[alt-photo] Re: Michael Wesely's work (was reciprocity failure)

[Francesco Fragomeni]

Hi Charles,

>From what I understand, he uses several neutral density filters to extend
the exposures. Honestly, Im very curious about what his actual procedure
is. All I have is hearsay and I haven't taken any time to actually try to
contact him about it. When comparing his work to solar exposures, you can
see the sun's path traced in some of his images, this is why I doubt that
these are time lapse. His images are processed in some way or another
though and I'm not sure what that invovles. In solargraphy sun exposures,
the paper is scanned and then inverted and processed to produce a print.
I'm not sure if he's scanning the film/paper or if he's actually printing
them wet in some way.
I have noticed a few things that tell me that digital processing is
involved somewhere. If you look at work done by people using film which
involves a tracing of the sun's path (Chirs McCaw is one that comes to
mind), the sun physically burns the film and appears as a dark printed out
streak. In Wesely's work, the sun paths are no where near as dark or burnt
as they would be if you were looking something that hasnt been manipulated.
They are present but just look different.

Charles, can you expalin your three-camera test for me a bit more. I want
to get it into my head.

-Francesco

On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 3:32 PM, Charles Ryberg <cryberg at comcast.net> wrote:

> Folks:  Till this thread I had not known of Wesely's photos.  Google got
> me to some very nice images.  I have to say that to me, these can't
> possibly be straight one-year-exposure pinholes.  While I'm hardly an
> expert on pinhole photos, I get exposures of a few seconds with 400 ISO
> film.  Even with enlarging paper a few hours is enough.
>
> We have all seen scans of solar exposures where the sun prints out its
> path on paper over a year burning a black, printed out image.  It just
> seems impossible that film won't do the same.
>
> Perhaps Wesely had some kind of time-lapse on his pinhole?  Perhaps he
> used a very strong filter?????
>
> Anyway, great photos.
>
> As for trying the same thing, I think I'd advise three or four cameras.
> Pull one in a week and if the film is nearly solid black you don't have to
> continue with the other two.  If the one week image is pale pull the next
> in a month.  Etc.
>
> By all means, keep us updated.
>
> Good luck   Charles, Portland Oregon
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