Playing with panoramic Trichromes
As you probably know, my "motif du jour" is Colour from Movement made using the Trichrome process. What you might not know is my favourite image format is something very panoramic. I "only" have two panoramic cameras but I can't make Trichromes with the first as I haven't "bodged" any filters for the Horizon S3 Pro yet, and I don't generally make Trichromes with the Ritter 7x17" due to the cost and logistics. I'm also in a long lasting Pinhole phase as I'm loving the simplicity and the look achieved with these types of cameras. What I really need is a panoramic pinhole camera... 😁
Let me introduce to my twitter friend Dave. Dave is a very good a mate. We've never met IRL but we've exchanged many prints, bits of kit, advice and support over the last couple of years. He's also very generous with loaning out his camera's and he's stepped up again to let me try out his RSS 6x17 pinhole camera on a long term loan.
The angle of view of this camera is literally insane! It's 141 degrees on the horizontal plane. This in itself is not too much of an issue (apart from composing!), but unfortunately I couldn't sit the RGB filters on the front without the edge of the filter encroaching into the frame because the shutter buttons prevented it. With Dave's permission I created some Gaff tape risers and shutter extenders to "fix" this issue.
My first image with the "fix" of my local Trichrome test subject. We get plenty of great Trichrome skies where I live and this test did not disappoint. I love the skies and especially the patch of dabbled light in the bottom right. Perfect Trichromery 👌
RSS 6x17
Ilford HP5
3 stop RGB's
Unfortunately a crisis of confidence and drive soon followed and the RSS 6x17 stayed in the bag, along with all my other cameras. So it's potential was still to be explored.
Needless to say there wouldn't be this blog if I hadn't dragged myself out with the camera to make some Trichromes so lets cut to some images. I popped to coast with the family, Landguard Point in Felixstowe to be precise, to see what could be made. Landguard Point is at the tip of the estuary where Felixstowe docks sits. It's a picturesque spot with a jetty, it's not too busy with people, but it is busy with boats, yachts and container ships.
As I was looking for compositions I spied a container ship heading for port. Hopefully perfect for some panoramic Colour from Movement. A very rough ideal timing for the exposures would probably have been 1 min each, but I had Ilford FP4 loaded, 3 stop RGB filters and only an additional ND4. Without the ND4 the exposures would be too short and with they were 2 mins. You have to use what you've got so here it is.
RSS 6x17
Ilford FP4
3 Stop RGB's + ND4
3 x 2 min
You can spy the Container ship on the horizon, that cyan streak past the central marker and that magenta streak behind the start of the jetty. The ship does not appear to be visible on the third exposure... 🤷♂️
The RSS 6x17 comes in two forms. One with a single pinhole and a filter holder which would obviously make my life easier and one with dual pinholes. This second version is the one I'm borrowing. It bring the added filter issues but crucially with the dual pinholes it also brings some creative control with horizon placement (and keeping said horizon flat).
This second image makes use of the upper pinhole to lower the horizon, remove some foreground clutter and bring in more sky. Ideal for those Trichrome clouds.
RSS 6x17
Ilford FP4
3 Stop RGB's + ND4
3 x 2 min
It would have been nicer with a bit more cloud action but we were late in the afternoon and they had blown off. I do quite like the balance of the curve in the beach and cloudy water against the Trichrome clouds over the jetty though so it's not all bad.
The RSS 6x17 is a wonderful camera. It's an absolute "bugger" to load and only getting a single Trichrome image per roll is a little tedious but hopefully you can see it appears that it's more than worth it. I know what's going on my wishlist...
Thanks again Dave for the loan. Hopefully I can make some more images with it before I have to reluctantly send it back home 😁
Let me know what you think about the results. What's your favourite and why?