Toronto Star goes retro for a shoot. Does it make sense?

[easyrider]

The Toronto Star devoted two pages today to black and white images of couples attending the prom at a local high school. The very talented photog, Lucas Oleniuk, used film in a 4x5 camera. They look nice but one has to wonder whether the same results could not have been achieved with a high end point-and shoot.
Please take a look and post your thoughts.



As he tells it:
"In late April, Star visual editor Taras Slawnych assigned me to produce a series of 4x5 Polaroids that featured a graduating high school class on prom night.
With Polaroid film long discontinued, getting the film itself posed a serious challenge.
I sourced 40 sheets of black and white Polaroid film, which I bought at an exorbitant price and then tested. The film had expired in 2007 and was useless to me. Dry development pods had robbed the endangered prints of their ability to develop after exposure.
It was time for Plan B.
With the objective of producing a classic image, I offered to shoot the 4x5 negatives on location at the Paradise Banquet Hall in Vaughan where Runnymede Collegiate Institute was having its prom. I then processed the film and printed it back in my custom darkroom in Leslieville."


The full story:
http://www.thestar.com/living/articl...digital-photos
The photos:
http://photogallery.thestar.com/1202392

[stratcat]

I think a good photographer can achieve good results artistic results with whatever camera they get.

As to the technical quality, it's hard to judge from those rather small images (and I bet they're low resolution scans too), but I'm pretty sure if we could put our eyes on a contact print from one of those 4x5 negatives we'd be floored.

[easyrider]

Originally Posted by stratcat

I think a good photographer can achieve good results artistic results with whatever camera they get.

As to the technical quality, it's hard to judge from those rather small images (and I bet they're low resolution scans too), but I'm pretty sure if we could put our eyes on a contact print from one of those 4x5 negatives we'd be floored.

Excellent point. They are fairly large in the newspaper but they look no different from other shots in the paper. The photog does not mention what lighting he used.

[FrankS]

On the non-technical side, I like the ethnic diversity, the multi-ethnic couples, the tall girl with the shorter guy, the geeky guy, and the guy with 2 girls, shots.

[thegf]

i always get asked if i am related to this photographer. good to see he's still doing his thing.

[easyrider]

Just say "yes." You will get great assignments. )

Remember the Robert Capa story. He first peddled his pix, saying he was the assistant of Robert Capa.

[summar]

Nice reminder that before half-tone reproduction was far enough improved by the late '50s to allow the use of smaller formats on newsprint, 4x5 was the universal format used by newspaper photographers.

[bigeye]

Wonder why didn't he use Fuji 3000B? It comes in 4x5...

.

[Nokton48]

Originally Posted by photomoof

I was surprised that none of the photos were sharp, but of course we are looking at Jpegs put up by the newspaper, and they may be degraded.

They don't look sharp to me either, but it's pretty hard to tell from these. Looks like he focused on the wall behind the subjects. Not much DOF with 4x5, I know from experience, I can't tell if I'm sharp on the groundglass, without louping the image. Fuji 3000B would help with the stopping-down part. Or a studio strobe.

[buzzardkid]

Originally Posted by FrankS

On the non-technical side, I like the ethnic diversity, the multi-ethnic couples, the tall girl with the shorter guy, the geeky guy, and the guy with 2 girls, shots.

My thoughts exactly. Lots of nice little stories on those youngsters included with the shots which give a real good impression of what life is like for them and what choices they make.

Made me enjoy the pictures even more, and I'd like to see real contacts for detail indeed...

Thanks for posting that link!

[VictorM.]

NPR on Mary Ellen Mark's prom book: http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow...prom-portraits

[newsgrunt]

He's a friend of mine and has been shooting LF for some time. He's been using it primarily for personal, ongoing projects so it's no surprise he used it here. The Star has a new photo editor (last one was a gatekeeper with no interest in the dept therefore, wouldn't go to bat for them) and he's trying to bring morale back up. Regardless, Lucas is an incredibly talented photographer who I believe could work anywhere but he's happy where he's at and he has that great darkroom as well.

I also had MEM's project in mind when I saw this work.

[timor]

There is no info which Polaroid camera was used. In most the lenses are rudimentary. Could be it 110 ?

[easyrider]

Originally Posted by timor

There is no info which Polaroid camera was used. In most the lenses are rudimentary. Could be it 110 ?

If I read the story correctly, he ended up shooting on 4x5 film. He found some Polaroid film but it was no longer usable so he switched to film.

There are no further details posted -- like what camera, or lights.

[Deep Fried]

smaller format and better lighting setup would have produced better results for newsprint. I don't doubt the negs are stunning, but it was the wrong tool for the final output. The lighting was just too flat and putting people up against a wall does not help. The little stories about the kids are what make the project work

[Nikon Bob]

I just wonder what's the point of using a 4x5 for a newspaper article? Just seems such a waste of potential that a 4x5 is capable of. If the final output was to be large prints then that would make some sort of sense to me. As for the photos themselves, it show just how much our society has changed and for the better I would add.

Bob

[rxmd]

Originally Posted by Nikon Bob

I just wonder what's the point of using a 4x5 for a newspaper article?

The point is being retro. Isn't that what this is all about?

[Nikon Bob]

Originally Posted by rxmd

The point is being retro. Isn't that what this is all about?

I suppose so but still was it worth the effort? You could likely get a retro look for a newspaper article with any number of 35mm cameras too. All in all it was a neat idea but...

Bob

[Steve M.]

The photos look very poor, at least on the web. I wouldn't expect great sharpness or detail from Polaroids anyway. Why use a 4x5 camera, then dumb down the IQ using instant film? I could see proofing w/ the instant film, letting people see the shots right away, and all that. The newspaper had to run scanned files of the Polaroid positives, so another drop in IQ. It doesn't make sense.

[DominikDUK]

These look more like poor scans than poor photos. He used neg Film and not polaroid. I like the series.

Dominik

[newsgrunt]

While you get a different look and quality from LF, it's not the only reason to haul out the big boy. Sharp, sharp, sharp is not everything when using 4x5 and up. The way one works and interacts with subjects while using one is very different and can lead to some very honest portraits imo. I use my LF camera on certain assignments as well but those are few and far between and pretty well only for portraits.

[clayne]

LF will also have a comparitively smaller DOF for the same angle of view and f-stop of a smaller format. Additionally film itself will have a comparatively different response to highlight saturation. There are absolutely valid reasons for him wanting to shoot things this way and it should be celebrated rather than doubted.

[shadowfox]

I like it the way it is.
These are prom shots, do you really need to see every skin pores and pimples?

Kudos to the photographer.
Introducing these kids to the way when a consistently-nice set of photographs took some effort to pull off

[Paddy C]

Images have likely been through the wringer and come out on screen looking soft and rather crappy. So that's not helping.

LF brings tonality, resolution, reproduction size and unique depth of field possibilities. None of these advantages are put to use or evident in the gallery.

As others have mentioned, good prints would be a very different story.

So I'm on the "it doesn't make sense" side of things. But then not everything needs to make sense.

[jsrockit]

They might be "soft" but they still get their point across.