Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on doing close-up portraits with the Sputnik?
I'm looking to do torso/middle chest + head with some head room.

How far away would the subject need to be and at what focus would you recommend (perhaps 2 meters of focus)
Sorry if this is a silly question, I'm still learning. : )


All the best,
Jesper

On 7/11/2018 2:04 AM, jeppeln@yahoo.com [MF3D-group] wrote:

> I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on doing close-up portraits with the Sputnik?
> I'm looking to do torso/middle chest + head with some head room.

You have a couple of issues to worry about.

Framing
Depth of field
Window

The viewing lens your sputnik is above the taking lenses.
The viewing lens is also of different design, and covers a
bit different area. Before you load film, I suggest doing
some experiments using the sputnik as a "view camera".

With film unloaded and the back open, put a piece of ground
glass across the film gate. Now compare what you see there
with what you see in the viewfinder. You should be able to
figure out what you need to see in the viewfinder to get the
basic composition you like on the ground glass.

Then you need to consider how much depth of field you want.
If we say a human head is 1/4 meter deep, then my quick spin
of a depth of field calculator suggests you will want
something like f/8 when focusing in the 2m range.

Do you have a depth of field calculator? If not, you should
look at DOFMaster (http://dofmaster.com/custom.html) It is a
windows application which lets you print a custom
dial-calculator. You can shove in whatever parameters you
like. But for a basic idea, use their stock 6x6/75mm parameters.

When you are composing, consider your lens spacing and
window placement. If you get closer than about 2m to your
subject, you're going to need to start cropping film. If you
get in close enough, you won't be able to use mounts with
square apertures.

--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi John,

As you've told us, you are still pretty inexperienced photographically. You need to gain some experience. Picking other people's brains can be useful - but there really is no substitute for actual experience!

You really need to put some film through your camera and then study the results :-)

If I were you I would be buying some black & white film, a developing tank and some chemicals - Oh, and a "changing bag" if you don't have somewhere that you can totally black out for getting the film into the tank. Then, expose a film and develop the film. You'll probably end up with negatives, since processing the film into "slides" (positive images) is a little more advanced, but you can then look at the negatives through a magnifier and you'll soon be able to work out what is sharp and what is not. If you keep some notes at the taking stage, you'll start to learn what works and what doesn't - both with sharpness and with exposure.

If you want, you can then get some small dishes and print processing chemicals and photographic printing paper and contact print your negatives so you can make stereoviews like the classic ones that can still easily be found, even though production has been seriously limited for nearly a century.

Once you have gained some experience in this way you can move on to making colour slides. But the costs for this are significantly higher than making the B&W stereoviews...

Bob Aldridge

 

Thanks for the feedback!

I don't own a ground glass, is the difference that large from the what you see in the viewfinder compared to the actual image?

I don't really want to do any special treatments.

What would you estimate the closest possible distance to the portrait subject would be without a slide bar?

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Den torsdag, juli 12, 2018, 05:15, skrev Boris Starosta boris@starosta.com [MF3D-group] :

 

If shooting a portrait at say 1 meter (which is what it's going to be, given your intent to cover just head and shoulders), you will need to shoot with a reduced stereobase.  Get a slide bar for your spud, and shoot a left and right frame separately, moving the spud on the sidebar to produce an interaxial separation of an inch, or so.

Your picture will look a lot better that way.  I know because I've learned that the hard way.

(If you were shooting with an easy to wind camera, or motor drive camera, or digital camera, you could do this without a slide bar.  But the spud will not be easy.  You will either -1- cover one, then the other lens, as you do your two exposures without winding film, or you will -2- shoot two stereo pairs, winding the film in between exposures.  Either way will take considerable time, and your model will have to hold PERFECTLY still during that time.  GOOD LUCK!)

Maybe another thing to try is to shoot through a beamsplitter, backwards?

Boris

––––

Contemporary work in the Stereoscopic Arts:  www.patreon.com/retroformat

––––

Man Plans. God Laughs.

- old Yiddish adage

2a

Sputnik close-up portrait focus

Wed Jul 11, 2018 3:04 am (PDT) . Posted by:

jeppeln

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on doing close-up portraits with the Sputnik?
I'm looking to do torso/middle chest + head with some head room.

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It IS possible to focus using the central ground glass circle in the Sputnik viewfinder, using the built-in magnifier. But you really need to have the camera on a tripod so the subject that you are focussing on remains stationary in the small circle.

However, it is possible for both the ground glass glass and the scale on the lens to be out of adjustment. So you need to check them. I suggested in my previous message that you get some experience with your camera using B&W film which you can develop yourself. If you set up the camera on a tripod and accurately measure the distance from the camera to an easily recognised object and then use your preferred method (scale or ground glass circle) to focus on that object. Keep notes of what you have done!

Then, after the film has been processed, you can study the results and learn what works.

(And, before anyone points it out, you'll probably be shooting at quite a small aperture, so the need for absolute precision in focussing will be reduced. But it is still really good to know how accurate the set-up of your camera is...)

Bob Aldridge

 

Hi John,

Thanks!

Do you think I should focus via my eyes via the viewfinder or just by the going by and trusting the distance marks on the middle lens?

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Den onsdag, juli 11, 2018, 20:35, skrev John Thurston juneau3d@thurstons.us [MF3D-group] :

 

On 7/11/2018 2:04 AM, jeppeln@yahoo.com [MF3D-group] wrote:
> I'm wondering if anyone has any tips on doing close-up portraits with the Sputnik?
> I'm looking to do torso/middle chest + head with some head room.

You have a couple of issues to worry about.

Framing
Depth of field
Window

The viewing lens your sputnik is above the taking lenses.
The viewing lens is also of different design, and covers a
bit different area. Before you load film, I suggest doing
some experiments using the sputnik as a "view camera".

With film unloaded and the back open, put a piece of ground
glass across the film gate. Now compare what you see there
with what you see in the viewfinder. You should be able to
figure out what you need to see in the viewfinder to get the
basic composition you like on the ground glass.

Then you need to consider how much depth of field you want.
If we say a human head is 1/4 meter deep, then my quick spin
of a depth of field calculator suggests you will want
something like f/8 when focusing in the 2m range.

Do you have a depth of field calculator? If not, you should
look at DOFMaster (http://dofmaster.com/custom.html) It is a
windows application which lets you print a custom
dial-calculator. You can shove in whatever parameters you
like. But for a basic idea, use their stock 6x6/75mm parameters.

When you are composing, consider your lens spacing and
window placement. If you get closer than about 2m to your
subject, you're going to need to start cropping film. If you
get in close enough, you won't be able to use mounts with
square apertures.

--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

Hi Bob,

On 7/12/2018 3:42 AM, Jesper BE jeppeln@yahoo.com
[MF3D-group] wrote:

> I don't own a ground glass

It doesn't need to be glass to work. Anything which will
catch the light will get you started. Before I had any good
glass, I tired:

waxed paper
tracing paper
scuffed plastic
"scotch" tape

Of those, I liked the "scotch" adhesive tape the best. In
the UK, I think it's known as "sellotape". The product has a
flat, unshiny appearance as it comes off the roll. When
pressed to paper it is hard to see. When taped across the
film gate of your camera, it provides a screen on which the
image can be seen. I don't know what the product may be
called in Sweden :(

It isn't as nice a a piece of ground glass, but it is
inexpensive and unbreakable.


--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

On 7/12/2018 3:52 AM, Jesper BE jeppeln@yahoo.com
[MF3D-group] wrote:

> Thanks!Do you think I should focus via my eyes via the viewfinder or just by the going by and trusting the distance marks on the middle lens?

I suggest you will use the viewing lens for framing and
composition, but set the focus by the distance marks on the
lens.


--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

On 7/12/2018 9:47 AM, Linda N ljnygren@gmail.com
[MF3D-group] wrote:

> I seem to recall in the past having put scotch "magic tape" (the dull kind)
> onto a thin piece of plain glass such as an old glass slide cover, to
> create functional "ground glass". -Linda

That makes it reusable and keeps the sticky off your film
rollers :)

Just be sure to orient the glass so the taped surface is
nearest the lens. If done the other way around, the image
will be created behind the plane of the film (by the
thickness of your glass), and the focus will not be correct
when you load the camera.

--
John Thurston
Juneau Alaska
http://stereo.thurstons.us

That's a great idea!

Hi John,