A pint and a puff !, a photo from London, England

Photographer's Note

Another of my 60's collection. This was one of a series from London pubs in the East end of London.
As the light was so low and contrasty I had to rate Tri-x at 1000 ASA and push the development in IDll chemicals. Usually with this type of image I lowered the developer temperature by a couple of degrees and extended the development time by a couple of minutes which brought out the minute middle tones...
This type of photography entailed buying a pint and finding a seat from which to take some very difficult photo's. Camera placed on table top usually hidden behind my pint glass and when an opportunity arose I slide it out and pressed the shutter hoping I was not noticed ! A lot of trial and error mostly produced failures but sometimes bagged a goodun...!

My little trusted Leica 3g was used to capture this image.

nikkN6, vincent24, maltese, Jangalbaan, bj40 ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

batalay (41261) 2006-12-07 11:10

Helloo Christopher,

A classic photo! It is beautifully composed, and exquisitely exposed.
I remember the technology of pushing B&W film by one, two or more stops. Warm regards from Virginia, the former colony that is about to celebrate its 400th Anniversary. Bulent

nikkN6 (328) 2006-12-07 11:16

Great capture!
The old man seems to be a famous director or anything else!
Great moment you captured Cristopher!

Nikos

OlgaEva (412) 2006-12-07 11:20

Hallo Christopher,
great image, wonderful. Very well done black and white and so great composition. Looks like old image from grandfather´s album :) nice one
i really like it a lot
regards
Olga

vincent24 (9060) 2006-12-07 11:27

Hello Christopher,
good timing on the smoke puff,i like the mood with the intimist light and the grain adding a texture,very good"savoir faire"about the film development,
good job,
vincent

maltese (22909) 2006-12-07 11:45

Hello Christopher
Superbe image, prise au moment décisif avec une qualité technique irréprochable, Bravo
Amicalement
Hervé

rhizomes (15343) 2006-12-07 11:48

Hi Christopher,
I like this b/w picture with this smoking man...The smoke, the attitude of the man and the glasses on the table give a strong ambiance !
Christophe

recepyuksel (18640) 2006-12-07 14:24

Great photograph... smoke and face expression is superbe..

WhiteRose (10) 2006-12-07 14:45

Christopher

A wonderful shot. Well judged exposure, sacrificing detail elsewhere in the picture to keep the detail in the man's face. I like the graininess from the fast film.

Regards

Richard

scalerman (26900) 2006-12-07 14:49

Christopher: this old school photography at its finest - apprecieate the grains of real film. You've captured an atomosphere and mood perfectly here. Very fine work. regards, c

voightlanderfan (0) 2006-12-09 4:28

Wow this one is my favorits, Congratulations splendid shot.

Steph.

Jangalbaan (2) 2007-01-31 20:44

Fantastic.

jdwyer264 (1084) 2007-02-16 15:02

Beautiful image, so atmospheric.
And as a very new photographer in contrast to you I must say how confused and impressed with your understanding of these manual developing techniques. I am a child of technology and am so thankful that digital is now at a level which means images can be produced at a decent standard, do you use digital at all?
I am pleased technology has removed certain elements of human error and I can produce images I am pleased with without too much of a threat of me messing up and ending up with a a completely bleached image or other nightmare factors.
Very well done with this shot, its superb.
TFS

Benedict (7076) 2009-10-25 8:57