Carol Modeling Indoors

Carol and I haven't worked together since last summer, not for lack of interest, but for lack of time - though I see her all the time, we never seem to have the same time available for making more images. Fortunately, Carol had this particular morning off, so we made plans to work together. Our first session last spring was indoors, but not at my house, so this session gave me the opportunity to work with Carol in the white spaces that I have become so enamored with over the last couple of years.

6x7 cm infrared film

Even before Carol first modeled for me, she was enamored with the dramatic looks of infra-red portraits, between the luminous skin-tones and dark eyes, so I decided to work with some near infra-red film (Ilford's SFX) to see what images we could create indoors. Working between the SFX in the Mamiya RB camera, and conventional film in the 8"x10" camera, we made images for a couple of hours, enjoying the bright morning light that filtered through the sheets over the double doors beside the bed upon which she was lying.

6x7 cm infrared film

Almost all the images that we made together were portraits, working with the beautiful soft light. The near infra-red film was a little difficult to work with, in terms of finding the correct exposure, but a number of the images were very successful, lending a dreamy quality to the skin-tones and the mysterious dark eyes which Carol was so interested in even before she modelled.

When a particularly strong images appeared in the viewfinder of the Mamiya, I would finish with the near infra-red film, and switch off to the larger 8"x10" camera to make a more refined version of the composition.

8"x10" film

By the end of the session, I was certain that there were a number of strong compositions among the dozen 8"x10" negatives and 4 rolls of SFX that I'd created. Carol also felt that the session had had a particularly positive flow. As soon as I saw my negatives after being processed, I knew we had succeeded. I seldom use infra-red films other then Kodak's HIE, but the beautiful quality that the Ilford SFX film gave to the couple of images that worked was quite lovely, and might encourage me to continue exploring the possibilities of this film.