Grunge – tim dobbs photography

Expired film day 2020 …… ilford XP1 … the whole roll

Back in March this year just before all this Covid 19 lockdown stuff I entered the Expired film day competition like I have done on previous years.

The whole point is to get out and shoot as much old expired film over a 3 day weekend then submit 3 of you best images with the chance to win some lovely film prizes.

I was luck to win a prize last year so I was very surprised to win again this year considering the really high standard of the other entries.

I have loads of expired film but I came across some old ilford XP1 on eBay so I was excited to give it a go and with fingers crossed manage to capture something worthwhile.

Somehow I messed up and shot 1st frame on my Mamiya 645 while getting it out of my bag with the lens cap on so only ended up with 14 final images.

I rated the roll at 100 iso and it was developed/Scanned by filmdev

I asked them to push it one stop in development as well if poss and explained what I was trying to do with the images.

Here is a link to the Expired film day website … Click here

And here is the image that I was lucky to have selected for a prize … Click here

So here is the complete roll ….

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 🙂

Fuji Reala 500D developed in C41 Chemistry …. Something went wrong but I think I like it

I have shot Reala 500D quite a few times and love the subdued colours when developed in C41 chemistry.

This weekend was quite drab and rainy here in Wales so I wanted to shoot colour film stock on my walk and at 1st I was going to shoot either Lomo 400 or 800 but I have been using both of those stock quite a bit recently so I remembered I still had a few rolls of Reala 500D in the fridge so I went with that for a change.

I shot it at iso 250 using my Minolta X700 with the 50mm f1.4 with the hope of getting less grain as I have seen plenty of images on the internet shot at least 1 or even 2 stops over that have looked lovely.

I have processed remjet backed film before so I mixed up a big jug of soda crystals with warm water and proceeded to fill/shake/discard the solution a few times before development to remove the remjet.

The 1st fill came out black as normal and got lighter by the 3rd fill but to my surprise the 4th and subsequent fills were coming out greeny yellow.

I used all my solution and then developed the roll as normal.

Once out of the tank the film looked pretty normal to the naked eye, maybe a little on the dark side but it wasn’t until I went to scan the images I realised there was something wrong.

There were areas of magenta and green and quite a bit of grain.

At first I was well cheesed off but after tweaking the RGB channels individually on each frame in Epson scan I did get some reasonably even colours which I then managed to edit further in Lightroom.

After the initial depression of the 1st scans I really liked how most of the photos looked … Obviously the colours were pretty wrong but overall I feel that they all seem to work for the subject matter.

I am not really sure what went wrong but my assumption was that the remjet removal bit was at fault.

The C41 chemistry is only 8 rolls old so I think that was not the problem .. also the film itself was from a batch that I have shot before that was fine.

So here is the best selection … 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 🙂

Taking the Leica M2 for a walk in the fog …….

I waited years to eventually get to own a Leica and when I did I seemed to use it every week but during the last year my poor M2 stayed in one of my bags while I tried and tested loads of new cameras that I have been adding to my ever growing collection.

The other weekend the weather was it’s usual pants this time of year but I do like shooting B&W then conditions are bad so I was going to shoot my newly acquired Mamiya RB67 with some Foma that I received for Christmas but whilst sorting out which bag I was going to put my stuff in ( the RB67 is a monster) I came across my lovely M2 and immediately changed my mind and went back to the fridge and got a roll of Agfa APX400 which I wanted to try and loaded up the little Leica.

The camera was a joy to use and I quickly sped through the roll wishing that I had brought along another.

The M2 and my Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f1.7 are a perfect match.

I developed the roll using Eco Film developer from Bellini Foto 1+1 dilution for 12 minutes which gave me really punchy negs that scanned really well.

Considering the weather I loved how the images came out with plenty of contrast and sharp.

I need to get back to using the M2 on a more regular basis as this camera makes me happy every time it’s in my hands.

Here is a selection of images from the roll, I shot 2 frames of most of the compositions at different apertures so I have not posted any of the duplicates.

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 🙂

Salvaged images from badly stored/expired ilford Delta 400 …

I have quite a large stock of expired film acquired from friends/fellow photographers and eBay and I usually know the storage details of nearly all of it but sometimes I get hold of some rolls that have no information on how it spent it’s life.

Last week the cloud formations up here in the South Wales valleys was pretty nice so I went out with my Mamiya 645 and 45mm f2.8 lens with a roll of ilford Delta 400 with the intention of getting some pretty detailed images of the landscape up here.

The film expired in 2004 so I rated it at 200 iso and proceeded to shoot the roll.

To be honest I have only had trouble with expired ilford film when it has been much older that this and even then it was still usable so when I opened up the development tank and was greeted with some pretty murky negatives I was pretty disappointed.

Once I began scanning it became evident that the whole roll was under exposed quite a bit and the grain was very pronounced unlike how Delta usually looks.

I also suspected that my fix was on its last legs which didn’t help matters (new batched already mixed for next time).

The Epson scan software struggled to find the edges of some frames which meant I had to scan each frame individually.

Once in Adobe Lightroom I have spent the last week back and fore between Lightroom & Photoshop trying to get the best out of the scans and I managed to salvage 9 frames which I am happy to post.

Anyway …. lesson for today … Know how your film has been stored before taking any important shots.

Also buy more fresh Delta 400 because if I managed to get these images with a crappy old roll imagine what they would look like on fresh film and maybe with my Fuji Gw690ii 6×9.

Here are the 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 🙂

Diana F Pinhole shooting on Lomo Color Negative 400…

This year it is my intention to shoot more so called LoFi images.

I enjoyed my time shooting with the Littlest Holga and since modifying my own Holga so now I can actually get some usable images (see blog post from a few weeks back) I love the look and feel the plastic cameras can achieve.

So over Christmas I loaded up my Diana F with some Lomography Color Negative 400 and shot the roll in Pinhole mode.

The light was pretty consistent as I was checking with my light meter which gave me an approximate shutter time of 10 seconds after looking up cloudy days and Diana pinhole on the trusty internet.

After development and scanning I was pleased that the exposures were pretty spot on.

The only problem was that I shot the roll at the 16 frame setting without the frame mask so all the images pretty much touched or overlapped a bit which gave an interesting look but I scanned each one individually and cropped slightly.

Anyway here are the images any comments most welcomed.

Here is what the actual frames originally looked like.

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 🙂

My Crappy Holga re-visited with some Foam/Card and Tape on ilford HP5 …..

Since my lovely experience shooting the Littlest Holga for over a month a while back and producing a zine which was well received by my film photography peers I wanted to start shooting more Lomo style images alongside my other photography.

I already have a Diana F+ (which may feature in my 1st blog of 2019) … a Lomo Actionsampler and a Holga 120GN.

Since owning my Holga I have shot numerous rolls of B&W/C41 and Slide with very little to show in the way of usable images.

I always thought it was possibly my incompetence with the camera but after using another holga and getting loads of images that I was extremely pleased with I came to the conclusion that it was something not right with my copy.

The main problems were horizontal film scratches, huge light leaks that obliterated large areas of the image and ultra soft focus or even totally blurry images.

I realised that my Holga didn’t come with any film masks as I bought it 2nd hand from eBay so my 1st mod was to make my own mask which I guessed the size of by measuring the mask in my Diana and attached it to the inside using black tape.

I then replaced the foam on the take up side as it was perished and I did notice that I was previously getting fat rolls.

And lastly I attached similar foam pieces on the back door in the hope of keeping the film flatter and hopefully getting a bit better focus on the frames.

I loaded up a roll of my Favourite film ilford HP5+ which as the weather was really dull, overcast and drizzle I took a meter reading with my Sekonic meter and decided to rated the film at 800 iso and developed it in Rodinal at 1+25 dilution for 8 minutes with the intention of getting the best sharpness from the film.

Once scanning the film I was so pleased to find the images were such a vast improvement over any previous images that I have ever got from this camera and I was justified for playing around with the insides.

Ok … these are not a patch on what I get with a camera like my Fuji GW690iii but that is not what it is all about … these images are exactly what I want from my Holga and I am looking forward to shooting it on a more regular basis in the new year along with my other Lomo style cameras (I have already purchased a Lomo Fisheye).

Anyway here are some of the images ….

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 🙂

Last roll with The Littlest Holga … Castles

Here is my last roll shot with the Littlest Holga … it was a gloomy day so I decided on some dependable ilford HP5 and popped out to my local castle “Coity Castle” where I managed to finish the roll before the heavens opened.

I has been great fun using the Holga … it seemed to release me from over thinking every shot and gave me the freedom just to experiment and have fun without worrying about the outcome.

Overall I was very happy with every roll and have even shared a few prints world wide

Well here are the images ….

I am thinking of producing a zine featuring all 5 rolls that I shot while I had the Littlest Holga … I am thinking square format and perfect bound so if anyone is interested let me know please.

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 🙂

The Littlest Holga loves Slide film … part 4

For my 4th roll on my adventures with the Littlest Holga I decided on more slide film as we were going to the seaside and the weather was good.

The film in question was Lomography Color Slide X-pro 200 which I processed using the Tetenal E6 kit rather than X-proing it 🙂

Here are the images ..

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 🙂

Out in the wind & rain … the Littlest Holga part 3

Following the heatwave that we have been experiencing over the last few weeks the usual summer weather hit last week bringing wind and rain so It was time to get out with the Littlest Holga and some lovely ilford HP5 to shoot the gloom only as a Holga can.

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 🙂

Slide film in a Holga .. are you mad? …the Littlest Holga part 2

Week two with the Littlest Holga and it was a trip to the classic car show on the streets of Bridgend Town.

It was a lovely day so I decided to chance my arm am shoot a roll of Kodak Ektachrome 100VS which I was pleased to report worked pretty well.

So here are the images … all shot on the Sunny f11 aperture which may have been a little better if I had used the cloudy f8 setting just to brighten them up a bit but hey ho on to the next roll …