Film Photography – Page 10 – tim dobbs photography

Fuji GW690iii & two rolls of ilford HP5@ at 800…

Two weeks ago we had a bit of a storm here in South Wales called “Callum” and I decided to brave the wind/rain and crappy light with the Fuji GW690iii and a few rolls of my fav B&W film HP5+ which I rated at iso 800 just to get some decent DOF in the images.

To be fair the weather was not all that bad by the time I got up to the top of the valley and I managed to get decent speeds with apertures of f8 to f11 on most shots.

The GW690 gives bonkers negatives with heaps of detail and the HP5 gave lovely grain at 800 with plenty of contrast without losing either the shadows or highlights.

Here are the 12 best images from the 2 rolls, the last image was shot on the Monday after the storm as I didn’t finish the 2nd 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 🙂

First time shooting Silberra Pan 200 ….

I got a few rolls of Silberra film for supporting their Kickstarter a while back but only now got around to actually giving them a try.

My first roll was the Pan 200 which I shot at 200 iso using my Nikon F100 and developed in Rodinal 1+25 dilution for 8 minutes.

The day was pretty overcast and actually got quite dim on a few occasions so I was a bit worried hand holding at speed as low as 1/30 sec on a few frames but to be fair they didn’t turn out too badly.

The film gave very good tonality and sharpness but with quite a pronounced grain which I didn’t mind in fact it added to the mood of these images.

Anyway here are a selection from the 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 🙂

Konica AutoReflex TC & Hexanon AR 50mm f1.7 = Big Smile …

A couple of weeks ago I picked up a bargain pair from West Yorkshire Cameras .. namely a very, very clean Konica AutoReflex TC with a Hexanon 50mm attached which was also in excellent nick for the princely sum of £29 british pounds.

I have always heard that most lenses with the Hexanon name were supposed to be pretty good so I was looking forward to shooting with the pair.

I loaded the camera with a roll of Agfa Vista 400 and went out for a little walkabout.

The camera is essentially either shutter priority or full manual … if you set the lens to AE you then change the shutter speed and the viewfinder shows you the chosen aperture or if in manual it shows you the recommended aperture for the shutter speed selected.

The day was drizzly and very overcast so I didn’t realise that the aperture displayed in the viewfinder didn’t seem to move above f1.7 for the 1st 5 or 6 frames.

When I noticed I pointed the lens at the sky and set the shutter to 1/60 sec and still the needle pointed to f1.7.

I immediately thought the meter was buggered so shot the rest of the roll in manual using the light meter on my phone.

After developing the roll to my surprise the 1st 6 frames were all exposed correctly and not over exposed like I was expecting.

So I am not really sure what is actually wrong as if I use it in AE mode I think the aperture displayed is wrong but the exposures are correct but if I try manual and use the recommended camera apertures then I imagine the exposures will be wrong.

To be honest I am not that bothered as I can shoot it in manual and just use my handheld light meter as the quality of the images the camera/lens produces are 1st class.

Anyway here are a selection of images from the 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 GW690III and Rollei RPX 400 in the mist ….

During my holiday last week I planned on trying to shoot a roll of film everyday which due to the rubbish weather I didn’t manage but I did shoot some Rollei RPX 400 in the Fuji GW690III.

As I said the weather was pretty grim here in South Wales so I decided to push the film to 800 iso so that I could at least stop down the aperture to attempt to get some decent DOF.

I developed the roll in ilfotec HC at 1+15 dilution for 5.30 mins and scanned using my Epson v500.

Overall I was impressed with how the film performed especially as I pushed it a stop, the level of detail was excellent and the grain was pretty smooth.

I have done a few prints from this roll and they really look good on paper, so much nicer to have a print in your hands than just on the screen ….. Print your stuff I say.

Anyway 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 🙂

The “Littlest Holga” comes to visit part 1 …

On Twitter for quite a while there has been a sort of shared project going on arranged by a fellow twitter photographer Sandeep @givemeabiscuit where a Holga 120 camera along with a box of accessories like filters/special effects lens stuff has been passed around various photographers worldwide who get to keep the kit for a couple of weeks and then share the resultant images on twitter.

Last week it became my turn to have an adventure with the “Littlest Holga” … it has its own twitter account by the way 😉

I already have a pretty beat up Holga which I have never managed to get very many images that I was happy with so this chance to play with another model which has yielded excellent results by other photographers was quite exciting.

This is the results from my 1st roll which was some ilford FP4+, I tried using a Red filter on the lens to give the contrast a bit of a boost as the day I shot the roll was very bright and sunny.

I am not sure if it made a big difference but I was happy with the roll which gave me 11 images out of 12 that I am happy to share.

So here are the images and I will blog every roll that I shoot good or bad in the next few weeks … next roll will be some Kodak Ektachrome E100VS so fingers crossed for that one 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂

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 🙂

#Camerachallenge …. my keepers from the roll …

I recently took part in a twitter cheap camera/film challenge arranged by twitter friend Jason Avery whereby you have to purchase a camera for £2 or your local currency equivalent and load it with the cheapest film that you can find and post the results during the given week.

I was late to the challenge as I managed to pick up a camera for £2.99 but was hanging on just to see if I could find one cheaper which sadly I didn’t so I went with this combo.

The roll of Superia 100 was given to me so you could not get cheaper than that.

I managed to finish the roll during the week but by the time I developed it I only posted a couple as it was a bit late so here are the keepers from that roll.

The camera performed pretty well, it was totally automatic but you could either force or turn off the auto flash if to want but that was it for manual controls but it did have a button that let you focus at infinity (I think it focused from 13 meters to infinity) which I used for a couple of frames.

Well here are the images …

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

Snow day …… part two

Following on …

As I said in the previous blog post we managed to get another downpour of snow in the space of 3 weeks so this time I decided on some colour film namely Kodak Portra 400VC expired using my Nikon F100 and both the 50mm f1.4 and my old Nikkor 35-70 which isn’t the sharpest but its versatile.

Anyway here are the images ….

I have shot a couple of rolls of this film previously and it was great but I don’t know if it was the cold weather along with slightly exhausted c41 chemistry but half of the frames seemed to have a colour cast which I didn’t bother correcting as I liked the look 🙂

Anyway thanks for looking ….

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 🙂

Lomography Color Negative 400 is becoming my most favorite colour film …

I recently did a post about my 1st time shooting Lomography Color Negative 400 film in 35mm and this is a sort of follow up or my 2nd roll if you like.

This time the light was pretty dull unlike the bright sunshine I enjoyed with the 1st roll but I was good as it allowed a comparison with similar subject matter.

It would be fair to say that the film performed just as good in poor light as it did in bright sunshine giving excellent sharpness even shooting at wide apertures using my Olympus OM2s & 50mm f1.4.

The colours are still pretty vibrant just a little more subtle which lends itself to maybe shooting portraits which I think will be my next subject with this film.

This film is excellent value costing around £4 a roll in the UK here is a link direct to the Lomography site but a quick Google search will bring up some even cheaper prices.

lomography-color-negative-400-iso-35mm-3-pack