50mm f1.4 – tim dobbs photography

Shooting Lomography Colour Negative 400 on a Sunny day …..

My favorite colour negative film stock is Fuji Reala but obviously they stopped producing it a few years back so I have been trying to buy up as much as I can get my hands on over the last 2 years.

One day there will be none left so I have been shooting various different stocks in a bid to find one that sort of gives me a similar look to Reala which isn’t easy.

The closest I have managed is with Lomography Colour Negative 400 when shot 1 stop over which does not match Reala totally but gives me a very pleasing look that is reminiscent in feel.

The best thing is that Lomo 400 is actually being made today and at a good price too so here are my favorites from the roll that I shot last weekend where the sun shone here in the South Wales valleys.

To be honest Lomo 400 works great at 400 in poor light but when it’s over exposed a stop in bright sunshine then for me it is at it’s best.

This roll was shot using my Nikon FE2 and 50mm f1.4 and developed and scanned by the wonderful Filmdev who do an excellent job .

Anyway here are the photos … comments welcomed 🙂

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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 🙂

A day out at the seaside ……

We paid a visit to Amy last week in Aberystwyth and just for a change we had a lovely bright day.

The last few trips to “Aber” have been wet and dark so it lends itself to some grainy B&W images but for a change I loaded the F100 with some Kodak Portra 400 and shot it 2 stops over.

I must admit I love the way Portra looks when pushed especially when shooting portraits and along with the 50mm f1.4 wide open the film really makes the image pop.

I really need to start shooting more portraits, I have to pull my finger out and make a point of getting some willing subjects ( its like pulling teeth getting my family to pose for me)

All in all it was a good day out albeit a bit cold but it was nice to shoot in sunshine for a change.

As usual the film was processed and scanned by http://www.filmdev.co.uk/ who did a great job, I can’t recommend them more highly.

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comments welcomed…. and if anyone local is up for some portrait shots drop me an email 🙂

Canon 50mm f1.4 and Ilford XP2……..

I had 2 deliveries on Friday.

A Canon 50mm f1.4 FD from West Yorkshire Cameras which was such a bargain compared to the equivalent Nikon offering as I can use it on both my Film Canon SLR’s and also my Olympus EPL-1.

And another package was from Ilford customer services with a load of different Ilford films free of charge as they will be using 2 of my film images on their website in the near future to showcase HP5+.

Firstly I must say how over the moon I am with the lens, its twice the weight and build of my 50mm f1.8 which I was pleased with but the f1.4 is so damn sharp it hurts especially on the Olympus.

The DOF and Bokeh is lovely and on my Canon T90 the viewfinder is extremely bright and easy to focus.

I am so glad I bought this, I wasn’t sure if it would be this much better than the f1.8 version as it actually is.

I have never shot Ilford XP2 before so I wasn’t sure what to expect, sadly my C-41 chemistry is shot so the results were a bit mixed but I managed to get a few shots I was pleased with.

The negatives are very easy to scan and have a very smooth tone that suits the type of images I was shooting with shallow DOF but is also nice and contrasty when stopped down a bit.I also had some SFX200 and PanF 50 which I have not shot before either so I am looking forward to see what comes out.

Thanks for looking

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