Tag: film

My first roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 and home developing fun……..

Last week I decided as I was shooting more and more film I would have to have a go at developing my own negatives. This is something I have not done since school.

When studying for my ‘O’ level Art my teacher Mr Halley who was a keen photographer set up a darkroom and some of us who were interested in photography got to waste our Friday afternoons developing and printing our own stuff which is where I got gripped with the photography bug over 30 years ago.

With a mixture of memory/facebook friends and youtube I ventured into my makeshift darkroom /bathroom 🙂  and thought I had made a total mess of my film.

First it all unwound and dropped to the floor, then I managed to cut the leader at an angle so it would not wind on to the spool, eventually I emerged from the bathroom thinking the worst but I was so pleased after opening up the processing tank when I saw images instead of clear or black film.

It is such a thrill to process my own film it brings back so many memories, I love processing my digital shots too, but there is something about the look/feel and smell of Film.

These shots are far from perfect but as it is all my own work I love them…….

Thanks for looking…….comments are very welcome  🙂

Click on photo to view larger……….

Who thought that a Film Scanner could be so addictive?………

As a few of my followers of my blog know I have started getting back into shooting film again.

It’s a very enjoyable experience but is not a cheap pastime so I decided to take the film scanning part of the cost out by purchasing my own film scanner, an Epson Perfection V330 Photo to be precise.

link : http://www.epson.co.uk/Store/Scanners/Epson-Perfection-V330-Photo

Not only can I scan in my newly shot negatives but I had loads of old stuff dying to see the light of day and enter the digital world.

I have noticed that it is far easier to scan the new negs than it is the old ones, even though I thought I had taken care of them every little imperfection really stands out when scanned at 3200 dpi or approx 12 megapixel which is plenty for what I want to use them for.

I have uploaded some of my first scans, a mixture of old ( my daughter Amy on her 3rd Birthday 14 years ago) and some taken last weekend.

I am really impressed with the scanner it is pretty quick and the quality is first class, I scanned the neg of my son that I took a few weeks ago to compare it to the original scan I had when getting the film processed and I must say it was like chalk and cheese this little scanner took the prize.

comments very welcome……..

You have to love Film………..

I took my 1st roll of film to Boots today for their 1hour service just to see the test results from my new Nikon FM2n.

I shot various subjects just to get used to using a fully manual camera on Kodak Ultramax 400 film. The portraits were shot using the Nikkor 85mm f1.8 and the others with the Nikkor 50mm f1.8.

I wasn’t very impressed with printing or the scans from Boots but I was very pleased with the focus and exposure considering I am used to Aperture priority and Autofocus.

I can’t wait to get some Fuji Professional PRO 400H and some Kodak Professional Portra 400 and shoot loads more stuff but get it processed by a decent lab.

The camera is a real pleasure to use and I am so pleased with the results, there is such a difference between using Film to shooting Digital it slows me down and makes me think about the photograph instead of just snapping away and picking the best in post production.

Feedback on the photographs greatly received……..

Film shooter in the Garw Valley…….

A self portrait shot with my Lubitel 166 medium format using kodak Portra 400.

I realised that landscape photography was not this cameras strong point as most of the photographs were very soft indeed.

It may have been my fault as I shot them on infinity stopped down to f11 to f22 thinking that would give me the best results but obviously not, unless the camera has a fault.

All the closer shots were far sharper and contrasty, well you live and learn and I really like using the camera so I will pick my subject matter a little more carefully next time.

I have loaded some Fuji Neopan 400 next so lets see what that brings…….