Black & White – tim dobbs photography

Sheds & Stuff on Acros 100 …..

I came across a solitary roll of expired Fuji Neopan Acros mixed in with some of my other B&W film stock in the fridge the other week.

I have not shot a lot of Acros before but I do really like how it looks so I wanted to test the new light seals in my Mamiya C330 so I decide to shoot it.

It was a nice bright day with just a few clouds so I set my meter to 50 iso and went for a little walk.

Most of the shots were shot at f5.6 to f8 and I developed the film in ilfotec LC29 1+47 dilution for 8 minutes.

Firstly the light seals worked and secondly the images were great …. the amount of highlight/shadow detail that was captured was excellent and the sharpness was impressive.

I need to buy some of the newer Acros to try just to compare to this old stuff.

So here are all the images … click to view larger

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store as well as some hand made film canister keychains … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Snow day ….. Fuji GW690iii with ilford Delta 400 …

A week or two back we had heavy downpour of snow here in the valleys and I had a snow day from work.

I wasn’t a particularly nice day, really grey with poor visibility but later in the afternoon before we lost the light I popped up to my favourite tree and shot a roll of Delta 400 in my 6×9.

I hand held the camera so I was hoping that I got a couple that didn’t suffer from camera shake as I was shooting at 1/60th.

I developed the roll in DD/X 1+9 dilution for 10 minutes.

I was pretty happy with the results and managed to get 5 frames out of 8 that worked for me.

I don’t shoot Delta very often but the amount of detail the GW690 gives you shows even more when using it over my fav HP5.

Here they are ….

Click on an image to view larger

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Fomapan 400, Canon AV1 and infosol 3 ….

I have 2 Canon AV1’s … Chrome and Black versions, I prefer the AV1 to the AE1 as I shoot mainly in aperture priority so it works much better for me.

I have not shot with any of my Canon’s for an absolute age so dug out the black version, put on the 50mm f1.4 and loaded a roll of Fomapan 400 which is a film that is growing on me especially the cost ha ha!.

It was a pretty gloomy day but I didn’t want to push it so rarely even got to f8, mainly shooting f2.8 to f5.6.

I had some infosol 3 that was gifted me so I decided to see how Fomapan 400 looked compared to my usual ilfotecHC.

The results were pretty nice, there was quite a bit of grain but the images were contrasty and reasonably sharp considering the apertures I was using.

From memory the previous rolls of 400 I developed had slightly less grain when using ilfotecHC but nevertheless I was happy with what I got.

So here is the whole roll minus 2 shots that were accidents …

Comments most welcome …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Also still have a handful of zines over on my etsy store … https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/timdobbsphoto

Short walk with the Mamiya 645 & Rollei RPX 400 ….

The last roll of RPX 400 in 120 that I shot a while back had some weird artefacts and strange grain, it was expired I grant you but I have never had that problem with this stock before.

I bought a few rolls of fresh film after this problem and got around to shooting some last weekend.

Suffice to say it worked fine, I really like the look of this film in medium format.

It has a great range of tones, nice and sharp with minimal grain.

I shot it using my Mamiya 645 & 80mm f2.8 developed in ilfotecHC 1+15 dilution.

The only thing that I don’t like about this stock is that it is a bit curly so is not the easiest to scan using my Epson v600.

Well here is the whole roll warts and all

Please click on an image to view larger …

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Last blog of 2022 … Lomo Berlin 400 .. the whole roll

This year has not been the best if I am honest and my photography has suffered as my desire to shoot all but deserted me.

I have only shot 25 rolls of film this year which is a fraction of what I normally shoot and even though I have developed and scanned them all, many of the rolls have just sat in my lightroom catalog un-edited.

As the weather this week has been horrendous ( I did get out and shoot one roll last weekend) I have been going through the images in the catalog and started to edit as I have had a week off work.

Here is the first roll shot on my Minolta 600si and developed using ilfotec DD-X.

I shot this back in April. I have tried Berlin before and new the images would be pretty contrasty.

I think the subject matter here was not the best for this film as the excessive contrast in busy images tends to muddle the scene unless viewing large.

Nevertheless I was pretty pleased with the results.

Anyway here is the whole roll, comments most welcome.

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Trying Kentmere 400 in 120 format …. the whole roll

My favorite B&W film stock has got to be ilford HP5 due to how versatile it is.

I have pushed it to 3200 and still got great results, I have also used Kentmere 400 in 35mm on quite a few occasions and was pretty happy with what I got but it never pulled me away from using HP5.

So when all the you tubers I follow suddenly started putting out videos about the new Kentmere in 120 format I was a little taken aback as I was unaware that ilford were releasing a new film.

As I am not one of the ilford chosen few I had to buy my own to try so I got a few rolls of Both 100 and 400 iso from the excellent Analogue Wonderland.

I loaded the 400 in my Yashicamat 124g and popped out to burn a roll and see what it was like.

I developed it using ilfotec DD-X 1+4 dilution for 11.30mins and scanned using my Epson V600.

First look at the negatives and they looked very flat with minimal contrast.

When scanning that is exactly how they turned out but that isn’t a bad thing because once they were in Lightroom the dynamic range was excellent and with just a few tweaks the images looked fine with great tonal range, minimal grain and nicely sharp.

Overall this film is a winner for me as it is only £5 a roll and gives great results .. I will have to try pushing the next roll to 800 or even 1600 to see how it copes, I regularly shoot HP5 pushed and love how that looks.

Anyway here is the whole roll, comments most welcome.

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Lomo Lady Grey 400 & Pentax Espio 140M accident …

I have not been shooting too much recently and have been trying to force myself to get out to get back into the swing of shooting most days.

It was a reasonably bright day but quite cloudy so for a change I decided to use a point & shoot for a change hoping that the limitations would get me going.

I loaded up a roll of Lomo Lady Grey 400 in my Pentax Espio 140M and we went out for a walk.

After about 3 or 4 shots my wife pointed out that she thought that the flash was going off when I was shooting which seemed strange given that I was using 400 speed film on a bright day but it was.

It was then I realised that Lomo Lady Grey does not have a DX code and the little Espio defaults to iso 25 if there is no code.

So I disabled the flash and just continued with the roll hoping that I could salvage something while developing.

I did a search on the internet for the best development times but there was not a lot but a few twitter friends recommended stand development in Rodinal.

So I mixed 3ml of dev with 297ml of water, did 4 inversions and left to stand for 30 minutes followed by 3 more inversions and another stand for 15 minutes.

And surprisingly I got images albeit quite over exposed but nevertheless it seemed to work.

After scanning there were a few images that I couldn’t use due to the exposure and quite bad camera shake but here are the ones that worked.

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

First time using Rollei RPX 25 … the whole roll …

I have quite a collection of different films that I have yet to tryout .. One being Rollei RPX 25.

I really like RPX 400 especially in 120 format so I bought a few rolls of all the Rollei films in both 35mm and 120.

As it was a really bright sunny day ( I got sunburnt) I loaded my Nikon F100 with a roll of RPX25 and went out for a nice walk .. with a short detour to the pub and shot the roll.

I developed it in ilfotecHC and here are the images.

The results were very pleasing … really sharp/contrasty and minimal grain.

Obviously using iso 25 film is not something you can do all the time unless you use a tripod otherwise I would shoot this regularly as I really love the look.

Well here is the whole roll all 36 images … comments most welcome

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek

Trying Silberra Orta 50 ….

As I have said before I am trying to spice up my photography this year by trying different things so I decided to try out a roll of film that has been in my fridge for ages … Silberra Orta 50.

I have had this roll for over 2 years and have tried ilford’s Ortho offering before digging this out.

I really liked how Ortho 80 looked when I tried it so I was looking forward to seeing how Orta 50 compared as they are both Orthochromatic films.

You can see my previous blogs of Ortho 80 here:

ilford Ortho Plus pushed to 400 by accident but I think it worked … the whole roll

Eventually trying ilford Ortho Plus 80 …..

It was a reasonably bright day so I loaded my Nikon F90 which I have been neglecting recently and went out for a walk.

When I returned home and opened the Massive Dev app to decide how to develop the roll I realised that the only developer that I had that was suitable was Rodinal which as it happens was the developer I used when shooting Ortho 80 last time.

The dilution/times were 1+25 for 11 minutes

The resulting negatives were extremely contrasty looking out of the tank and just the same when scanning.

I am not sure if it is the developer or the film stock itself but most of the images had a sort of a glow about them and quite a few of the highlights had blown out.

The overall look was pleasing and I liked the contrast and sharpness but compared to ilford Ortho 80 the tonal range was far more compressed.

If I had to choose which stock I would shoot again it would have to be Ortho 80 to be honest as Orta 50 was a bit too harsh for me and the grain was a little too intrusive but that may have been the fault of using Rodinal.

So here is most of the roll minus some duplicate frames.

Please click a photo to view larger

All images on my blog are available as prints just drop me an email

I also have a film only blog over at usingfilm.wordpress.com if you want a peek 🙂

ilford XP2 in B&W chemistry … the whole roll …

One of the things I want to do this year is try different things with my photography as I feel that last year not only was my film roll count down compared to previous years it was also very samey.

Out of the first six rolls shot this year I didn’t really do much different to usual so with number seven I decided to see how ilford XP2 looked in B&W chemicals compared to C41.

I did a bit of research on the interwebs and decided to shoot the roll at 640/800 iso in my Yashicamat 124G and process it using ilford DD-X 1+4 dilution for 13.30 mins.

Once out of the tank at first glance the negs seemed rather thin and quite under exposed with the base looking a pale pink colour.

But on scanning I was really surprised how they looked, yes they were a little under exposed but nothing that Lightroom couldn’t handle and the images had bags of contrast and sharp as a tack.

The grain was pretty noticeable and I did have some weird effects in the sky but that was probably due to the fact it was expired film rather than the B&W chems.

Overall I was very happy with the roll and would develop XP2 in B&W again, most probably at box speed and fresh rather than pushing it.

I have experimented before shooting XP2 at various iso’s on the same roll then developed in standard C41 and got excellent results .. see here :