Grain – Page 8 – tim dobbs photography

“From behind”………..

I have been looking at loads of street photography lately and noticed how effective quite a few images were when shot from behind.

I didn’t think that I had taken many images this way as I prefer connecting with the subject in my image in some sort of way by either eye contact or even asking to take the image but after trawling though my catalogues I noticed that I did have quite a few images that worked when shot from behind with no subject interaction with me.Some of these images I have posted before but usually I never seem to use them unless there is something I like maybe the interaction with surrounding people or background/place.

Anyway, a short and sweet post today all these images were taken with a mixture of cameras ….. Film & Digital….. thanks for looking.

Aberystwyth in the August rain with the Nikon L35af……

I had the day off on Friday to take Amy back to Aberystwyth to help her move out from her year 2 accommodation into the new house she is sharing with her friends.

Typical British weather in August it poured with rain for the 2 hour drive but after parking up the rain stopped for a while giving me the opportunity to shoot a roll of ilford HP5 that I rated at 800 iso due to the crappy light.I have shot HP5 at 800 quite a bit and I really like the contrast and grain I get much more than when shooting box speed.

The Nikon L35af is a lovely camera to use and the lens is very sharp the only thing I don’t like is the close focus which seems to be a little hit and miss and a few of the frames were out of focus but as a street camera its great.As the weather was holding off a bit we walked up to the “Philip Jones Griffiths” exhibition at the National Library of Wales which was one of the best photography exhibitions I have visited.

Not only seeing the prints but all of the photographers cameras, paperwork, bookshelves reconstructed with all their contents and the various documentaries running in the booths.

I cannot recommend more highly that this exhibition is really worth the drive and long walk up to the Library it was a privilege to get to view it.If anyone is looking for a small point and shoot film camera that takes well exposed and sharp images then the Nikon L35af is a cracker, I picked mine up for £15 off e-bay which in my eyes was a bargain.

Thanks for looking…

Click on an image to view larger

I also have a film only blog over at https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/ if anyone is interested 🙂

Processing C-41 in B&W chemicals……

I have loads of expired C-41 film which I have been shooting in various cameras mainly to test if the cameras I buy are working ok.

I have read on the web about all the different things that can be done when processing both B&W and colour films be it cross processing or caffenol type stuff and came across developing C-41 with standard B&W chemicals.

So I loaded up my T90 with some Boots 200 film that expired back in 2008 and went out for a walk.

I shot the film at box speed and processed it in Ilfotec HC for 10 minutes agitating 4 times every minute and then standard stop/fix/wash as per my normal B&W developing.

When the negs emerged from the tank my 1st thought was that there was nothing on the film as it looked totally black but when unrolled and held up to the light I saw there was something there albeit darker than what I usually see.Once dry the curl was horrendous and the scanning was hard work as the software could not identify the frames so I had to scan them individually but the epson software did a good job.I was very pleased with the scans even though the sharpness was not the best which is typical of most cheap expired films they often look slightly unsharp unlike Ektar.

I did slightly increase the contrast and pull down the highlights in Lightroom as the negs were pretty flat but the look they produced reminded me of Fomapan 100 with the glowing look to the images.

I think I may shoot more C-41 and process it this way maybe varying the exposure and developing times just to see what I get, obviously I am never going to get the quality of genuine B&W film but I like the unpredictability of this experiment.

I think I will try a roll or Ektar next so then at least I know how sharp the negs should be when processed normally.

Thanks for looking…..

I have a film only blog over at https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

if you are interested in having a peek 🙂

Testing Nikon 35mm f1.8 AF-S DX on full frame ……

I love the 35mm focal length when shooting. I have various 35mm lenses to fit my old film slr’s but the only autofocus 35mm I have is the Nikkor 35mm f1.8 AF-S which is a DX lens and when I shoot with it on my D7000 it behaves like a 50mm approx. which isn’t really what I like so the lens even though very sharp stays in my bag most of the time.I have tried it on my full frame D600 and as long as I turn off auto DX mode it works great and the only real Vignetting occurred from f4 onwards and was easily sorted with lens correction in Lightroom.

I like Vignetting especially when I shoot contrasty B&W film so I decided to load up my F100 with some HP5 rated at 800 to see how the lens performed.The results were really pleasing and as the day was pretty overcast and quite dark I rarely shot above f5.6 so the Vignetting was almost no existent and the images were lovely and sharp/contrasty which is why I love HP5.I was thinking about getting the Nikon 35mm f2 AFD to shoot on my F100 and F4 but the results with this little lens really impressed and gave me the look I like with my B&W I would recommend this little gem highly especially as it is so affordable. Thanks for looking

click on an image to view larger

I also have a film only blog over at https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/ if you want to take a peak 🙂

Shooting Ilford HP5+ at 1600 iso……..

My favourite B&W film is ilford HP5 and I rarely shoot any thing else when it comes to B&W.

I love the contrast and grain it produces and depending on which developer I process with I can get plenty of looks from one film stock.

I have been reading quite a few blog posts and watching some youtube videos where various other photographers recommend shooting HP5 at 1600 iso as it don’t seem to loose any sharpness and the increase in contrast/grain doesn’t impact on the image.

I like grain and contrast so I was not all that bothered if they increased but as a test I was interested in how sharp the images were, so I shot a roll with my Nikon F100 and 50mm f1.4 which is a very sharp lens and processed it using ilfotec HC 1+15.

The results were great, the sharpness was impressive and the grain didn’t impair the look at all.

Rating HP5 at 1600 may become my standard from now on as it gives me extra versatility to be able to shoot in more lighting situations while keeping the look I like from using this film stock.

Thanks for looking

Click on an image to view larger……

You can find more lovely film stuff on my film only blog at ……..

https://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

Zorki 4k re-visited …….

I have had my Zorki 4k and Jupiter 8 50mm f2 for ages but I have only put 2 rolls of film through it.

I don’t know why I have not used this camera more as it handles great and the results from the the 1st 2 rolls were also very pleasing.As with my first attempts, getting the framing correct is still a bit hit or miss especially if trying to frame pretty tight.So I have to leave plenty of space just to make sure I get the shot but thats not really a huge problem.HP5 shoots great with the Jupiter 8 giving quite smooth out of focus areas while still getting great contrast which is what I like about HP5.I am going to try to shoot this camera much more from now on and I have been looking on eBay for a nice lens hood as the lens is prone to quite a bit of flare. Thanks for looking

click on an image to view larger ……

1st roll of Ilford PanF 50 ………

I have had a roll of ilford panf 50 in my fridge for a few months now and every time I go to get a roll of film I see it sitting there by itself and I never seem to give it a go that is until about 2 weeks ago.

It was quite a bright morning so I decided to load up the Canon T90 – 28mm f2.8 and headed up the mountain.

As I was climbing the clouds were building and by the time I reached the top and began walking across towards the Memorial flag here in the Garw valley the darker it got….. not very good when you have a 50 iso film in your camera.

Nevertheless I managed to keep shooting albeit mainly at f4 – 5.6 and pretty slow shutter speeds.I processed the film in ilford Ilfotec HC and hung up to dry wondering if I managed to get many shots without blurring.And out of 36 frames I managed to get quite a few very sharp almost grainless images, I did slightly bump up the contrast on these scans in Lightroom and apart from cloning out a few dust spots these were pretty much straight scans.I am not sure when I would ever use this film as I prefer the contrast and grain that I get with my Favourite film HP5+ but the results were pretty nice, I may print some of the negatives in the darkroom just to see what they are like.Thanks for looking ….

click on an image to view larger ……

1st ever roll of Fomapan 100 …….

My favorite film is ilford HP5, I also shoot Delta 400 and T-Max 400 but after reading quite a few posts on the internet and recommendations from some fellow Twitter photographers I bought 5 rolls of 35mm Fomapan 100.

I shot it at box speed and processed it in Ilfotec HC at 1+9 dilution and the results were very pleasing.

The images shot in bright sunshine where lovely and contrasty with plenty of detail in both Shadow and Highlights while the one’s shot in low natural light almost glowed while still holding detail.I am extremely pleased with this film and after reading more on the web I will be getting some Rodinol next as this seems to give even better results.

Please click on an image to view larger …….

Thanks for looking, comment most welcomed 🙂

A bit of Street Shooting for a change ………

A short and sweet blog post today.

Popped into Bridgend on Sunday to get a few things and took the D600 for a change with the idea of shooting some street stuff.There was a few people milling around and I tried some shooting from the hip as well as straight shooting with varying success.

I shot all of these at f8 in Aperture priority with the focus set manually at approx 10-12 ft.I only shot about 30 frames in total and was very pleased that I managed to get this many keepers, not that they are pushing any boundaries in street photography but still they seemed to work, especially when converted to Black & White. Thanks for looking …….

please check out my other blog dedicated to my Film Photography at

http://usingfilm.wordpress.com/

and also my Flickr stream if you are interested 🙂

http://www.flickr.com/photos/timdobbsphotography/

My Fuji x10 and SilverEfex ………

I had a day off today so as the sun was shining briefly this morning I loaded up my Mamiya 645 with some Fuji Pro 400H and my Fuji x10 and popped out while the sun lasted.

While waiting for the film to dry I decided to run through the shots from the X10, some of which I processed using VSCO film 1 presets and the Fuji 400H setting just to see if the actual processed film was similar. (still waiting for it to dry)