My Rolleiflex Automat may just be my favorite camera, at least out of my medium formats, because it gives a look unlike any of the others. Here are 3 still life photos with a Rolleiflex Automat & Ilford HP5 400 to show you what I mean by that.
The Look of a Rolleiflex Automat
The Rolleiflex Automat doesn’t have the fast lens of the 2.8 model, but it just does something with light that gives a dreamy look so well suited for still life photography. Ilford HP5 400 also lends itself to this look, adding what look like pencil strokes and graphite. You can almost smell the charcoal, or maybe thats just the art student in me.
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To stage these photos I used a simple black poster board for the background and my wood grain card table. The bowl belonged to my father back when he owned his restaurant. It’s just a simple photo of pears in a bowl, but the Rolleiflex takes it up a notch along with the HP5 film.
The lighting is just natural sunlight coming from the window on the left, and by pushing the film to 1600, more contrast was introduced to give an even more dramatic feeling.
Final Thoughts on 3 Still Life Photos with a Rolleiflex Automat
As I said in the beginning, I love this camera. You can read my other articles here and see even more reasons why, but the main reason would be the unfailingly beautiful results I have gotten with it. It’s always a joy to shoot with and honestly just to look at.
I hope this article helped to give you some ideas for setting up a still life. If you don’t shoot them, then I hope you have just enjoyed my photos. Do you have a Rolleiflex Automat? Do you shoot still life photos? Let me know in the comments.
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Until next time, stay motivated and keep shooting.
My Supplies Used in this Shoot
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These are great! I usually go out and shoot stuff, not often do I shoot at home, but the thought of setting up a little scene to shoot sounds really fun. Having time to make tweaks and adjustments to the subject. I totally get the Charcoal part of it, charcoal portraits were my favorite in art class and Ilford HP5 has some very rich texture. Great shots! I will have to try this out this week.
Thank you! Yes give it a try I really enjoy it.
Really beautiful shots! I’m not gonna lie, but I’m a little intimidated shooting something like this. I guess I’m afraid I’d get there lighting/exposure wrong. Everything in these shots is really phenomenal!
Thank you! Give it a try. It’s taken me a little bit to get it down with some trial and error shots over the past couple years and playing with artificial and natural light. It’s like therapy for me. I love it.