5×4
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Wednesday, February 25th, 2015
Some of the results from my large format lunchtime session with Alice using a 1940’s press camera. For this session I wanted to test out some Fomapan 100 film that I’ve had laying around for over a year and recently discovered. So far so good. I like these results. I’m hoping to do more large format photography in my lunch break because I really enjoy composing my shots on a large ground glass screen – often times upside down – and also having a limited amount of shots as well as the slower pace compared to other kinds of photography.
[Tech info:] Graflex Super D 5×4, Pentac 8inch f2.9 (bottom left), Kodak Ektar 190/5.6 lens, Fomapan 100 (expired), processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Film hanging up to dry
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, alice, black&white, fomapan, graflex, hc110, oxford, students, super d
Monday, February 9th, 2015
Yesterday I taught a landscape photography workshop at New College with Anthony (the current Oxford University Photographic Society President) and after a classroom session we all went out into the New College grounds to do some photography. The sky was very clear which made for quite contrasty light with nice shadows. I decided to take my Polaroid 110B to do some large format photography on Kodak Plus-X Aerographic film to test out how it handled contrast. Overall I think the film handled the contrast very well, especially in this first image below. I only took six sheets of film with me and to save time I bracketed the first two shots and then used my last two on Anthony (we couldn’t decide on jacket on or off so we shot both).
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Kodak Plus-X Aerographic film, processed in Kodak HC110 (1+31) for 5 mins.
Behind-the-scenes – film drying in the darkroom
Posted in Architecture, film, Oxford, Portrait | 4 Responses »
Tags: 110B, 5x4, aerographic, anthony, black&white, film, hc110, new college, oxford, plus-x, polaroid, portraits
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.
Posted in Architecture, Equipment, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aerographic, black&white, film, graflex, hc110, industar, oxford, plus-x, portraits
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.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | 3 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aerographic, film, hc110, magdalen college, oxford, plus-x, speed graphic
Saturday, January 10th, 2015
This afternoon I visited Magdalen College to test out a new (old) lens I recently fitted to a lens board for my Speed Graphic and here is the first test shot made on Fuji FP-100C instant pack film. I also took some b&w sheet film with me and those shots will follow at a later time. The beauty of FP-100C is being able to bleach the black carbon backing from the back and ending up with an almost large format sized negative. This shot was made late in the afternoon as the light was fading and I used the slowest shutter speed on my Speed Graphic (1/30th) knowing that the print would be a little on the under-exposed side but also knowing that the negative gives you an extra 2 stops of exposure. It’s nice to get two shots for the price of one – the only instant film that does.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Industar 210/4.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
Neg
Print
Posted in Architecture, Equipment, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, film, fp100c, fujiroid, graflex, industar, magdalen college, oxford, speed graphic
Saturday, January 3rd, 2015
Happy New Year! Despite my best efforts I’m sorry to say I didn’t manage to post very much last month (December 2014) and although I’m not into new year resolutions I do plan to try to post more this year if only to share some of the mountain of images I made in 2014. It’s not going to be easy because I haven’t slowed down in making new images and don’t plan to any time soon so let’s see what this new year brings…
During a recent end of year tidy up I came across a box of Fomapan 100 5×4 sheets that I had forgotten I had. I thought it would be wise to test some of them before using them on any important shots so I decided to do some still life photography of one of my wife’s orchids which I’ve been meaning to photograph for a while. The light was very flat and less than ideal but I went ahead because Fomapan can tend to be on the contrasty side and you can’t get much contrasty than white petals on a black background. The film seems to be okay and for my next shots I’ll try to do some with a wider contrast range.
[Tech info:] Wista field 5×4, Schneider 150mm and 180mm lenses. Fomapan 100 processed in Xtol 1+1 for 8 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, Still life | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, fomapan, orchids, oxford, wista, xtol
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
Posted in Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: 110B, 5x4, aero, black&white, film, oxford, people, plus-x, polaroid, portraits, rodinal
Monday, August 4th, 2014
Here are my first results from push processing Fuji slide duplicating film. This film is designed to make duplicate copies of slide film when projected in an enlarger with a tungsten light source. It’s not designed for regular photography in daylight but it seems to work very nicely. Not only did I use this film in conditions it wasn’t designed for I also (deliberately) cross-processed the film in the wrong chemicals. Film is amazing stuff and part of the fun is experimenting.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic 5×4, Aero Ektar, Fuji CDU II slide duplicating film, rated at ISO 25 and pushed 1 stop in processing using Tetanol C41 chemistry.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, students | 9 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aero, ariel, film, graflex, oxford, people, portraits, students, summer
Wednesday, July 9th, 2014
These shots are from a few weeks ago from possibly one of my shortest photo shoots ever – start to finish I think we spent around 15 minutes. They were all made handheld on 5×4 large format film and I really like how these have turned out. The camera is from the 1960’s and was originally designed to shoot on Polaroid film that came on a roll. It was never designed to shoot 5×4 film so the viewfinder is not 100% accurate for what will be on the film and that’s something I’m still trying to get used to which is why the top of the frame is cropped so tightly in a few of these shots. This summer I plan to do more large format film photography than I have before and I think my modified Polaroid 110B will be getting quite a bit of use.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B land camera (modified by Holga Mods), Ilford HP5 5×4, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 5mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 110B, 5x4, black&white, charlie, film, hc110, HP5, oxford, people, portraits, students
Monday, June 16th, 2014
These shots were all made with a Polaroid 110B Land Camera that has been modified to shoot 5×4 large format film, handheld. It can also shoot a whole host of other formats thanks to the Graflok back and I plan to do a separate post on this camera at some point. The conversion has been beautifully done by Randy of Holgamods.com and it was worth every day of the 3 months I had to wait.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Ilford HP5 film processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6mins.
Eric rowed for Keble College in 1955.
Posted in film, Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 110B, 5x4, black&white, eights, film, hc110, HP5, oxford, people, sport, students, summer
Monday, October 14th, 2013
Here are a set of shots made on 5×4 large format film with Lauren. The middle two are from my first shoot with Lauren in some of the dullest and flat overcast light I have ever dared to photograph someone in, the others are from my second shoot (see the Fujiroids I posted a few days ago). I hope there will be more collaborations to come.
The maximum amount of 5×4 sheets I can process at once is six so that’s why I like to shoot them in batches of six. I love how all of these have turned out which is why I can’t choose between them so I decided to post them all. One of my favourite film/developer combo’s for quite a while has been Ilford HP5 developed in Kodak HC110 but recently I’ve been testing out Kodak Xtol and I have to say it’s hard to go wrong with it. I found the secret to mixing Xtol successfully is to use hot water which helps the fine powder dissolve.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic, Schneider 180/4.5 (top & bottom), Pentac 8inch/2.9 (middle), Ilford HP5 processed in Kodak Xtol stock for 8.5mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, students | 4 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, graflex, HP5, oxford, pentac, people, portraits, students, xtol
Thursday, September 19th, 2013
Here are some large format portraits I made recently with one of my favourite camera, lens and film combos. The camera is from the 1940’s or 50’s, not quite sure, but I do know the lens was used for aerial photography during the second world war and judging by the condition of the paintwork it saw some action. The nice thing about this particular lens is the shallow depth of field and the way it renders everything with a beautiful smoothness but you can’t really appreciate the image quality in web resolution images.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Pentac f2.9 lens @ f3.5, Ilford HP5 film processed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
Posted in film, Oxford, Portrait, Street portraits | 4 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, graflex, hc110, HP5, oxford, pentac, people, portraits, speed graphic
