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Oxford Tailors on Kodak Vision 3 film

Thursday, January 29th, 2015

Whenever I want to test out any tungsten balanced film I tend to either head for the Ashmolean Museum or to Clements & Church – the tailor’s on Little Clarendon Street and sometimes I will visit both places during the same lunch break as I did last week when I wanted to test out some Kodak Vision 3 500T motion picture film. This is the exact same film that is used by movie studios in Hollywood and around the world. I really like the colours you get with this film and although it takes longer to develop than regular colour film (because you have to remove the black remjet coating from the non-emulsion side of the film), with extra time and care it can be done with just hot water and a sponge which is what I used on this roll.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Kodak Vision 3 500T, Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scan.

Oxford: Lunchtime session – Tori (film)

Wednesday, January 28th, 2015

Here are some medium format shots I made during my recent lunch time session with Tori. I previously posted a couple of Fujiroid bleached neg shots here. The format for these shots was 6×9 which is one of my favourite medium format aspect ratios but I only have one camera that was designed to use that format and these shots reminded me that I don’t use it enough. You get 8 shots of 6×9 on a 120 size roll so it’s not a format for the trigger happy. For this shoot I decided to use fresh film stock for a change and while I can’t see a huge difference compared to some of my expired film shots I do think that the contrast was handled better on the contrasty back lit shots. We were a bit rushed in this session because I wanted to use medium format, 35mm and Fuji pack film all within 25mins which is not easy when you’ve got lots of people moving around during lunch time and you have to keep stopping to wait for a clear background but Tori was very patient despite the cold weather and we got everything done in time.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100/2.8, Kodak Tri-X 400, processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1.

 

Oxford: Magdalen session

Sunday, January 25th, 2015

Towards the end of the Christmas break I did some photography at Magdalen College to test out a Russian lens I had mounted to use with my Speed Graphic 5×4 camera. How appropriate that I would meet up with a Russian flickr contact of mine who was visiting Oxford with his girlfriend. Along with my Speed Graphic I took my Leica M2 which I used for these shots. The light was fading fast but the 400 speed of Ilford XP2 was just fine. There are some shots from this session still to come which I made on Kodak Vision 3 500T motion picture film.

The results from my Speed Graphic can be found here and here.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton, Ilford XP2 (expired), processed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scan.

speed graphic camera

Speed Graphic 5×4

Oxford: Lunchtime session – Tori

Monday, January 19th, 2015

Today was a glorious sunny winters day here in Oxford and I made good use of it by doing some photography with Tori during my lunch break. I had three different film cameras with me today and here are two shots from the Polaroid Land Camera I took (the b&w shots are drying in the darkroom overnight so they’ll follow at a later time). There’s something really nice about winter sunshine and how it can make colours pop, it can also be very harsh and contrasty so it’s a nice challenge to look at how the light is falling on your subject and how the smallest of movements can mean the difference between nice and not so nice. Tori was incredibly easy to photograph and I hope we can do some more photography with different cameras and film. There is zero retouching on these two images, no Photoshop fakery, no filters, no plugins, just straight scans from the film.

These two shots were made on Fuji FP100-C instant pack film that expired 9 years ago. When you store it carefully and pay attention to how you expose it it’s capable of creating some fantastic results. I tend to underexpose it by a stop which results in a darker print but a nice negative that can be recovered with bleaching the black carbon layer off. The negatives are much sharper than the prints and you also get 2 stops of more detail in the shadows compared to the print.

[Tech info:] Polaroid Land Camera 190, Fuji FP100-C (expired), recovered neg.

Oxford: Cast & crew of Spilt

Thursday, January 15th, 2015

Spilt is a short film written and directed by Alvin Yu and I was asked if I’d like to do some portrait photography while they were filming in Oxford a couple of weeks ago. Due to timing conflicts I was only able to make it to set on their final day of filming after it had gotten dark outside so I made these portraits indoors with the available light (a bulb hanging from the ceiling in the hallway). The crew were setting up for a shot so I had to work quickly, one frame on each person, no re-takes and no second shot. What you see here is the entire roll of film, uncropped. Apologies to any crew members that I didn’t manage to include, hopefully I’ll get you on another project.

[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss Planar 80mm, Kodak Tri-X 400 rated at ISO 1600, processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1.

Oxford: Industar lens test part 2

Tuesday, January 13th, 2015

Here are a few more shots from the first time out with my Industar 210mm large format lens. I only took six sheets of film with me and I used two sheets on one of the shots because the light was changing and I decided to try out a greater depth of field on the second sheet. I ended up preferring the light on the building in the first exposure so that’s the one I’ve posted here.

[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic, Industar 210/f4.5 lens, Kodak Plus-X Aerographic film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6 mins.

Oxford: Industar lens test

Monday, January 12th, 2015

Here are some of the first test shots made with my Industar 210mm Russian large format lens. I bought this lens back in July last year but it took me a while to get it mounted on a lens panel to use with my Speed Graphic. Finally the wait is over. The light was fading when I made these exposures and they were made at the slowest shutter speed on my Speed Graphic which is 1/30th with the lens fully open at f4.5. I pushed the film a little in the developer to try to lift the shadows but there doesn’t seem to be anything there to bring out. I’m pleased with these results and can’t wait to do some more at a closer focussing distance. I made a few other shots which will follow another time – I left them drying in the darkroom.

[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Industar 210/f4.5 lens, Kodak Plus-X Aerographic film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6 mins.

Oxford: Saturday session

Tuesday, January 6th, 2015

At the end of November I went into town on a Saturday morning to do some photography and here are some images that I made. This was a couple of days after Black Friday and shoppers were out looking for bargains in the run up to Christmas. It was great to come across a breakdance crew busting some moves. When I was younger I remember seeing breakdance crews in town, laying out their square of lino to dance on, boom box blasting out tunes to attract the attention of passers by. It’s nice to see the current generation keeping the tradition alive.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 35mm and 50mm lenses, Fuji Superia 200 (expired), Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.

Stag do

Oxford: lens test – Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5

Saturday, November 29th, 2014

These are the first shots from my Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5 lens which I tested during my lunch break yesterday. Technically this is the second roll of shots with this lens – the first roll was unusable because I forgot to close the back door of my M2 properly so the film wasn’t flat and the whole roll was out of focus. That’s what can happen when you’re excited to use a lens you’ve been looking forward to for quite a while. Lesson learnt. The weather was heavily overcast sky with a really gloomy feel everywhere. It’s the kind of light I would never usually waste a roll of film with but I really wanted to see how this lens performed so I decided to go out regardless and I must admit I do like the results, especially the bokeh, this lens is definitely a keeper. My thanks go to Jason Howe for all of his help and advice about this lens which I prefer for b&w over my Summicron 50/2. I’ll be keeping the Summicron because I shot some slide film with it and the results look fantastic so I can see it being useful for colour (as suggested by my friend Anthony).

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voitlander Nokton 50/1.5, Ilford Delta 400 (expired), processed in Kodak D76 1:1 for 14 mins.

Oxford: large format lunch-break photography

Tuesday, November 25th, 2014

Recently I managed to pick up a roll of quite unique film and these are some of my first test shots with it. The roll is 350ft long and 5 inches wide so it’s perfect for being cut down to 5×4 inch sheets to use for large format photography. The film is Kodak Plus-X Aero film that was developed for aerial photography – this is stock used by the M.O.D. and expired in 2000. During my lunch break yesterday I went into town hoping to make some test portraits because the tonal range in this film is more like what you find in wet plate photography and I wanted to know if it was going to be usable for portraits. I’m very happy with the results which look very smooth tonally and the grain is almost non existent.

[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B (modified for 5×4), Kodak Plus-X 2402 Aero film, ISO 100, processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 14 mins.

Here’s the camera I used (shown below with a roll film back). Modified by Randy at HolgaMods.com

Oxford: Pentax 645 test

Monday, November 17th, 2014

These shots were made to test out a camera/lens combination I put together. The body is a Pentax 645N and the lens is a 105/2.4 designed for a Pentax 6×7 body but I’m using a lens adapter that allows this lens to be mounted on a smaller format body. I recruited the help of a friend for some of the testing (thanks Jean Pierre) and  I experimented with different apertures to see how the depth of field looked, I also added in a portable LED light for some fill which worked out particularly well. The portrait in the top right hand corner is of Paul from Covered Arts, we went to school together many moons ago and it was nice to bump into him during his coffee break.

[Tech info:] Pentax 645N, 105/2.4 lens (attached with a 6×7 to 645 adapter), expired Ilford HP5 film, processed in Kodak D76 1+1 for 13mins.

Oxford: Worldwide Photo Walk Day

Wednesday, October 15th, 2014

Last Saturday was Worldwide Photo Walk Day (in case you didn’t know) and there was a walk organised in Oxford with the theme of film. I didn’t sign up so I wasn’t officially part of the group but I decided to go along to show some love for film and to make some pictures on a Saturday afternoon. It was a good opportunity to put a second roll through the Pentax 645N that I recently got but haven’t had much time to test out. The film I used came in a batch of expired films but there was no date on it. I suspect it’s quite old because the backing paper has left a mottled texture on the film – something I don’t actually mind here.

[Tech info:] Pentax 645N, 105/2.4 lens (attached with a 6×7 to 645 adapter), expired Ilford HP5 film, processed in Kodak D76 1+1 for 13mins.