Tag: 50mm f/1.4 FD

A walk towards the light

Posted by Chris Klug – July 23, 2010

Toned in PS, HP5 pulled in Xtol

So, these are really my first posted images on my journey towards a film ‘look’ that is ‘me.’ First off, I’m

  • Developing in a way that tries to not just use the film in a normal way
  • Play to film’s strengths (emphasizing the shadow tones)
  • Uses a lens that draws in a certain way
  • Processing the image in LR and PS in a way that appeals to me.

I’ll expound a little bit about all those elements below.

When I exposed/developed this roll (all these images are from one roll of HP5) I pulled it. Instead of exposing the film at 400, I exposed it at 200 and then reduced development by about 20% or so. What this does is emphasize the shadows through exposure and control the highlights by lessening development. These images weren’t an ideal test, because their contrast range was not very broad. But it was a look I wanted to experiment with. The one thing it did do for me was control the ‘sky through trees’ issue than can bedevil work captured in forests in daytime. The image below is a decent example, where the places in the image the sky poked through were not any trouble to scan in.

Toned in PS

So, the lens is a 35 year old Canon FD, and it was used in these images as wide open as I could (it helped that it was dark in the woods that day). Thus, the flaws of the lens are emphasized. Check out the falloff in the lower corners of the image above. That’s not done in LR, that was in the original image. I emphasized it in PS, but it is not as if the exposure is linear all the way to the corner (the top of the image was cropped a bit here).

I also used a yellow filter, which has a subtle effect.

It increased the contrast between this leaf and the surrounding leaves.

Tried to get the bug

Here is was trying to get the bug in focus. He kept moving around the leaf. I had three images of him, but none of them captured him quite right. And after this last one, he was gone. The perils of f/2.

The last part of this formula was to scan and process the film differently than I used to, and leverage the increase in shadow detail and compensate for the decrease in contrast that pulling tends to bring.

So, really, all these images are the first steps towards a look using film that I have in my mind’s eye.

Xtol and HP5

Posted by Chris Klug – July 15, 2010

So, one of the big variables with film development is agitation. How often, how long. It affects contrast, sharpness, grain etc. I had suspected looking at the Tri-X images in the test that I might not have agitated enough, so I developed a couple rolls of HP5 last night, cut fresh off the 100ft bulk roll I had purchased. I agitated for longer at the beginning and more enthusiastically every time the clock came around than I had with Tri-X.

These two images are from the first six frames on that roll.

Its a different film, yeah, but a worse lens than the Zeiss (Canon FD 50mm 1.4, NOT the S.S.C. version) but the grain is really lovely, the best grain I’ve seen from HP5, and the images are certainly sharp enough.

FG7 is great, but it’s not very flexible. You can’t really push film too much, nor can you pull it. I really want to do both of those things after I narrow down my film choices. Xtol can pull and push, and depending on the dilution you can increase sharpness. It’s a very flexible developer, and because it came along in 1995 or thereabouts, I didn’t know about it when I learned film development.

I may be stocking up on Xtol.

Passing By

Posted by Chris Klug – April 27, 2010

HP5 in FG7

Been a bit busy at work, so for the time being I’m just going to try going through the archives and posting images I missed without much commentary. Even though I am aware that longer posts generate more comments, I also know that the images get viewed anyway. These will all be images that intrigue me in one way or ‘tother.

Neopan 400 comes for a visit

Posted by Chris Klug – March 3, 2010

Various dog toys and a cat perch captured on Neopan 400

As I continue to experiment with films & developers, this one I like quite a bit. It’s Neopan 400 souped in Rodinal. For a 400 ISO film, there really isn’t much grain and the tones are quite nice. The pillow and bone belong to our lab, the perch belongs jointly to our two cats, and the sneaker is mine (but obviously the lab needed to borrow it for a time. Image captured in September 2009.

I think that HP5 in Rodinal is too harsh, but Neopan 400 is lovely. I know this experimenting seems like marking time, but it’s fun for me. Back in the day, I only shot FP4 and developed in FG7. I still like that combo, but I never got the experimenting out of my system back them.

Winter flag

Posted by Chris Klug – February 2, 2010

FP4, Rodinal

This image is from that roll (boy I was all around Allegheny County with that roll, eh?) The angle of the sun and the angle of the flag  and the starkness of the image are what makes this work for me.

Oakmont Bakery Window

Posted by Chris Klug – February 2, 2010

FTb, Rodinal, Toning in PS3

This is image #2 from that roll is discussed in yesterday’s post. I shot about six different frames of this window, looking for the right balance of exposure between the wall and the light coming through the window. I really didn’t do anything fancy to this in Lightroom in terms of exposure balance, just cleaned it up and toned it in PS.

New developments

Posted by Chris Klug – February 1, 2010

FP4, Rodinal

Yesterday I scanned in a roll of FP4 I had shot back in February when I came home to Pittsburgh for a visit. One of the really enjoyable things about developing film months after exposing it is that the images have the potential to surprise me. I’m one of those photographers who needs some distance and time from the act of capture to get a sense of what the images could mean and what they could be separated from the expectation of the moment. It always seems to me that when I’m patient about taking a look at the images, a higher percentage of the roll catches my eye than it does when I look at the images right after I shoot them. This roll was no exception; if anything, it proved that rule. Of 35 images, there were four (at least) that surprised me as I looked at them carefully; surprised me in the sense of a kind of out-of-body experience. As in ‘did I take that photo? Really?’

The image above fascinated me. It could have been an accidental exposure; may not have been, since it was right in the middle of the roll, so I wasn’t just casually firing off some frames at the top just to make sure I was past the exposed leader nor was it at the end when I might have been grabbing the last few before I re-wound the roll. But lord knows I have been known to accidentally trip the shutter without meaning to. But there are qualities in the image above that really caught my eye; the abstract nature, the lovely grain; the geometry, and the possibilities inherent in both the out-of-focus horizon as well as the reflection.

There’s also something about this image that screams to me ‘would not feel this way if captured on digital.’

As the days go by this week, I’ll blog the other images from that roll I particularly like. This roll reminded me why I always liked FP4. I don’t think FP4 scans as well as it prints in a traditional darkroom, and so I’ll look forward to printing these images on good old silver gelatin before the end of the year, hopefully.

Also, good news: my replacement 645e arrived, and I shot a test roll of Delta 400, developed it tonight and all seems perfect. I also bought a 45mm lens for it from a local photographer so I now have a 28mm equivalent for it when I take it out for more landscape work.

Lastly, Apple announced their iPad this week, and I fall into the camp of people who are truly excited about the potential for this device as a destination for high-quality digital photo books. I’ll probably get an iPad through work, and I’m thinking of trying to develop for it, if anyone is interested in giving me a hand with such an effort.

Live Bait

Posted by Chris Klug – January 24, 2010

HP5, Rodinal

Taken while Kevin Allen and I walked down West 23rd street in September, just before I captured the image of the two women on their cell phones.

I remember distinctly glancing across the street as we walked along the north side of the block and thinking ‘Live Bait, what an odd name,’ framing the shot, clicking the shutter and moving on. After I developed the roll, I kept staring at the image, wondering why it called out to me, if anything, louder after the image had been developed than on the day I grabbed it. Today, as I was working on the image, it hit me.

My first job in the game business in 1980 was at a company called SPI (Simulations Publications, Incorporated), whose original offices were located at 20 East 23rd Street. If you look at the image above, that building is not actually in the frame, but it is just to the left of the frame — you can see 16 East 23rd street right there, however.

I never worked in the 20 E. 23rd Street building, I did work at the next address they inhabited, which was Park Avenue South, about three blocks South of this building. The one year that I worked for them, they held their Christmas party at a bar near their old haunts which was, you guessed it, at a bar called ‘Live Bait.’ That’s why I knew that building so well, we used to hang out at this bar and drink quite a bit of Jameson’s.

New York, for me, is like that. Having worked there for eight years in the game business, and having done off-broadway theater there for years prior to that, there probably aren’t many restaurants or bars south of 23rd street I haven’t been in at least once, whether I remember them or not

Somehow, to me, having a company Christmas party as a bar called Live Bait is something that could only happen in NYC. Not quite the same as Mesa or Gilbert Arizona, where the last company I worked for wouldn’t have considered dumping their garbage in a place that looked or felt like this place did (does). But for those of us who worked at SPI, there couldn’t have been a better place to celebrate that holiday.

Glad I snapped this one, for sure.

Like this . . .

Posted by Chris Klug – January 18, 2010

Canon FTb, HP5

For a change of pace, an image on film shot from a trip to NYC in September, 2009.

Also, came across this gent on APUG, went to look at his work. Wow.

http://www.jonshiu.com/

Now, that’s a target to aim at (for me, anyway).

Going to Seattle on a business trip tomorrow, we’ll see what I get there. Maybe I’ll see Ray.

Dance Flick

Posted by Chris Klug – December 31, 2009

Mill Ave, April 2009

So, on that last walk-about on Mill in April, still aiming for images and a concept for the SoFoBoMo 2009 book, I thought I had struck gold. A motion picture, about to make its debut called “Dance Flick,” had set up a group of street dancers on Mill that evening, trying to drum up interest. I approached their handler, gave her my business card, and asked her permission to take some pictures. As her job was to promote the film, she was overjoyed, because the PR firm hadn’t provided a photographer and thought I could actually help her out a little. She laughed and said “take all you want, but send me some JPEGs and maybe I’ll use some.”

I shot about a roll-and-a-half, and since I wasn’t trying to be invisible, I could get as close as I wanted. As I worked, all I thought about was how, if these images were good, I could, in theory, have the whole book right here. In addition, I might get them out ‘there’ (wherever ‘there might be). The conditions were ideal, they were on the shadow side of the street, I had another roll in my pocket, I had their permission. I might have a real opportunity on many levels, thought I.

They took a break, I put the rolls in my pocket, thanked their handler and the dancers. But then fate intervened, I didn’t develop the roll until last week, the film pretty much disappeared, and I moved away from the Tempe area to come home.

Two more rolls shot that evening to scan.