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tobias feltus
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egg 4
egg 4

A number of years ago Ian Atkinson was talking about the failings of modern photography, or specifically the contemporary lack of real formats, and how they can be related to a subject.

In the conversation he was talking of a specific photograph of an egg (my memory fails me here), and how the relationship between the large sheet of film and the small egg was able to express a point of view that can only be expressed in this manner.

I wrote to Ian, this is his response:
"About the egg photo, what I remember was, as you said, it was taken on an 8x10 camera, with a Schneider F5.6 super angulon lens, making sure the egg was well placed in the middle of the format.

From there, the distance between the lens & the egg was probably the most important part, one has got to assess this to make sure there was absolutely no distortion of the egg.

Meaning the egg was not too large in the format. The lens allowed one to get close. I forget the exact distance. You can judge this, but when you feel uncomfortable about the shape, when distortion appears, increase the distance from the egg. You have a large format with which to play!

Now what’s so great is the relationship between the closest point of the egg & the lens, & the slightly longer distance between the lens & the edge of the egg.

These distances are very important to obtain the sensation of the roundness(?) of the egg.

And that is the sensation that one is hoping to obtain.

I learned that from the American photographer Lester Bookbinder in the 1960s in his studio in London.

He also believed strongly that the size of the light used to give roundness, very important, was not large, but small, to give a shadow that emphasized it’s roundness."

I struggled with the picture. I have limited experience with 8x10 and with extreme macro. The extension was insane on this (notes failing here), and the 300mm lens was quite close to the subject. Exposure was something I struggled with, discovering that a lot of my technical skills do fail with such extreme exposures. Needless to say, this took many exposures.

Yadda yadda, I do like the image, though I cannot declare its relationship of scale to be pure magic. It's not like Richard Learoyd's work. (more on that here www.tobiasfeltus.com/critiques/richard-learoyd-finding-wa...)

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Taken on: April 28, 2020
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Camera: Microtek ArtixScan 2020 (more info) (hide info)
Camera: Microtek ArtixScan 2020
Color Space: Uncalibrated
Software: Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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egg 4

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