The ol 42 minute narration without recording. Always a fun one 🙂 Lovely portraits i actually like the slightly underexposed one quite a bit. This book is going to be so damn good.
I love the first shot of the flowers in your kitchen. The hint of atmosphere was fantastic on that honestly and gave the flowers enough room to breathe and really gave it a lovely feel of it being a classic still life.
Maaaate. Just tripped into your languid, soft and engaging world. What a treat. 2 films in, and loving every second. Fine work and delivery is so watchable. Got lots of viewing time to look forward to. Hello from the south east coast of england. Keep it up pal 👊🏽
I absolutely love your work and you way of thinking. I'm a portrait photographer myself and I am really bored by the usual film photography channels on RU-vid: same format, same photos that convey absolutely no emotion whatsoever. I really don't understand the purpose of shooting pieces of buildings and bad street photography. Technical info in these videos are pretty decent but they're just that: technical info about cameras and films. They're not about capturing something precious. Seeing you working, I'm like "this is exactly what I think photography is meant to be." There is an intention, not random images of meaningless things. Oh and this bad habit they tend to have to say a photo is "interesting"... I think that's what you say when you can't find ANYTHING interesting in an image. Photography is meant to be beautiful, or even really ugly, to remember a moment, a place, or a person. Not to shoot a door knob during the golden hour to waste a roll of expensive film. Even if you make a video of you shooting the knob and use lofi hip-hop as your background music.
Those flowers on Ektar look incredible. I have a whole new respect for large format photographers who nail the focus like you did here. On top of all the things that go with shooting film tilting and shifting to get focus seems so tough. Lovely work man!
I love those initial photos starting at 4:22 timeline! Later on, to have a person sit and use large format camera movements to get different parts of the body in focus shows a LOT of expertise at using the large format camera. You are no noob my friend but one of the better exponents of large format photography that I can see anyway. I know you can see all the little failings in your images because you made them. But for us viewers your photographs are outstanding. Long live the large format camera!
Thank you, Tony. Means a lot. The first portraits that I took were indeed nice, but those technical mishaps will always plague them for me. Appreciate the kind words 🖤
Really appreciate your style for interviews, the atmosphere and context added to a conversation through just a small vignette is really beautiful and a great workaround for filming a shaky talking head. Always so fantastic Bryan!
Appreciate that! There is always so much stuff going on that I can't always work with two cameras. The audio is just an easy way to get context for sure. Thanks for watching!
Nice shots. As primarily a landscape shooter, I love Ektar. Almost slide film colors but with dynamic range to boot....Half of the people who hate Ektar think the reds pop too much. These same people are almost always overexposing it by 1-2 stop.... If you look at the Kodak data sheet for Ektar you see that it actually builds up reds the slowest, so any over exposure on Ektar makes the reds more and more saturated and vibrant.
7:35 That is a the coolest sweater color I've ever seen, I need to find a sweater in that color ahah! Also you stay nailing focus these days man it's both inspiring and intimidating me for when the time comes to shoot some large format stuff haha. Beautiful photos as always, and a lovely journey of a video once more
I was hoping he would be wearing a sweet flannel like last time but I had to settle for the solid. Focusing is a fun game that you lose a lot in the beginning. I’m thinking you will do just fine as your pretty slow with your compositions. Just don’t overthink the movements at first!
@@BryanBirks Just jumping on William's comment. I am constantly amazed at how you nail focus. VERY often, I feel like between my focussing and then loading my film holder, the subject must be moving (ever so slightly that I don't notice) and then I get my negs back.....and their shoulder is PERFECTLY sharp. lol. but also, very much NOT lol. anyway, another great video man, thank you. and I really loved the flower shots. also, always love those driving shots in your videos!
@@joseelement7695 It is the worst and I have had my fair share of missed focus portraits. To minimize that, I always have the holder right by me ready to go. For Isaiah's close portrait, I actually had it in my bag a few feet away so I just refocused after grabbing it. After the portrait was taken, I told him not to move and then I checked focus once more to ensure he didn't move the first time. It was good so I moved on. The only other thing I do is pay CLOSE attention to any movements from the person while I load the holder. If I suspect any movement I just go and refocus. If after I did that, I still miss focus, then it wasn't meant to be. Lmao
Ahhh the petunia carnage! That looks like such an interesting book, I was reading about it on Nowhere Diary and the vividness of the images looked so surreal!
@@BryanBirks yeah, it is definitely one of those books I would love to buy simply just to own something pretty. I really want to grab Memorare and At Night Gardens Grow, when are you looking to put out your first book? Are you looking to self publish or try to find a publisher? Any paper types or formats in mind yet for it?
@@matthewpoburyny5147 looking to shoot the rest of this year and then possibly start sequencing! Not sure about publishing yet. I would really like to work with someone because I know fuck all about it but after seeing Klaus’s book being self published I may go that route. Lots of time to think about it. Still have a lot of work to do.
@@BryanBirks I've been using Blurb to make a personal book a month since the fall (not for selling, just practice) as I am trying to teach myself things about selection, editing, sequencing, pacing and storytelling (as well as using different book sizes to use image as part of the practice too). They have a trade book option which is pretty cheap to make these little test books and with their software it is an easy way to get into at least laying a book. But having an outside voice to give you feedback is very important too but even that self practice I can only imagine would be useful to communicate ideas with a publisher/editor. Or just watch Alec Soth's RU-vid and observed as much of his teachings as you can haha
I go back and forth with Ektar, sometimes the colors seem a bit too vibrant to me. Never thought it was so bad to outright hate the stock though. Great video yet again man
Oh, for sure. It is too vibrant for my liking. If I only had it for my project I would definitely have to desaturate it a bit. I left the ones in here exactly like Northeast gave it to me. For some things it is great, others not so much. But that’s every film I guess.
I’ve been using a Chamonix 45N-1 for a year and some change now. I love it. Wouldn’t really change anything except having separate knobs for rise/fall and tilt. The F2 has that but I’m just sticking with this guy for now.
Man, really great video Bryan. I've been watching Soth's magnum course the last week or so and between that and your videos it's got me itching to pull the trigger on some C41 4x5 and hitting the road. One question for you -- I've never played much with movements when shooting 4x5 portraits, did you go to any particular place to learn about those or just experimentation? Thanks dude, come down to Nashville and let's shoot sometime.
Thank you, Aaron! For movements I would say just practice. Use some stationary objects and just focus on seeing what each movement does. Then, once you get in a portrait situation, it becomes second nature. Also, this video by Fred Newman was extremely helpful in the beginning: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0JU-eHpk97Y.html Lastly, just look at portraits by large format photographers and try to guess what movements they used. If any. That’s a really fun exercise.
Video was good 👍 Liked the grain tower and red store image which I seem to remember seeing you look at before. I think nine shots is a pretty good days effort way more than I typically do.
Thanks, Stuart. Nine shots is probably the most I’ve ever done in a day. Large format at least. I just said “screw it, I haven’t shot a lot lately”. It was fun to give Ektar a spin as well.
I'd be curious to know what f stops you are using when you are photographing your portraits. You talk a lot about focusing and depth of field. Having the f stops would help put it all together.
Are you ever worried about somebody finding your channel and being upset that their images are being shared online? This is something I hear could be problematic since people think you stand to gain significantly monetarily, and will pursue action to get some of that perceived financial gain, even if it doesn’t exist.
Sometimes but not really. I always let them know that I share my work online. My intentions are always in good nature and I always make sure to put people in a good light. I would never try to embarrass or do anything wrong to someone. Plus, if someone did object I would have no problem removing it. They could certainly have a share of the $14.95 I make from the video. 😂