• Please use real names.

    Greetings to all who have registered to OPF and those guests taking a look around. Please use real names. Registrations with fictitious names will not be processed. REAL NAMES ONLY will be processed

    Firstname Lastname

    Register

    We are a courteous and supportive community. No need to hide behind an alia. If you have a genuine need for privacy/secrecy then let me know!
  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Film: Some of my favourites from 1984

Nigel Allan

Member
My Nikon Coolscan 500 ED has arrived and I just played with it for the first time this evening. Dusting off my old neg files brought back a few memories. Here are a few of the first scans from black and white negatives with no retouching. Full frame prints with no cropping. I haven't quite worked out how to use the scanner properly and show the borders of the film as I like, but I know I am going to have a LOT of fun with this new toy.

These are part of a set I took of my soon to be wife, Elisabet on the 10th September 1984 with my Pentax LX and 50mm 1.4 with Ilford HP5. These were taken at the South bank centre in London and not only had it just rained, we'd had a big row. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. There's a quality about film that digital just cannot emulate in my opinion.

19841009-elisabet.jpg

1. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 1

19841009-elisabet-2.jpg

2. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 2


19841009-elisabet-3.jpg

3. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 3


19841009-elisabet-4.jpg

4. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 4
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Nigel,

These are part of a set I took of my soon to be wife, Elisabet on the 10th September 1984 with my Pentax LX and 50mm 1.4 with Ilford HP5.
You are to be congratulated for your judgment (or good luck) in getting this exquisite model "under contract".

Yes, the shots are wonderful, very evocative of the period, almost like something out of a period movie about the Cold War.
 

John Angulat

pro member
Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. There's a quality about film that digital just cannot emulate in my opinion.


Hi Nigel,
What's not to enjoy? These are exquisite captures!
I agree with Doug - I see a same "Cold War-esq" quality to them, almost as if they were stills from a '60's era movie.
Well done!
 

beth anthony

New member
beautiful images of your future white. her poses and clothes go along with the modern industrial background..

much better than my masterpiece done a few months later that year of poo in the diaper.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
My Nikon Coolscan 500 ED has arrived and I just played with it for the first time this evening. Dusting off my old neg files brought back a few memories. Here are a few of the first scans from black and white negatives with no retouching. Full frame prints with no cropping. I haven't quite worked out how to use the scanner properly and show the borders of the film as I like, but I know I am going to have a LOT of fun with this new toy.

These are part of a set I took of my soon to be wife, Elisabet on the 10th September 1984 with my Pentax LX and 50mm 1.4 with Ilford HP5. These were taken at the South bank centre in London and not only had it just rained, we'd had a big row. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. There's a quality about film that digital just cannot emulate in my opinion.


19841009-elisabet.jpg

Nigel Allan: Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984[/I]


What grace and contrast, a perfect woman and the hard rectangular stone building.

Asher
 
Last edited:

Mike Shimwell

New member
Well, Mike, time to take your stuff out of moth balls...the shoulder pads are back in fashion! :)

Hi Nigel

despite hailing from near Sheffield, I was never a follower o' t'League. Recently, I narrowly missed (due to a pre booked holiday) a return to see Michael Schenker and Friends playing a warm up gig at a local, small nightclub, but I don't have or fit any of that gear these days either:)

I still think this is a great set.

Mike
 

Nigel Allan

Member
Hi Nigel

despite hailing from near Sheffield, I was never a follower o' t'League. Recently, I narrowly missed (due to a pre booked holiday) a return to see Michael Schenker and Friends playing a warm up gig at a local, small nightclub, but I don't have or fit any of that gear these days either:)

I still think this is a great set.

Mike

ee by gum lad I was born and raised in Chesterfield till I was 8 years old
 

Nigel Allan

Member
Another from the South bank series

Thank you everyone for all the encouragement and kind words. It makes me want to go and take more pictures.

Here's another from that afternoon. I made almost every shot on the 36 exposure roll count, with only one or two that didn't work due to camera shake from fading light. I do think that shooting like this with film instills a certain discipline that you won't get from digital with large storage memory cards and 'throw away images'

19841009-elisabet-5.jpg


5. Nigel Allan: Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 5
 
Last edited:

Ken Tanaka

pro member
I just came across these and, again, must join the chorus of congratulations. These are excellent, Nigel. In this case, this set reminds me just a bit of some of Harry Callahan's extensive work using his wife, Eleanor, as his muse. Elisabet has a very statuesque figure, strong poise.

You should have gotten yourself a scanner a long time ago.
 

Nigel Allan

Member
I just came across these and, again, must join the chorus of congratulations. These are excellent, Nigel. In this case, this set reminds me just a bit of some of Harry Callahan's extensive work using his wife, Eleanor, as his muse. Elisabet has a very statuesque figure, strong poise.

You should have gotten yourself a scanner a long time ago.

Thank you Ken. I am getting my head around it (as a typical male RTFM applies to me. I play with it and only when I get stuck do I bother to read the *%&@+* manual) and now I realise I can scan finer so I will rescan some of these and see if I can improve the final product. Here is another I scanned from that set at a slightly finer resolution (I hope) so let's see if it the grain looks any smoother etc


19841009-elisabet-6.jpg

Nigel Allan: Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 6
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
My immediate off-the-cuff:
- The image has a great deal going in its favor. Beautiful forms, wide tonality mostly in the right places, nice pose and posture on Elisabeth. She looks just a bit rigid and, in a perfect world, I might have brought her chin down half a degree. Since you're shooting from a heroic angle you don't really need the straight-neck exaggeration. The right hand heading for the pocket is interesting. At first it seemed a bit unsettling, rather like a casual snap. but the more I look the more I like the way it breaks-up the otherwise coldly static nature of the scene.

- In terms of framing, again in a perfect world, I would have preferred 2 or 3-steps back, rotated slightly to the right, and tilted slightly down. That is, I would like just a bit more of that wall's dark grungy texture and more of Elisabeth, perhaps to her feet.
 

Nigel Allan

Member
My immediate off-the-cuff:
- The image has a great deal going in its favor. Beautiful forms, wide tonality mostly in the right places, nice pose and posture on Elisabeth. She looks just a bit rigid and, in a perfect world, I might have brought her chin down half a degree. Since you're shooting from a heroic angle you don't really need the straight-neck exaggeration. The right hand heading for the pocket is interesting. At first it seemed a bit unsettling, rather like a casual snap. but the more I look the more I like the way it breaks-up the otherwise coldly static nature of the scene.

- In terms of framing, again in a perfect world, I would have preferred 2 or 3-steps back, rotated slightly to the right, and tilted slightly down. That is, I would like just a bit more of that wall's dark grungy texture and more of Elisabeth, perhaps to her feet.

Ken, thank you.

This was not one of my original favourites from this set and to be honest nearly every one on the 36 roll is different so we didn't spend time 'perfecting' a set up or pose. I just shot what I saw and felt as we were having fun. No doubt if this was 'the' shot I was looking for we might have shot this same one 20-30 times or more but it wasn't like that.

I did ask you specifically to give your feedback on this particular photo since I value your insight so highly and wondered what you might see in it both good and bad, especially since it is one of the roll which I never printed and never selected as a favourite yet somehow, looking at it with fresh eyes after 25 years find it strangely interesting and almost 'iconic' in some way. I also like the geometry of the frame in the way the light and dark areas divide up the rectangular space. Remember this isn't cropped and is as shot and seen in the VF

Once again thank you Ken and to everyone else who has commented so constructively and been so complimentary.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thank you Ken. I am getting my head around it (as a typical male RTFM applies to me. I play with it and only when I get stuck do I bother to read the *%&@+* manual) and now I realise I can scan finer so I will rescan some of these and see if I can improve the final product. Here is another I scanned from that set at a slightly finer resolution (I hope) so let's see if it the grain looks any smoother etc


19841009-elisabet-6.jpg

Nigel Allan: Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 6

Seeing this is like coming across a gem in the Taschen books store, only because someone else is looking at it. This is such a great surprise to have you share more of the richest time in your life for your B&W work. Ken's comments are really helpful as usual and buttresses my own impressions. Eleizabets almost fashion manequin appearance against the acute diverging angles of the building is satisfying as an abrupt end to the eyes left to right forced movement.

If you are doing a fine scan then the neck will be able to be tackled so it is less contrasted with the face, as they might be best seen as one unit of closely mapped tonalities.

Asher
 

nicolas claris

OPF Co-founder/Administrator
Hi Nigel
wonderfull. Even in B&W (,-)!

I do like the high neck, it enhance the feeling of the "beauté froide".

We also see love thru your lens. One can understand!
 

Nigel Allan

Member
Hi Nigel
wonderfull. Even in B&W (,-)!

I do like the high neck, it enhance the feeling of the "beauté froide".

We also see love thru your lens. One can understand!

You see Asher, the French see beauty and elegance in areas others overlook :) They even have special words for what they see :)

I am sure the French have as many descriptions for beauty and elegance as the eskimos have for snow or the bedouin have for sand dunes

Now I'll have to share some of my shots of Elisabet I took in Paris around this time...they have a kind of je ne sais quoi, although Nicolas will be able to frame them for me through a Frenchman's eyes. Merci beaucoup, Nicolas, especialement parce que je sai que vous n'amiez pas les photos monochromes (please excuse my schoolboy French) ...especially since I know you are not a fan of black and white
 
Last edited:

Prateek Dubey

New member
These are part of a set I took of my soon to be wife, Elisabet on the 10th September 1984 with my Pentax LX and 50mm 1.4 with Ilford HP5. These were taken at the South bank centre in London and not only had it just rained, we'd had a big row. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. There's a quality about film that digital just cannot emulate in my opinion.

19841009-elisabet.jpg

1. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 1

19841009-elisabet-2.jpg

2. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 2


19841009-elisabet-3.jpg

3. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 3


19841009-elisabet-4.jpg

4. Nigel Allan:
Elisabet, South Bank – 10th September 1984. Number 4


Beautiful pictures. I especially love No 4. I think it says a lot about the state mind and the rain...
 
My Nikon Coolscan 500 ED has arrived and I just played with it for the first time this evening. Dusting off my old neg files brought back a few memories. Here are a few of the first scans from black and white negatives with no retouching.

Dear Nigel,

I know it' almost two years late, bur I just stumbled across your images. I wanted to congratulate you on a set of beautifully made images, that are absolute eye-candy! I love the tones, and of course your dramatic compositions.

I do hope you either have, or intend to make, some darkroom prints from these! Otherwise you'd better pop the negatives in the mail for me to make you some...
 
Top