Want an easier time shooting Street? Get a TLR.

GTRacer · 23 Nov 2011 at 23:57

I finally got some shots I took a few months ago developed. I wanted to test two things, the first being how my dev+film combo held up (Diafine+Tri-X) and secondly if shooting street with a TLR is as good a rangefinder. I think it is, the first shot wouldn't have been possible if I just used a smaller camera, at least not without being shouted at. The camera evoked curiosity rather than paranoia.

(shot into the sun, this old 50's glass flares up in a nice way)

snow patrol · 24 Nov 2011 at 11:29

don't see how this would make street photography easier to be honest!

Nexus · 24 Nov 2011 at 12:48

I would have thought a TLR would probably draw more attention to you than a modern camera would.

Logsi · 24 Nov 2011 at 13:29

snow patrol said:
don't see how this would make street photography easier to be honest!

Nexus said:
I would have thought a TLR would probably draw more attention to you than a modern camera would.

How VERY wrong you guys are. TLR are bleeding fantastic for shooting street photography and portraiture.

I love my TLR. It's just such a nice camera to work with. 12 shots per 120 roll. Slows you down and being able to see down such a gorgeous waist level finder is one of the best experiences i have when shooting. It's up with with a rangefinder in my opinion as because you are composing your shot and really don't want to mess it up people just don't get offended with it or even notice you're there.

The shot in the link below was taken on the camera above with some not ideal film as i could only get Fuji 400ProS...would have much preferred Porta 160/400...but you get the idea. The shot could never have been taken with a DSLR. As said above people are a hell of a lot more inquisitive of what you are doing which works in your favour!

http://500px.com/photo/3046027

P.S. 6x6 <3

Republic · 24 Nov 2011 at 14:23

That last photo looks very much like sometime I used to do online gaming with... do you know them personally?

Mint_Sauce · 24 Nov 2011 at 14:42

Love the camera and the feel of the photos. Did you develop the film yourself or have a place you get it done at?

Logsi · 24 Nov 2011 at 14:51

Developing Black & White is easy peasy and very cheap to do so.

Just need to get yourself a Patterson hand tank and a light tight plastic bag. Once you have the film in the hand tank on the plastic spool you can take it out into the light and you can start to put develop the film any number of different developers (I like Rodinol!) then onto stop and then fixer. In around 30 minutes your film is ready! The longest part is washing the film in filtered water for 20 minutes.

You can put them through the machines but black and white definitely comes out better hand tanked. It's a lot less grainy if you gently hand tank agitate. I've shot Ilford Delta 3200 at 6400 and hand tanked very gently with some awesomely fine grain once printed and/or scanned.

C41 or E6 colour negative is another kettle of fish though and really need to be put through a machine. Luckily i have unlimited free access to these machines at Uni so I'm shooting a lot of film while i can!

Mint_Sauce · 24 Nov 2011 at 14:54

I've done some basic B&W developing work before but not having any equipment I recently went to Peak Imaging who weren't great if I'm honest. They were very expensive as well so I've given up on film completely now which is a shame!

Logsi · 24 Nov 2011 at 15:01

Don't give up on it as Black & White is sooo easy and soooo much better than digital Black & White!

GTRacer · 24 Nov 2011 at 23:00

Yeah, a TLR is surprisingly good for street! They're quieter than any Leica by quite a large margin too.

Republic said:
That last photo looks very much like sometime I used to do online gaming with... do you know them personally?

Nope, he was just a stranger who saw my camera, we started talking about it and I took that portrait as I was showing him how it worked.

Mint_Sauce said:
Love the camera and the feel of the photos. Did you develop the film yourself or have a place you get it done at?

Thanks! I develop black and white by myself, it takes me about 15 minutes to get a batch of film done and a few hours for the negatives to dry. Colour film gets dropped off at my local lab as its a bit more complicated with regards to maintaining a constant temperature.

Fusion · 25 Nov 2011 at 20:29

That's a lovely looking piece of kit. Yours shots certainly have a distinctive feel to them, a character that would be tricky to achieve with digital. It looks suited to street photography in particular.

kitfit1 · 26 Nov 2011 at 06:29

Some very nice shots GTRacer. I would say nearly all of them could do with some dodging and burning at the enlarging and developing stage to bring out the highlights more.
The first medium format camera i owned was a Bronica ETRS which i bought in 1981 or 1982. It's actually an SLR with a waist level finder as opposed to a TLR, but usage and the method of use is the same. The ETRS and the Mamiya C330 were the defacto standard camera's used by wedding photographers at the time, so are perfect for portrait and street work. Film cost on it's own dictated that shots had to be composed very carefully.