Nikkor 50mm, FP4, Xtol
This is not the greatest image in the universe, but it’s a scan from the first few frames of a roll of FP4 I developed in Xtol yesterday.
These images combined with an ongoing email conversation I’ve been having with a reader of the blog has made me think again about some of my work in the Experiment. Details coming tomorrow.
Interesting just for kicks to compare tonality to the last post, captured on Tri-X and developed in FG7.
Ektar, F100
Another image from the roll captured that foggy morning south of San Francisco.
This image took a little bit of a processing journey to arrive in the form you see above. Captured on Ektar, scanned at North Coast, imported into Lightroom. Cropped, then exported for processing into Nik Silver Efex: Pulled 1 stop, Delta 100 film preset (mainly for the color rendering), then selenium toned.
I liked the dreamy quality of the combination. This image was shot in Redwood Shores, California, on the trip in the middle of February. It was very foggy that morning.
Tri-X, Tmax Dev, F100
This image is a bit grainy as it is a tight crop from a larger frame. I followed this guy around on the beach that morning. He took me to all his favorite places.
"I don't think that looks like an 81a . . ."
Heh, so sometimes I can get myself into trouble. Last fall, in the middle of fall foliage, Peg and I went to Allegheny Cemetery. I took the 5D with me as well as the F100 loaded with Ektar. Being a reader of Mr. Rockwell, I was taking his advice and put an 81a filter on the lens, hoping to add a little punch to the warm tones of the leaves. Ahem, warm indeed.
I sent the roll off to North Coast (this is the same roll that had the image taken on the street I posted a while back on the street of the South Side of Pittsburgh here). The first few frames of the roll were taken on the street, the rest in the cemetery with the filter.
The phone rings one day after I shipped off the film. On the line is the tech at North Coast who is doing the scanning. She telling me that the images display a large color shift, and asks whether I want her to color correct during the scanning. “They were taken with an 81a,” I tell her. “No, don’t correct.” “OK,” she replies. “Just checking.”
I get the roll back, and the cemetery shots all look like this. I’m flummoxed. I look through my filter kit, and can’t find a filter that would have given me this acid-yellow. I continue to be flummoxed until I pack the Mamiya 645 for the trip to California.
I put the 8mm lens on the camera and take the lens cap off. There, in all its glory, is a deep yellow b&w filter. The light bulb goes on (dim though it may be). THAT’s the filter I had obviously used on the F100 (either thinking it was an 81a by mistake) or had been left on for a roll of b&w I had shot.
I used an 81a on that same trip (a REAL 81a this time) and can’t wait to see the results.
But, can you imagine what that scanning tech thought as she got off the phone with me? “81a my a–.”
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.
Ok, so I thought I’d reveal who was the ‘secret’ visitor in my house. A Nikon F100. Without a lens.
What is an F100 doing in the house, you might ask?
Mainly because I’d read lots of favorable reviews of the camera and there is also a history of connection to Nikon in our home. And, well, it was for sale on craiglist really cheap. After I saw it in person, and it looked unshot, brand new, I couldn’t resist. No scratches, etc. So we took the plunge.
I am the biggest supporter of Apple Computer in the world, and for years they have sold ‘interface’ and ‘usability.’ Everything I had heard about Nikon was their ergonomics were better than Canon. This seemed like a very inexpensive way to stick my toe in that pond. Nikon still makes the F100, so it isn’t like I’ll be abandoned anytime soon.
Now I need to find a cheap lens with which to shoot some film.
Who knows, this might be the beginning of a bigger change.
This image captured with a Canon 40D.
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