Many thanks to my extended family for graciously agreeing to sit for a series of portraits yesterday afternoon. The overcast sky made for rather even light and the temperatures in the lower to mid 80s meant that the sitters weren't too uncomfortable.
After making a few portraits with no waterhouse stops the previous weekend, I realized I needed to stop down at least a little to get more depth of field, but with my slow(er) Steinheil lens, stopping down quickly translates into long(er) exposure times that can be troublesome for portraits. For this session, I decided to try the curious 4/9 waterhouse stop, which I didn't mention in my previous post. Although I haven't calculated its f/ value, I'm assuming it's less than the ½ stop. I'm using Bostick & Sullivan Old Workhorse collodion. I've scanned these in black and white at 600 dpi and then made JPGs from those for posting here, so the resolution is not as crisp as it appears on the actual 5x7 plates or even on the 600 dpi scans.
Grandparents 5x7 alumitype, 8/2/2015
This first plate I exposed for 8 seconds. There are out of focus areas--the man's face and the woman's hands--that I think are the result of the sitters moving after I'd focused. Their faces were pretty much on the same plane and I checked the focus before exposing the plate. After spending a lifetime with split-second shutter speeds, being completely still for a photograph is not easy! The framing of this picture would probably have been better in landscape. The second plate, also exposed for about 8 seconds, was a bit more successful. The contrast is better, but the faces are still a bit out of focus, even though the back of the chair is pretty crisp. Again, I had focused on the faces, so it looks like I had pretty good depth of field, but too much movement from the sitters. They're kids, what can I say!
Cousins 5x7 alumitype, 8/2/2015
The third plate is one of my favorites, exposed for 9 seconds. The subject's presence and personality come through--a real portrait!
Great-Aunt 5x7 alumitype, 8/2/2015
The light seemed to be ebbing a bit with the shifting cloud cover, so for the last two plates, I exposed for 10 seconds. The fourth plate has nice contrast and great posing and expression from the subjects, but there appears to have been some movement.
Sisters 5x7 alumitype, 8/2/2015
Although the final plate does suffer from some focus issues--the faces of the woman and the girl especially, the composition is really pleasing.
Two Generations 5x7 alumitype, 8/2/2015
All in all, in my opinion, the session was a success--I learned a lot. I think the depth of field was okay, given that I really couldn't do longer exposure times and there was some movement from the subjects. However, I will likely continue to experiment with the ½, 1, and 2 waterhouse stops if the available light permits. If I'm not wrong, I think the family members enjoyed themselves, learned a little bit about photographic history, and got to experience time travel of sorts--not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.