Patterns of Light n' Dark

Ektar as scanned

This week I got some film back from North Coast they had processed and scanned for me. I had sent them a roll of Ektar I had shot in Sept-Oct with the F100 I had purchased. I had exposed the roll as a test, more or less. A couple things struck me when I looked at the roll, and here on this snowy day in Pittsburgh, I’ll take a little time to go through them.

First off, what a great film. It had been a while since I shot a roll, and seeing these images just reminded me. This image above couldn’t be a better example. Pros who shoot film do so quite often because it saves them time in the long run. They don’t have to do much to the images once they get them back from the lab. This image above is a classic example. The image couldn’t have been shot simpler: F100, Nikkor 50mm lens, manually focussed, AE exposed by the F100, no filters. It’s around noon in September on Carson Street. Look at the colors! Look at the sharpness of the image! The sky! The contrast! My word. If you want a closer look at the grain/sharpness, I did a 2:1 enlargement in Lightroom and grabbed the screen. Take a look at the menu board in the middle of the image on the sidewalk:

Showing grain and sharpness

I think this image speaks for itself. Again, we’re talking about a Nikon lens, Series E, 50mm, 1.8, probably was a standard lens on a Nikon F4 or something.

And the color rendition of the Ektar. Here’s a shot of the hood of a car parked on the street just to my left when I captured the image above:

Ektar again

The rest of the roll I shot with the eye of doing black & white transfers. Later today, I’ll post some of those images. Now that I have my Mamiya 645 back, I’ll be ordering some Ektar 120, you can be sure of that.