Welcome to our inaugural In Frame feature, in which we select an image to highlight. In Frame will normally run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Remember you can contribute to Exposed DC through our Flickr pool.
This image by Chris Chen is a classic street portrait, thanks in large part to the lighting, the subjects and their relationship, and the use of Kodak Portra 400VC film.
We know Chris has his camera with him pretty much all the time, but we asked him to provide some background on this particular shot. On this occasion, he says, he came across a group of guys chatting in Spanish in the 1700 block of Columbia Road NW. As one of the guys broke away from the group, Chris noticed he had a bird in his hands. Not being a Spanish speaker and unsure about the guy’s English, Chris used a combination of body language and English to ask permission to take his photograph. He nodded yes, Chris took the shot, and they went their separate ways. Chris says he hasn’t seen the guy since, but that if he does, he’ll give him a print.
Getting into the more technical aspects of the shot, Chris tells us he took this at around 4pm on a sunny day in early spring – i.e. close to “golden hour” for that time of year. He pointed out that: “C41, or color negative film, handles contrasty light conditions very well (very hard to blow out highlights)”. He went on to explain that the Portra 400VC film he was using had officially expired in 2007: “So that, plus the exposure latitude of color film, is why I shot it at ISO 250. Generally speaking with negative film, you want to lean towards overexposure to reduce contrast (like on a sunny day) versus leaning towards underexposure when you want more contrast (like on an overcast day).”