in the
horns that my favorite players use....I have read whole books about famous
trumpeters, and never once has their equipment been mentioned! For some
reason, it never occurs to the author that the people who read such books
might be interested in the equipment the famous person uses, and why they
use that particular brand, style, etc.....

"esb100" wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a Minolta SRT-101 and XE-7. I like shooting B&W sometimes; the
indoor B&W look I love is that seen in the 1960s shots of White House
meetings featuring Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon looking
serious, consulting with their assistants. These photos are sometimes
featured on TV documentaries concerning these Presidents or the 1960s.
Indeed, the look is so classic that even when used in photos of the
current President Bush holding meetings in the White House, the shots
look like they were taken in the 50s and 60s. Recognizing I'm being
very general about the look, does anyone have clues on appropriate
film speed and brand, lighting (all natural, I assume), aperture and
shutter settings to attempt to replicate the look with the manual
focus, film cameras I've identified above?

Thank you.

I think if want that specific "look", then you have to make up your own
specs. Maybe start w/ Tri-X or HP-5 @ 800, and develop w/ D-76 1:1 about 2
mins extra . Then test: read a skin tone w/ the SRT @ 800 @ 1/60. If it
says f8, then write it down, and bracket F 4, 5.6, 8, 11. Then develop just
those. Do that with a different shutter speed.until you have four tests
developed. One strip is just bound to be close. The hard part is taking
useful notes. Times can be found on "The Massive Development Chart".
Bob Hickey