Shelly on black

This one was a little more complicated

I used the technique from Day 1 of gluing the shell to a broom handle and pushing it through the background paper to "suspend" the shell over the background.

Once the shell was set up it didn't take long to finish off the shot. I keep the big Zone VI tripod on a wheeled dolly in the studio and can set the 8x10 up quickly. (I did leave it set up for a while till the tripod fell over with the camera a few nights ago.)

I take a variety of meter readings with a spot meter including off the background, the subject and a grey card placed next to the subject. These give me the contrast range. To figure out what exposure to use I use an incident reading right at the subject. I think my meter readings are consistent and I'm getting good results with the processing ... so my negative are rather consistent as well.

My enlarger has a cool head which means it doesn't work that well with Multigrade Papers. I use graded paper for everything and my proof prints are done on Ilford Ilfospeed RC which is a grade 2 paper.

I'm really trying to get good consistent results.

After I processed these negative I noticed the broomstick jutting out on the negative. I could live with it, but since I'm trying to improve and correct these mistakes I'll re-shoot on a rainy day.

Rob Skeoch
www.thepicturedesk.ca

If you're looking for sheet film I have it in sizes up to 12x20" including 8x20, 7x17, WP, 8x10, 5x7 and 4x5. You can find these at www.bigcameraworkshops.com