Thodoris Markou 3/21/14 Thodoris Markou 3/21/14

ten minute portraits

ten minute portrait sessions shot with the pentax 645n: loukas mexis, panagiotis gavriiloglou, nikos maliakos, thodoris kanellopoulos, vicky kaya, stella kasdagli, fiona halpin, natasa mavropoulou.

I have been shooting more "stand-alone" film portraiture in the past months, since the small size and easy operation of the pentax 645n has made quick portraits a lot easier. this 6x4.5 camera is small enough to fit in my photo bag without compromising the rest of my equipment, and medium format film provides exceptional results in all lighting situations. you can easily finish a roll of 16 frames in the space of, say, ten minutes, and be sure you have got at least a couple of good portraits.

all of the following images were shot in february/march 2014, with the pentax 645n and the 75mm/f2.8 lens. film used is noted under each image. no post-processing manipulation.

loukas mexis | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak t-max 400 (pushed to 1600)

loukas mexis | writer / journalist | kodak t-max 400 (pushed to 1600)

panagiotis gavriiloglou| pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak ektachrome e100sw

panagiotis gavriiloglou | journalist / writer | kodak ektachrome e100sw

nikos maliakos | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak ektachrome e100sw

nikos maliakos | photographer | kodak ektachrome e100sw

thodoris kanellopoulos | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak portra 160

thodoris kanellopoulos | journalist | kodak portra 160

vicky kaya | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak portra 160

vicky kaya | model / creator of fashion workshop | kodak portra 160

stella kasdagli | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak t-max 400

stella kasdagli | journalist / writer (ithelamono.gr) | kodak t-max 400

fiona halpin | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak t-max 100

fiona halpin | model (fashioncult) | kodak t-max 100

natasa mavropoulou | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak tri-x 400

natasa mavropoulou | actress | kodak tri-x 400

Thodoris Markou 3/6/14 Thodoris Markou 3/6/14

loukas mexis

a ten-minute portrait session: loukas mexis and my new pentax 645n medium format camera.

a ten-minute portrait session: loukas mexis(almost two years after the shoot me photoshoot)
all images shot on medium format film with a new kid on the block, the pentax 645n.
[pentax 645n | smc pentax-fa 75mm/f2.8 | kodak t-max 400 push-processed to 1600 ASA]

loukas mexis | pentax 645n | 75mm/f2.8 | kodak t-max 400 (pushed to 1600)

Thodoris Markou 2/7/14 Thodoris Markou 2/7/14

camille claudel: mudness

theatre photography: camille claudel - mudness, by square theatre company.

back in october 2013 I did a little bit of theatre photography, for square theatre company.the play is called camille claudel: mudness, and is still being performed at the aggelon vima theatre stage.
I intended to go back and shoot the play with a medium format film camera, but that never happened, so... here's the digital version.
cast members: daphne manousou : camille claudel stella bourou : constance pascal
director : giannis laspias visual & scenography editor - visual art : pantelis xeroheimonas costumes design : vassiliki sirma music : the boy – alexandros voulgaris art – director : magdalini stefanatou production: square theatre company & aggelon vima

camille claudel: mudness

Thodoris Markou 1/17/14 Thodoris Markou 1/17/14

samira meets the sony a7r

samira meets the sony a7r, the carl zeiss 35mm/f2.8, the minolta md 50mm/f1.4, and lots of light.

the portrait session with samira was going to be a film-only session, and I indeed shot it on medium format film, which I much prefer to any digital camera. I did, however, carry the sony a7r with me, so I got some test shots in the beginning and some extra shots after I ran out of film. this camera is extremely potent, easily paired to any kind of lens, and takes virtually no space in your camera bag.
the first five images were shot with the native carl zeiss fe 35mm/f2.8 lens. the rest of the images were shot with a 40-year-old minolta md 50mm/f1.4 lens (manual focusing, focus peaking, etc). the post-process included brightening, contrast, etc. - I did not change the colours, apply any noise reduction or sharpening. I've left the exif data on the photos.

sony a7r | carl zeiss fe 35mm/f2.8

sony a7r | minolta md 50mm/f1.4

Thodoris Markou 1/13/14 Thodoris Markou 1/13/14

samira

a portraiture session: twenty images of samira, captured on black & white kodak tri-x and t-max film with the pentax 67.

this portrait session took place on a very busy afternoon, in the mohxa headquarters. I used the pentax 67, with three rolls of kodak tri-x 400 (2) and kodak t-max 400 (1) films. the corridor lights were quite weak, so I pushed the films to ASA 1600/3200 during development (t-max developer at 24c for 9 1/2 mins, for both films). judging by the negatives, the t-max came out a little better than the tri-x films, though this difference was negated during scanning.
I made the legendary mistake of forgetting there was a film loaded in the camera and opening the film back. I lost one and a half frame of the first film, but I am proud to present you the other half. another legendary thing is the pentax 67 viewfinder, which shows only 90% of the total frame. this is okay, because you are expected to crop a bit (and a 56x70mm negative is large enough for a lot of cropping), but I decided to keep the frames exactly as they came out... moreover, some frames have "white streaks", that were done by me - the tri-x films proved extraordinarily curly when I was loading them in the development tank.

meet samira carvalho, courtesy of the ford models brasil agency.

[pentax 67 | takumar 105mm/f2.4 | kodak tri-x 400 & t-max 400 push-processed to 1600/3200 ASA]

pentax 67 | takumar 105mm/f2.4 | kodak tri-x 400

pentax 67 | takumar 105mm/f2.4 | kodak t-max 400

pentax 67 | takumar 105mm/f2.4 | kodak tri-x 400

pentax 67 | takumar 105mm/f2.4 | kodak t-max 400

pentax 67 | takumar 105mm/f2.4 | kodak tri-x 400

Thodoris Markou 12/31/13 Thodoris Markou 12/31/13

thirteen film portraits for 2013

a series of portraits taken during 2013, using analog cameras and film.

13 portraits taken during 2013, using analog media.

the images follow a timeline - first portrait was shot in february, last one in december. the hardest part was to choose the best (as in "most representative") portraits of the year, while also trying to include images that I hadn't posted in the blog before (or anywhere else, for that matter). keeping the number to 13 was also quite difficult, I had to remove a lot of good images. I also couldn't show a number of portraits that are yet to be published.

[ alkistis | pentax 67 | 105mm/f2.4 | kodak portra 400 ]

[ vinyl love | pentax 67 | 105mm/f2.4 | kodak portra 400 ]

[ nafsika lalioti | pentax 67 | 105mm/f2.4 | kodak portra 400 ]

[ magda | speed graphic | aero ektar 178mm/f2.5 | kodak vericolor III s 160 ]

[ theodoros chliapas | speed graphic | aero ektar 178mm/f2.5 | kodak ektachrome 6121 4x5 x-pro ]

[ sophie | pentax 67 | 105mm/f2.4 | kodak portra 400 ]

rolleiflex t | rollei retro 400s [ mary retsina | rolleiflex t | fomapan 200 ]

rolleiflex t | fomapan 200 [ fou mal | rolleiflex t | rollei retro 400s ]

[ fiona | pentax 67 | 105mm/f2.4 | kodak portra 400 ]

[ tamta | rolleiflex t | kodak portra 400 ]

Thodoris Markou 12/12/13 Thodoris Markou 12/12/13

ozonized: dimitris mavrokefalidis

a portraiture session: dimitris mavrokefalidis of mad tv, shot with the pentax 67 and the leica m4, for ozon magazine.

ozonized: dimitris mavrokefalidisco-host of the breaking mad show at mad tv (along with fotini korre)

black and white images shot with the pentax 67 and the 105mm/f2.4 lens, on kodak tri-x 400 film color images shot with the leica m4 and the voigtlander 28mm/f2, on rossmann 400 film

dimitris mavrokefalidis | pentax 67 | 105mm/f2,4 | kodak tri-x 400

dimitris mavrokefalidis | leica m4 | voigtlander 28mm/f2 | rossmann 400

Thodoris Markou 11/22/13 Thodoris Markou 11/22/13

Isabel Marant pour H&M: the polaroids

a polaroid large format session: using the Speed Graphic & Aero Ektar combo on a fashion editorial for Isabel Marant and H&M.

two weeks ago, H&M Greece and Ozon Magazine gave me an opportunity to shoot a fashion editorial with the Isabel Marant line before its worldwide launch. I did it the analog way: on large format, using medium format film as a backup. yes, there was a digital camera on set - I brought along the new Sony A7, which I used as a lightmeter.

I used the Speed Graphic / Aero Ektar combo, shooting polaroids for the sake of speed and convenience, as we needed to have part of the editorial online three days later. I also shot 4x5 film, b/w as well as color, and a couple of medium format rolls with the Pentax 67 as a backup.

there will be two more posts about this photoshoot, one showcasing the large format shots and one with the 6x7 results, after they've been published. the results are quite different, especially on the color large format shots.

it was hot and I didn't have enough brains to pay more attention to the backstage, so here are some smartphone photos with the setup:

Graflex Speed Graphic | Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm/f2.5

Graflex Speed Graphic | Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm/f2.5 | Fuji FP-100c

Graflex Speed Graphic | Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm/f2.5 | Polaroid 669 and film holders

you can see more backstage shots over at OzonWeb, where this polaroid "webditorial" was first published.

there was half a pack of Fuji FP-100c in the polaroid holder, so I finished it up, before switching to expired Polaroid 669 film. the difference between the two films is huge. it's a big shame you can't get a negative out of the polaroid 669 (which you can do with the fuji film) and an even bigger shame that you can't find this film any more.

I shot a total of 25 polaroid frames. all images presented below are a straight scan from the positive print. the first three images are Fuji FP-100c, the rest are Polaroid 669. you can see where the Polaroid 669 didn't like going against the sun. the double exposure was deliberate.