Film Friday: Flamenco
by Dierk Topp
Hi Steve and Brandon,
This is a series of flamenco images. I took these images with the Nikon FA and T-Max 400 in 1987.
My wife loved flamenco, since she went to school and later she joined a small group and they danced just for fun and on small events in public.
The first images of my wife and a friend of the flamenco group are made in our living room with two soft boxes. Images 8 and 9 show the famous Swiss flamenco dancer Nina Corti dancing in the “Fabrik” in Hamburg, Germany. On these images the light was not easy. The lens could have been my 35-135mm or the 180/2.8 Nikkor.
I digitized the images with the set up that you see on this last image:
The Sony A7R with a Metabones adapter attached to a Nikon mount bellows with a Leica enlarging lens and a slide/film copy adapter. Light from a Nikon SB800 set on manual exposure. Today (for these images shown here) I use my A7RII with 42 MP = 5.300 DPI and a wireless TTL controlled Nissin Di700A flash. That makes it easy and I shoot a complete set of 6 negatives in about 20 seconds with perfect exposures. Processing with PS for inversion to positive and some cleaning and cropping and with Nik Silver Efex Pro for final B&W.
Dierk
All wonderful images, with # 6 my favorite. Excellent composition. I don’t see any trace of motion blur in the photographs–remarkable ! Yes, the 180mm f2.8 was a killer lens, from the heyday of Nippon Kogaku KK, when their motto proudly proclaimed – “We take the world’s greatest pictures”. Today? “At the heart of the image” – meh. Just see where they are today, an also-ran 🙁
I would like to be able to take such photos (flamenco). Congratulations.
Excellent images. Number 5 is my favorite. The intensity on the beautiful face makes the image.
My favorite is number 8, just as a tonal study. Excellent!
great job !