Tag: 35mm f/2.0 FD

Welcome, Mr. Xtol, care for a sparkling beverage?

Posted by Chris Klug – July 4, 2010

Dec '09, Acros 100, Xtol

So I’m kinda catching up. In a couple ways. First off, this is from Christmas last year, just developed last night in a freshly-brewed batch of Xtol. So, that’s one way of catching up.

But the other way I’m catching up is in, um, perhaps a weirder way, that of film technology. I was taught one film, one developer (Ilford FP4, Edwal FG7). This is a smart way to teach, because otherwise the student spins their wheels experimenting and doesn’t get beyond the tools to the art. Now, in my case that means that when I returned to photography, I didn’t know anything about T-Grain film (Tmax, Delta) nor about developers that came along post-1980. Like Xtol.

So, part of my journey in the last two years has been to re-learn what I used to know but also experiment with the new stuff. Like, for instance, Xtol.

I used FG7 because I knew it. It is a compensating developer which means that you expose for the shadows and don’t ‘blow’ the highlights because the developer slows down the development highlights and they don’t block up (this is a simplified explanation). But in this process you lost a little film speed (example: you expose Tri-X at 320 when you develop in FG7).

But as I read more about developers, Xtol seemed to possess some of FG7′s qualities but didn’t lose film speed. One Xtol combo that people seemed to like was Acros 100 in Xtol. So, last fall I bought four rolls of Acros and some Xtol.

I shot the Acros (in fact, I shot a lot of it when I went to Point Lobos) but hadn’t mixed the Xtol until recently.

This image was from the first roll. Thought I’d share it. One of the advantages of Xtol is that you can push the film, and you can dilute the Xtol to get greater sharpness. So it’s a multi-tasker. And in my search for ‘one film and developer’ to rule them all, I had to use it to see.

New York, New York

Posted by Chris Klug – May 21, 2010

FTb, IR transparency film of some sort, 1979 or so

I’m leaving tomorrow for a few days in NYC to attend a conference. I was reminded of the image above when I posted the ladder shot the other day, and then though “well, how fitting that I’ll be in NYC soon.” While there I hope to meet up with Dave Beckerman as well as Kevin Lee Allen, and perhaps take in the Cartier-Bresson show. I’m sure I’ll be checking out B&H as well.

I took this image with my old FTb on some kind of IR transparency film (I don’t remember what, exactly). I’m pretty certain it was IR film, and I’m also pretty certain that it was the only roll of that kind of film I ever shot. There’s a portrait of my dad on that roll that was the best image I ever took of him. I was living at my parent’s house at that point and I vividly remember grabbing a ‘snap’ of him sitting at the kitchen table in a very typical dad pose, heading out to get in the car and driving into the Village and wondering the streets, snapping away. You may recognize that the image is my gravatar image.

It’s partly because when I see the image I remember that day so vividly, and partly because I know that a few frames before this image is an image of my dad that I chose this to by me gravatar. It’s also obvious, if you look at the ladder image, that I am drawn to this kind of vertically segmented composition. It doesn’t shock me that I kind of replicated it with the ladder.

You’ll have to pardon me, as all this talk has made me want to post that picture of my dad.

Gerard Alfred Klug

Both of these images were posted on the original version of this blog, which existed on my iWeb site.

If anyone remembers what that film might have been, let me know. The next images will be from my NYC trip.

Slight Thaw with HP5

Posted by Chris Klug – February 28, 2010

MacConnell's Mill, Pa, 2009

No, I wish this shot was taken this February, but it was taken last February on our first visit to MacConnell’s Mill about 35 minutes north of us. Today we received another four inches or so; this winter in Pittsburgh is now officially about to crack into 4th place on the all-time list for most snow in a winter since they’ve been keeping records.

The bright spot today was discovered as I scanned a roll of HP5 that clearly I had exposed last February on a trip back from Mesa. On the same roll were many wonderful images of the woods in winter on a cloudy day such as the one above. Nice tones and detail, exposed with my Ftb and 35mm f/2 FD lens, a lens whose virtues I have extolled in the past. Also on that roll were shots from a trip to Saguaro National Park, so pretty obviously I went there right after I returned to Arizona.

Developed in Rodinal, Mr. Paul

New developer

Posted by Chris Klug – December 18, 2009

FP4, Rodinal, 9min, 68 degrees

FP4, Rodinal, 9min, 68 degrees

Tried a new developer on some of the old rolls last night. Still in the experimental stage, I think. This image was shot almost a year ago, and I had forgotten a lot of the images on it. I’ll post a few more tomorrow.

Going through the archives

Posted by Chris Klug – October 6, 2009

Some times I DO put the camera in a new place

Some times I DO put the camera in a new place

Rearranged the office today and took the opportunity to go through my library to find an image that I liked and I don’t think I’ve posted. This was captured at a shopping mall in Scottsdale about a year ago (November ’08) and I always thought those plants looked threatening and just wanted to play with that idea a little.

Another PercepTool example

Posted by Chris Klug – September 29, 2009

I’ll just post these two and you can see the effect. No playing around this time, just let the plug-in do its thing (with the wall, I did darken it with the PerecpTool controls.

You have to really look closely (and these small JPEGs don’t help), but the main change I can see is the tool has subtly changed the light/dark ratio of the floor and walls.

I’ll keep playing to show more examples.

Without the effect

Without the effect

WITH the effect

WITH the effect

SoFoBoMo: Vision Pre or Post?

Posted by Chris Klug – May 1, 2009

Sailboats 1983

Sailboats 1983

As SoFoBoMo has begun, there is a great deal of insightful talk on many blogs about Vision, and how to express it. Whether vision is something that comes out of a project after you’ve shot it all, or whether you should ‘guide the ship’ into harbor by having a target before you set out. I believe that both methods can succeed, mostly dependent on the way an individual works best.

In collaborative mediums (theater and video game development being the examples I know best) setting out from port without a unified vision is a recepie for disaster. But in solitary art forms, I’m not sure that you absolutely need it. It’s kind of like the debate between Adam’s and Weston’s pre-visualization and Jerry Uelsmann’s post-visualization approaches. I would make the case that the best of Uelsmann stands up pretty well on its own as an argument that you don’t need to have figured out every last thing before you trip the shutter.

For me, it’s a big conflict, certainly, because I shoot very instinctively. I always see things on the roll after I’ve developed it that I didn’t see when I framed the shot. In fact, I want that to happen. While I ‘chimp’ like anyone else when I shoot digital, even then I don’t really know what I have until I look at the image carefully later.

When I shoot film, I scan every freaking negative off the roll, because I’m not certain that looking at a ‘contact’ sheet will tell me everything I need to know about that roll.

I’m trying to balance the planning with the shooting. We’ll see how it turns out.

I chose the image above because I shot it 26 years ago, and never thought much about it at all until I started considering a street photography project, and I began to look through my archives to see what I had.

I’ll be busy tomorrow, so I hope everyone has a great weekend.

That 35mm f/2.0 lens once again

Posted by Chris Klug – March 12, 2009

Mesa Stormy Day March 2009

Mesa Stormy Day March 2009

Going through my photos as I started to use some of Lightroom 2.0′s Smart Collections, this image came up.  Sot the very day I bought and picked up that 35mm f/2.0 FD lens off eBay for $51.00 (see the post with the shot of the stairway at night), I was reminded of two things: first, what a lovely sharp version of that lens it is, and second, the lovely qualities of HP5 developed in Edwal FG7.  When I get my developing right and I use the right lens (the shots of Sedona with the 24mm f/2.8 aren’t quite as crisp, I don’t think), my film work always brings a smile to my face.

I’m not saying this is the most brilliant shot ever taken, but the quality of the wall, the fire hydrant and the tree against the storm clouds is very pleasing to me.