[kaseki]

Tom:

I love your nostalgic Song and Toast set; how did you create the smoky atmosphere -- toxic fumes or water vapor or ...?

I'm not sure of the consistency of the model's lipstick style vs. nail polish though. My mother wouldn't have been caught dead outside in the late '40s and early '50s without at least nail polish and usually gloves, even if it were the end of the world. If the intended setting is '42 to '45, I was too young during the war to notice whether nail polish was deferred for the war effort, but then so would have been heavy lipstick, I think. Now I'm going to have to do some research to check my memory.

---------- Post added 12th Mar 2018 at 08:36 ----------

Addendum: Review of numerous wartime photos and advertisements suggests that lipstick was almost always worn, even in the field, but nail polish seems more prevalent in advertising than in real life except for stars. I'm still reviewing big band singer images for any insights they might bring. I also think that it is remarkable how few images show women's' hands.

[ivanvernon]

View shortly after sunrise.

KIT: Pentax 645D with adapted Pentax 67 135mm f 4.0.

[Tom Marvel]

kaseki
Tom:

I love your nostalgic Song and Toast set; how did you create the smoky atmosphere -- toxic fumes or water vapor or ...?

I'm not sure of the consistency of the model's lipstick style vs. nail polish though. My mother wouldn't have been caught dead outside in the late '40s and early '50s without at least nail polish and usually gloves, even if it were the end of the world. If the intended setting is '42 to '45, I was too young during the war to notice whether nail polish was deferred for the war effort, but then so would have been heavy lipstick, I think. Now I'm going to have to do some research to check my memory.


Thank you for the compliments.
It's fun to build & shoot a set
As I remember my mother telling me, during WW2 nail polish was an extreme luxury but local authorities would relax restrictions on lipstick. Plus most women worked in factories & such for the war effort so any nail polish would be wasted on working hands. But a little lipstick on a Saturday night was good for the general morale.
The "smoke" was created with a haze machine. Different than a fog machine. Rather than large clouds from a fog machine, the haze machine creates just enough haze so the light effects can be seen (Like the small spot light in the background)
Since it's a WW2 look, the haze looks like cigarette smoke just because.....
By the way, the Fresnel lights are purely for props. There's a small speedlight inside with just enough power to illuminate the Fresnel lens.
The main lights were two giant umbrellas. One camera right up & 45 degrees down and one on axis behind me shooting directly into the scene

[Lord Lucan]

Severn Estuary Mud, near Avonmouth
Pentax 6x7, SMC 45mm, Ilford FP4

[littledrawe]

This is the shoulder I stood on for my image the day before and where I was originally planning to be last night!

Meanwhile, some beaver down stream just earned a little vacation!

[kaseki]

...
The "smoke" was created with a haze machine. Different than a fog machine. Rather than large clouds from a fog machine, the haze machine creates just enough haze so the light effects can be seen (Like the small spot light in the background)
Since it's a WW2 look, the haze looks like cigarette smoke just because.....
By the way, the Fresnel lights are purely for props. There's a small speedlight inside with just enough power to illuminate the Fresnel lens.
The main lights were two giant umbrellas. One camera right up & 45 degrees down and one on axis behind me shooting directly into the scene

In the upper left above the Fresnel lights is what appears to be a Kleig light. Is that similarly internally illuminated? You got a good beam effect, presumably without a carbon arc.

[Tom Marvel]

In the upper left above the Fresnel lights is what appears to be a Kleig light. Is that similarly internally illuminated? You got a good beam effect, presumably without a carbon arc.

It's a universal spot projector made by Bowens for Profoto
It attaches to the Profoto strobe
It's designed to shine a focused beam through a gobo disc
This shot didn't have a gobo, just the beam
Unfortunately no longer available
When Bowens sank, the projector went down with the ship
Bowens Universal Spotlite Attachment BW-1880 B&H Photo Video

[Ed Hurst]

Central station in Sydney.

645Z with 55mm f2.8 DFA lens. Composited with frames showing the minute hands in four different position - to represent the passage of time.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Ed Hurst]

Or perhaps you prefer the version that represents the passage of time this way (using blurred clock hands rather than static hands in multiple positions).

Thoughts...? I am genuinely torn and would appreciate feedback :-)

[IMG][/IMG]

[rdenney]

Or perhaps you prefer the version that represents the passage of time this way (using blurred clock hands rather than static hands in multiple positions).



Thoughts...? I am genuinely torn and would appreciate feedback :-)



[/url][/IMG]

Second one for me, if it’s passage of time you want to show.

Rick “who didn’t notice the hand positions in the first one” Denney

[kaseki]

The first is certainly more subtle. Are you showing more than two positions? I think it needs to show the flag in the same number of positions as the clock, and the clock in only two positions representing the beginning and end of the star field. Maybe the left clock shows the beginning and the right the end times.

The second is more obvious, but also somewhat less inspired. (Had some trouble deciding the best term for this.)

[dsmithhfx]

Or perhaps you prefer the version that represents the passage of time this way (using blurred clock hands rather than static hands in multiple positions).

Thoughts...? I am genuinely torn and would appreciate feedback :-)

[/url][/IMG]

The second, because the motion blur echoes the same effect on the flag. Might work better with a tighter crop.

[marcusyoung]

resized image. A120 macro 645Z,


marcus

[littledrawe]

Composited with frames showing the minute hands in four different position - to represent the passage of time.

Or perhaps you prefer the version that represents the passage of time this way (using blurred clock hands rather than static hands in multiple positions).

And off goes Ed, to write his book about the philosophy of time. Sometimes I feel like time passes the way the blurred hands demonstrate, slowly feeling every minute or second of it for better or worse. Sometimes I feel like time passes with the focused hands just remembering small moments like individual frames cut from a roll of moving film not really sure what happened before or after. That is just how I see it. Other people may see it differently.

[Ed Hurst]

Thank you to everyone who offered their considered and thoughtful suggestions. I will reflect upon what I am trying to express here and perhaps produce what I consider a definitive version soon.

One suggestion that I cannot take up is that I "...show the flag in the same number of positions as the clock..." This would require me to have frames for the flag area that show the star trails (but without the flag in the way). I don't have such frames, so would not be able to represent the trails in places where the flag took up other positions and hid the stars (hope that's clear). I guess I could produce a guess of what the area might look like, but somehow don't feel I should do that in this case...

:-)