rodinal

...now browsing by tag

 
 

Oxford: first outing with Marion Soho reflex 5×4 camera

Monday, November 18th, 2024

Here are some pictures from my first outing with a Marion Soho reflex camera I recently had serviced. The camera is probably around the 100 year old mark but it has been well looked after by the previous owner(s) and certainly doesn’t show its age. When I bought it the shutter curtains were dry and jammed which is very common with old reflex cameras which either haven’t been used regularly or have been stored in poor conditions (heat/humidity). The shutter curtains in mine have been replaced with cloth supplied by Custom Bellows UK and now the camera works like a dream. It’s smaller and lighter than my 5×4 Graflex Super D which makes it more comfortable to carry on my back while cycling into town.

[Tech info:] Marion Soho reflex 5×4, Fomapan 400 developed in Rodinal 1+25.

20241117_Oxford_Marion-Soho_5x4_Foma400_Rodinal_01_web 20241117_Oxford_Marion-Soho_5x4_Foma400_Rodinal_02_web 20241117_Oxford_Marion-Soho_5x4_Foma400_Rodinal_03_web 20241117_Oxford_Marion-Soho_5x4_Foma400_Rodinal_04_web 20241117_Oxford_Marion-Soho_5x4_Foma400_Rodinal_05_web 20241117_Oxford_Marion-Soho_5x4_Foma400_Rodinal_06_web

Oxford: street portraits with a Graflex Super D 3×4 camera – part 2

Sunday, September 29th, 2024

Second test with fresh Shanghai GP3 100 film in this size (3.25″x4.25″). Processed in a Jobo expert drum without pre-rinse and water instead of stop bath. Looks like there is still mottling and uneven development. Maybe this film doesn’t like constant agitation? More testing needed. For scanning I made holders from old sheets of 5×4 film. Seems to work well and no more newtons rings.

[Tech info:] Graflex Super D 3×4, 152 mm Kodak Ektar lens, Shanghai GP3 100 @ ISO 100, processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 9 mins.

20240928_Oxford_SuperD_3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_01_web 20240928_Oxford_SuperD_3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_06_web 20240928_Oxford_SuperD_3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_05_web 20240928_Oxford_SuperD_3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_04_web 20240928_Oxford_SuperD_3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_03_web 20240928_Oxford_SuperD_3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_02_web

Oxford: street portraits with a Graflex Super D 3×4 camera

Sunday, September 22nd, 2024

First test with fresh Shanghai GP3 100 film in this (3.25″ x 4.25″) size. Processed in a Jobo expert drum with water pre-rinse and stop bath. Looks like this film might need water instead of stop bath (the same as Fomapan film) because I can see uneven development. Scans made directly on the glass of my Epson V700 which has resulted in some newton rings. I will work on a better method. It’s a real shame about the uneven development but overall I’m pleased with these first results.

[Tech info:] Graflex Super D 3×4, 152 mm Kodak Ektar lens, Shanghai GP3 100 @ ISO 100, developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 9 mins.

20240921_Oxford_SuperD-3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_01_web 20240921_Oxford_SuperD-3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_02_web 20240921_Oxford_SuperD-3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_03_web 20240921_Oxford_SuperD-3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_04_web 20240921_Oxford_SuperD-3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_05_web 20240921_Oxford_SuperD-3x4_GP3-100_Rodinal_1-25_06_web

Oxford: large format film street portraits

Friday, September 20th, 2024

Recent street portraits on large format film. Making the most of what will probably be the last week of warm weather this year I took my camera gear into town to make some portraits as the sun was rapidly dropping. There is a glow to some of the skin tones which I think might be down to the warm colour temperature of the early evening light. The camera is from somewhere around the 1950s, the brass lens is around 150 years old, the film is fresh. Thank you to everyone who stopped to be photographed.

[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic, Dallmeyer 2B petzval lens, Fomapan 400 film rated at ISO 200, developed in Rodinal 1+25.

2024092_Oxford_Dallmeyer-2B_Fomapan400_Rodinal_01_web 2024092_Oxford_Dallmeyer-2B_Fomapan400_Rodinal_02_web 2024092_Oxford_Dallmeyer-2B_Fomapan400_Rodinal_03_web 2024092_Oxford_Dallmeyer-2B_Fomapan400_Rodinal_04_web 2024092_Oxford_Dallmeyer-2B_Fomapan400_Rodinal_06_web

Oxford: Ilford F.P.4 Glass Plates – part 1

Sunday, September 15th, 2024

Here are some portraits I recently made on Ilford F.P.4. dry glass plates which expired circa 1950. The box doesn’t have a visible expiry date that I can find but the label design (see below) was dated by Nicholas Middleton who has done some research about it. His excellent photo blog contains a wealth of information about various old film stocks, cameras and glass plates he has tested. Following his advice I rated these glass plates at ISO 5 which gave me an exposure time of approximately 2 seconds in shade. The Ross reflex camera I used has been serviced and inside is a date of manufacture from 1915 written in pencil. The camera is in excellent condition considering it’s over 109 years old. I still have two more plates to develop and six left to use.

[Tech info:] Ross reflex, Zeiss 11.5 inch f6.3 lens, Ilford F.P.4. glass plates @ ISO 5, developed in Rodinal 1+100 for 1 hour semi-stand (slow agitations at 30 mins).

53977997204_303dd330c7_c 53896482609_c5e83e1af8_c 53993299077_f4b38bd66d_c20240914_FP4_Glass_ISO5_Ross-reflex_Zeiss_11.5inch_RDNL_1-100_03_web 20240914_FP4_Glass_ISO5_Ross-reflex_Zeiss_11.5inch_RDNL_1-100_02_web 20240914_FP4_Glass_ISO5_Ross-reflex_Zeiss_11.5inch_RDNL_1-100_01_web

Oxford: glass dry plate portrait

Friday, March 1st, 2024

Here is my first portrait on dry glass plate. I found a box of old Ilford FP4 glass dry plates at home and have no idea when I bought them. The box doesn’t have an expiry date on it. As luck would have it they’re the correct size  (2.5 x 3.5 inches) to fit the Mamiya Press plate holders I’ve got but so far have been unable to make use of. This portrait of another fellow photographer during his visit to Oxford was made last weekend in Radcliffe Square. I don’t know him but I enjoyed chatting about photography with him as I set up the shot. I’m very pleased with this result (it has a vintage feel to it) and look forward to making more portraits with the remaining glass plates. The emulsion is very fragile when wet and you can see it lifted along the right hand side.

[Tech info:] Mamiya Press Super 23, 100/2.8 lens (at f4), FP4 glass dry plate exposed at ISO 10, developed in Rodinal 1+25. (Thanks to Nicholas Middleton for his inspiration and blog posts full of info about using old glass plates).

20240224_MUnivPress_23_100-2.8_FP4_Rodinal_1-25_web

Oxford: Night photography

Sunday, October 15th, 2017

For quite a while I have wanted to use some Fuji Acros 100 film for night photography because it supposedly does not suffer from reciprocity failure for exposure times up to 1 minute and now that it has started to get darker earlier I decided it was finally time to give it a go. On this occasion I was joined by Graeme – one of the presenter’s of the Sunny 16 podcast – which made for a fun evening of photography and chat. We got lucky with the weather and the temperature was unusually mild for the end of September which made standing around for long exposures no problem at all. The last shot below of the Radcliffe Camera was exposed for just over 1 minute and I added in a little light painting on the roof for good measure. This film certainly didn’t lose sensitivity for such a long exposure time and I will be using it again for more night photography soon.

[Tech info:] Fuji GW690, Fuji Acros 100 film, developed in Rodinal 1+25.

Oxford: BMX Jam 2015

Thursday, July 27th, 2017

The last time the OWP skate park held a BMX Jam event was 2015 and here are some pictures from that event that I just found in my archive. I don’t manage to get over to the skate park as often as I’d like for photography but whenever they hold an event – whether that’s BMX or skateboarding – I always do my best to make it. Some of these guys can be a tricky bunch to photograph because they tend to be camera shy but I do my best to stay out of the way to record some candid moments and hopefully they’ll now see the value of documentary photography at an event such as this, two years later. More to come.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton Classic, Ilford Pan F (expired), developed in Rodinal 1+50. Pakon scans.

 

Oxford: Ducker & Son Ltd

Tuesday, June 6th, 2017

Ducker & Son Ltd, Turl Street, Oxford, traditional shoemakers since 1898. All gone now. Soon to be a wine shop, right next door to the Whiskey Shop. Just what Oxford needs. When I found out that Duckers was closing for good I felt compelled to document what was left of the shop. Over the years I have photographed the shoes in the window countless times but this was the first time I had actually set foot inside the shop. It’s a real shame to see this shop close. When I got there in my lunch break there were lots of people coming and going and it was difficult to not be in the way with a tripod set up. I wanted some nice quality pictures so I decided to take a Pentax 67 with a wide-angle lens. I knew the shop was quite dark inside so film choice was very simple – Neopan Acros 100 because it doesn’t suffer from reciprocity failure until you go past 1 minute exposures. Most of my exposures were around the 30 seconds mark. I only had enough time to finish one roll of 10 frames but that was more than enough to get these results.

[Tech info:] Pentax 67, 50/4, Neopan Acros 100 developed in Rodinal 1+50.

 

Large format film test

Saturday, March 18th, 2017

I recently bought a batch of expired large format 5×4 sheet film that I’m unfamiliar with so I made some test shots during my lunch break to see what they would look like. The film expired in 2005 and as I have no idea of how it’s been stored since then I decided to rate the film at ISO64 instead of 100. The camera I used is my smallest and most portable 5×4 camera which is a Polaroid 110B that I had converted by Randy at holgamods.com. It’s a thing of beauty and a joy to use.

[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B, Mac 100 UP b&w film (expired 2005), rated at ISO64 and developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 8mins in a Jobo.

Portrait: Rachel Owen, Artist

Wednesday, December 21st, 2016

In the summer of 2012 I was starting to experiment with large format x-ray film and looking for willing volunteers to sit for a portrait so that I could test things out. One of my test portraits was of Oxford artist Rachel Owen who I knew also worked with film when we chatted at her Artweeks exhibition months earlier. Yesterday I was very sad to hear that Rachel died on Sunday 18th December from cancer. Pembroke College announced the news on their website.

[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, green sensitive x-ray film rated at ISO 50, processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 6 mins.

Rachel Owen, Artist (1968-2016).

Rachel Owen, Artist (1968-2016)

The Great Dorset Steam Fair 2016 – part 1

Saturday, August 27th, 2016

Two days ago I visited The Great Dorset Steam Fair for a photography day out with my old friend and fellow photographer Benedict Campbell – we used to work at the same photography studio 25+ years ago and I was one of his assistants. Ben suggested the Steam Fair would be great to photograph because he previously visited it to make his short film about the Wall of Death (watch it here). After setting off at 6am we arrived there nice and early with beautiful morning light and not too many crowds. The weather was kind to us with just the odd passing shower during the afternoon which got rid of the humidity and helped keep the air a little fresher. It was a fantastic day out and I really enjoyed seeing so much passion for massive machines. We photographed all day, stayed until it got dark and brought back lots of pictures to share. Lots more to come.

[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander 50/1.5 Nokton Classic, Agfa APX 100, Developed in Rodinal 1+25 for 8 mins. Pakon scans.