Posts tagged ‘HP5’
Catching up on my Scanning
HP5, DD-X
Continuing to catch up on my scans while I’m on vacation. It will end far too soon.
Getting Ready for What Comes
HP5, DD-X, toned in Silver Efex
Happy New Year to everyone, and thanks for your feedback on the theme. A theme has been chosen (you should be looking at it right now), and we are still in the process of migrating everything over and setting up the true landing page.
I thought that rather than setting goals for 2012, it might be more revealing to review, from my perspective, what I think I learned last year.
Film
The biggest shift this year was the inclusion of two Kodak films in my regular shooting regimen: Plus-x and Tri-X. I don’t know why it took me so long to truly see what these films had to offer other than to just assume that my historical influences kept me from really considering the options (my film teacher loved FP4 back in the day). I remember talking to Ray about HP5 and how I loved the contrast. He replied “yup, but once you have it, it’s not easy to get rid of.” And, indeed, once I started to shoot a lot with Tri-X, what I loved about it was the more gentle approach to drawing the scene. Who would have thought? And now, of course, Ilford is doing well, business-wise, and Kodak is going down the tube. Sheesh. Not that I don’t like FP4 and HP5, mind, it’s just that timing is everything. And I’ve spent enough time pulling Plus-X that I have feeling for how it looks. Now I need to replay those experiments with FP4.I’m just hoping that when Kodak sells off its film business, someone buys it who can continue with it.
My tests with older-style films have been a mixed bag. Fomapan turned out well, I’m going to try it in medium format, but my two rolls of Adox 25 were developed at grossly inadequate times (those times were gotten from MDC) and are extremely thin. I haven’t tried scanning them yet, so they may be salvage-able. We’ll see.
Rollei Retro holds great promise, but I think I need a different developer besides D-76. My two rolls of Rollei Blackbird were totally fogged and useless. I suspect I know when they got fogged, but I’ll never be certain.
I like the old-style films because they move further away from a digital look. The more I can find a style and look of my own, the better.
I’ll talk about developers in the next post.
Today’s Image
This image was from a portrait shoot for a client last year, and was a candid shot I caught on film while they were prepping. The main shoot was captured on my 5D.
Old Meets New
HP5, FTb, 50mm f/1.4, Clayton F76
This image was taken on my May trip to Chi-town but the roll was just scanned over the weekend. Just got back from travel and had some time to get some photo work done.
This post title might be a good sub-title for my blog. Hmmm . . .
Updates
- I received the focusing screens in the mail for both my EOS 3 as well as my 5D. I shot some images with the 5D/C-Y Zeiss 50mm 1.4 and I’ll be posting them as soon as I get them processed. The EOS 3 and that screen and Zeiss lens will be tested this week. Thanks again to Ed and Mike for the info about those screens and where I could get them. The screen for the 5D was great!
- The test-print negative to be drum-scanned has gone out and will be processed this week, I suppose. Then I send it off to Mike Peters for his take.
- The F100 is at KEH for repair and then, when it returns, it goes on the sale block. Anyone who knows someone who might be interested in a near-mint F100, please contact me.
- I ordered business cards from Moo yesterday. My wife had gotten her cards done there and they were spectacular. I used 25 different images spread throughout the print run. I’ll let you know more about them when I get them back from Moo.
- When I was in NYC last week I bought some Portra 400 and shot a roll. I’ll be sending it out. Can’t wait to see what they look like.
More soon!
Like Old Times
FG7, HP5, Mamiya
Those of you who have been reading the blog since ’09 might remember the color version of this image. Taken on the Salt River north-east of Mesa, Arizona, the day I captured this image I was swapping the 10D back and forth on the tripod with the Mamiya. I developed the roll on November 29th, 2008, but finally scanned it tonight.
These images were processed using Ken Bello’s tip of opening the TIFF as a Camera Raw image in Bridge. I really like that workflow. Thanks, Ken!
EPSON V750 Pro First Thoughts
TMAX 100, Clayton F76, Mamiya,
Here are some of the first scans of medium format film using my new Epson 750 scanner!
Before I start, thanks again to my wonderful wife Peg for this gift!
As I am still learning the workflow [a task made a little more complex because Silverfast was good enough to grant me a free upgrade to Silverfast 8; (the scanner shipped with Silverfast 6.6 on DVD)]. I had made a set of first scans with 6.6; later ones (the ones I’m working on now while I write this) were made using 8.0. The workflow is very similar, but not identical, so I took a slight step back this morning in my efficiency as I sort out my proper workflow.
HP5, DD-X
This write-up should be viewed as a kind of ‘first glance’ at both the scanner and the software. Please excuse any flaws in the image caused by the photogrpaher. All of the images in this post have been ‘touched-up,’ but no more than I normally would. Straight-from-the-scanner versions can be downloaded from here. Caution: they run about 70 mb.
Before I began this adventure,what I had heard on the internet about scanning with a flatbed led me to believe it would mean two things to me: first, since I scan mainly 35mm film, the image quality would be slightly less (they would be slightly softer as compared to my Nikon 4000, and would require more sharpening, as well as the dynamic range would be compressed slightly), and second, that I would be finally able to scan medium format without paying $2000+ for a Nikon 9000 on ebay (Nikon stopped making this medium format scanner a while back, and the prices immediately skyrocketed; it was never cheap, however, even when they made them). That’s what I knew getting into this. But I didn’t know what else I would discover, and I hoped that the Silverfast software that came bundled with the scanner would at least partially mitigate #1. I had been using Vuescan software for years with my Nikon, and had a love-hate relationship with it. But more on that later.
HP5. DD-X
Pros of the EPSON:
- The time I spend scanning will decrease. While Silverfast indeed has a batch mode, I haven’t quite figured that out yet, so this could get even better. Even so, because all the frames are in their holders on the flat bed, I don’t have to futz with them after every scan. Thus, I have already seen a gain in that area. Additionally, the EPSON scans images faster than the Nikon at the settings I use.
- Because I can scan the whole lot of images at once, I get Contact Sheets very easily. I love contact sheets.
- Scanning medium format opens me up to other types of shots and other types of cameras.
- Silverfast seems to be a much more robust scanning environment, and is (for me) easier to use than Vuescan. Let me explain this a bit, as Silverfast does not have the most wonderful interface in the universe (although 8.0 is better than 6.6). Vuescan has many advantages. It is inexpensive compared to Silverfast. One software package works with every scanner (or, at least, many scanners). Silverfast sells you a separate scanning package for each scanner you own. Thus, the version I got with the EPOSON won’t work with my Nikon. I can see how that might anger many people, especially since the price is steep compared to Vuescan. I can’t speak for the motivation of Silverfast and their pricing model, but I can certainly see why people wanted to look for alternatives. For me, however, Vuescan was always quirky. Getting the settings the way I wanted them was counter intuitive, which made the following quirk worse. It would, from time to time, without any seeming reason, forget its settings. By settings I mean whether the image should be saved as a RAW file or a TIFF; what to do with the image after it was scanned (do I open it in Preview? Do I open it in Photoshop? Do I open a RAW file in Camera Raw?) and because setting that stuff was counter-intuitive for me, every time it would forget the settings, getting them back was trouble. Yes, it could save settings files, but even then, when I would load back in settings files that contained what I wanted, they wouldn’t be the way I had saved them. So I had multiple workflows for VueScan, depending which set of settings it came up with today. For me, this quirk made whatever advantages Vuescan had moot. I had longed for a scanning alternative for years, which is why I looked at Silverfast in the first place.
- I don’t touch the film as much. I just put it in the holders, and then I’m done. And loading it in the holders is easier than loading it in the Nikon holder.
Pan-F, Rodinal
Cons:
The film holders are skimpy, flimsy, even. One time when I closed the ‘flap,’ the 120 film curled and I didn’t know until I scanned an image and it was out of focus in the middle.
35mm film, especially Kodak film, curls both across the length and width when it dries )ilford not so much). The 35mm holders do a decent job of keeping the film flat, but they are not perfect. 120 film lays much flatter, and this doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem. Many people who use this scanner upgrade the holders through third parties.
Silverfast doesn’t give you RAW as a file choice. My ideal workflow in Vuescan was to scan the file as a RAW file then open it in Camera RAW, and adjust much as you would a RAW file from a digital camera. This was a good thing (when it worked — see above) and I liked working that way. My choices with Silverfast are TIF and PSD..
Pan-F, Rodinal
Sharpening
My sharpening is indeed different than it was. Compared to the RAW scans with Vuescan and my Nikon, the images do come out of the scanner a little softer and I need to be a little more aggressive with sharpening. If anyone knows a good book on sharpening, let me know, ’cause I need to know a little more than I do now, I think.
All in all, I’m very happy so far.
backwards I work
Clayton F76, FTb, 50mm 1.4 FD, HP5
So, much of the work I have done over the past year could be retitled “Forward to the Past” or something. When I dove back into photography seriously in 2008, much of my work then was to emulate a certain ‘look’ I had in my head, a look which was much akin to old school b&w. It was then that I discovered Nik Silver Efex, and I certainly love what that software can help me accomplish when I transfer digital files to b&w.
But much of that work, as much as I was happy with it, left me searching for more.
The modern b&w films, especially for me Tmax, are too perfect. As beautiful as they can be, they have the same issues as digital files. A little cold, a little without character, a little too much without personality. When I shoot for clients, I absolutely use digital for all the obvious reasons, but when I shoot for myself, I shoot film.
Ok, now comes the point. Most people learned b&w darkroom skills with Tri-X and D76. That combination is what most schools use. I have mentioned here before that my original teacher, Klaus Schnitzer, used FP4 and FG-7. For years, that’s all I knew.
My journey has led me to going backwards with my b&w work, more towards the imperfections and personalities of old school. That led me to ordering some Clayton F76, which is a D76 work-alike that comes in liquid form, which allows me to use it roll by roll instead of mixing a gallon at a time.
This image is from the first roll I developed in Clayton F76 in my own darkroom. I learned of the developer when I sent off b&w film I shot with a Contax 645 18 months ago, and those rolls came back nicely contrasty. I asked the lab what developer they used, and they told me Clayton F76. So I tried it.
This image is HP5 and Clayton F76, shot with a 40 year old lens on a 40 year old camera. It is about as old school as I can get, given the current batch of films. I am going to try some European film types in search of the same qualities. The grain on this image is very clear and very different than DD-X or Xtol. When the image is scanned, it comes into the computer with a very different contrast scale than anything I have ever scanned in before with any developer I have used, whether it be DD-X or Tmax or Xtol or FG-7 or Rodinal or HC-110 (although I haven’t touched HC-110 in two years).
So, it only took me 40 years rto discover the joys of Tri-X, why shouldn’t I now discover how a venerable developer might also become a tool in my toolbelt?
Backwards I work.
A little bit of Chaos
HP5, Biogon 35mm, Xtol, Green filter
Ok, so my life’s a little chaotic at times. This week I have off from work, so I am going through my files, trying to organize them, stuff like that. I also have about ten rolls to develop, and I’m going to try to get that done with week as well. Sitting at my desk, I can see 11 rolls of color film sitting on top of my scanner, waiting to be sent off to North Coast when funds permit. Yes, there’s a bit of a backlog.
As I was going through my files, I discovered a folder of images (scans) from November which I had never edited. The date on the folder indicated they were developed over Thanksgiving, so what more than likely happened is that I developed the roll, scanned the roll, meant to edit the images and post some, but then went back to school and forgot about them.
Today, instead of some images from the SF trip, I’ll post some of those images from vancouver in November. All these images were shot with a Green filter on my Biogon, giving the already-contrasty lens some added bite. You be the judge of whether this worked or not.
One thing I always like about the Biogon is how little the lens flares when I shoot into the sun. Like above, for instance.
I was walking around the square where they had placed the Olympic Torch during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Interesting congruence of shapes and imagery.
One of the things that threw me when I first started to process these images was that the use of the green filter, with which I had almost no experience, changed the levels and curves I needed to use and which I had pretty much standardized with my normal film scans. It took me a little bit to get than hang of the new densities, but when I did, I really liked the feel of these images.
The green filter darkened the skies, exactly as advertised, and changed the tonal relationships.
I’ve talked here before about how I enjoy the lag between the capturing of an image and the processing of an image that the use of film promotes in my life. I get a bit of emotional distance from the shoot, and am often surprised in a good way by the images. Thew downside of that work-flow is that if something does work, I don’t find out about it until months later. These images make me want to shoot more with that green filter, but it is now four months later, and I might have used that combo in the intervening months had I been aware of how much I liked it.
Anyhoo, more images will be coming this week, but as of right now, I cannot say which ones.
Hope you enjoyed.
Return of Rodinal
Bessa, Biogon, Rodinal 1:100, Santa Monica
I’m out of Xtol and so is B&H, so I souped a couple rolls of HP5 in Rodinal last night. I was a little nervous, because the bottle was over a year old. But Rodinal as a reputation of staying active even though it isn’t fresh. I also experimented a bit in that I never used the dilution of 1:100 before.
As you can see, the begs came out fine (although it seemed a bit low in contrast; the image above had the contrast boosted a bit before I exported it). Overall, I liked the feel of the images quite a bit. It was nice to change up from Xtol.
This image was captured on the street in Santa Monica during my California trip in early January.
The Trip Continues
HP5, Xtol, Bessa, Biogon
More images and commentary from the trip . . .
I’ve mentioned that I get up as early as I can when traveling. Sometimes this is because of time-zone-change issues, sometimes it’s because I just don’t sleep, sometimes it’s because I set the alarm. This first morning (well, the only morning in Madeira, actually) I got up and was downstairs by 7 am. I had a meeting at 10:30, and I wanted to get some images before then.
This was the Christmas tree in the hotel lobby that morning.
Close up of the 'tree'
When I left the room, it was still dark. I wandered the halls, and took the images of the ‘tree’ and this of a hallway window.
You can see some of the island’s hills with their hanging lights in the distance.
As I wandered towards the dining area, I came to a balcony overlooking the restaurant and, well, the pool. You can see the dawn towards the eastern horizon out the window.
In an earlier post I had an image of the dining room at about 9:30. This is what it was like at 7:25.
Coming around towards the tables, these decorations were on the table.
After breakfast, I headed outside with one camera loaded with Portra, the other with Acros. Images from those rolls will be forthcoming. My goodness, circles and curves all over the place.
Just a note, many of the shots early in the morning and late the night before were hand-held at very slow speeds; 1/30th, 1/15th were not uncommon. It was dark in the hotel. I was happy that I got images at all, but if you look closely at the frames, many of them are a little soft owing to me moving. I tried to brace myself and such, but it didn’t always work.
Standing in Airports
Charles de Gaulle Airport on a Snowy Day
As I have mentioned, the first day of my trip to Madeira resulted in me standing around in a crowded Charles de Gaulle airport while my flight to Lisbon was rescheduled. Of course, I had my Bessa in hand, loaded with HP5 . . .
These images are from that roll, scanned last night.
We were all sitting in Terminal 2; snow had blanketed most of Northern Europe, and flights going anywhere from Moscow to Morocco had been delayed.
While I was able to determine, from listening to accents, that the majority of people were French, the melodies and harmonies of the languages ebbed and flowed as I walked from gate to gate, filtered in the main by the destination of the flight scheduled to depart from that area of the terminal.
I don’t sleep on flights, and I’m six hours off my own time zone, so I was not in complete control of my faculties. Given those circumstances, I was pretty happy with the lot of images I looked at last night.
Curiously, there wasn’t much snow on the ground in Paris, but from the amount of flights delayed, the rest of Europe must have been a mess.
It was a Thursday afternoon, and I couldn’t figure out whether most of the travelers were en route for business or pleasure.
This is the gate I stood in front of for four consecutive hours, as the flight was delayed again and again.
For there was nowhere to sit, too many people, not enough seats.
Finally, the flight left (only five hours delayed) and we arrived in Lisbon, where I grabbed a bite to eat.
I had waited twenty years to visit Europe again, only to spend the day in an airport. Sigh.
