Expreriments
Coffenol C
When testing new films, cameras, lenses or in this case: developers I like to shoot the same locations to reduce some variables. This would explain why you might see many photos of this barn or a old one room school house on my site.
I've read a bit on the net about a home 'brewed' developer - Coffenol. Coffenol C is made with water, washing soda, vitamin C and instant coffee. I was pretty stoked to try it out. I've seen examples sure, but I never tried it. I finally decided to jump in and give it a shot. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
I was amazed at the results to say the least.
Pentax 645 loaded with Ilford Pan F+. The film was developed in Coffenol (500ml water, 27g washing soda, 8g Vitamin C and 20g instant coffee) for 15 minutes at 20C.
This roll was my first attempt at developing film using Coffenol.
Holga loaded with 35mm film
A real cheap, easy way to get into medium format photography is to get what unfortunately is referred to as a 'toy' camera: a Holga. This cheap Chinese camera takes 120 film but I loaded it with 35mm film.
This is a quite common thing to do with a Holga actually. When you use 35mm film in a medium format camera you can get the whole film exposed, even around the sprocket holes. Once you scan the negative, you get photos such as I have here.
Driving home from work one evening I came across this nice scene but all I had for a camera was my Holga loaded with expired 35mm film.
Failure sometimes is an option
Sometimes experiments go horribly wrong. The whole idea of this experiment was to try and use a medium format camera loaded with 35mm film to get a panoramic photo. Seemed pretty straight forward, so I thought.
I had several cameras to choose from and decided to try my Hasselblad 500 C/M.
I loaded the camera with 35mm film that I taped to some old backing paper so I could load the film onto a 120 film core and of course I had to do this in complete darkness. Due to the orientation of the film (how the film travels in the camera), I have to turn the this camera on its side to take the photos if I want a wide panoramic and of course the first time I took a photo I forgot to turn the camera.
Half way through shooting, I almost cut through the film with the dark slide. Also, the film apparently either wasn't completely straight on the backing paper or didn't feed through the film back properly resulting negatives looking slanted. I guess the film wasn't completely flat either as part of the film was not in focus. When I scanned this negative, it was laying flat on the scanner with a sheet of glass sitting on top of the negative strip to hold it flat on the scanner glass - as evident of the newton rings.
Then to add insult to injury - the developing of the film was a failure as you can see on the bottom of the photo. I had to tear the film in half just to get the entire film onto developing reels (due to the dark slide almost cutting the film in half) as well.
Apparently, using a Hasselblad 500 C/M is not the best choice for a medium format camera to be loaded with 35mm film in order to get a panoramic photo.
This is the first time I've had an entire roll of film not be properly developed. This is not the first time I've tried 'stand' developing film. As I already mentioned, sometimes experiments go horribly wrong.
But that's how we learn. Next time I use a different camera for one.
Stand developed in Rodinal 1+100 for 45 minutes at 20C.
6400 iso
This photo was taken using a Minolta Maxxum 7 with a Minolta 50mm 1.4 lens.
The film used was Kodak Tri-X 400 exposed at 6400 ISO/ASA. I then developed the film using Stand development in Rodinal 1:100 for 2 hours.
Basically 'stand' developing is when you develop the film, you only do the initial agitation (first 60 seconds) then leave it alone until the time is up, in this case I let it stand for 2 hours. You also normally use a very dilute developer. Rodinal is most commonly used diluted 1+25, 1+50.
The purpose of this role of film was to shoot at 6400 ISO and stand develop the film to see what I would get - if anything. The only lighting was from a street light. 1/8th of a second at F1.4 hand held.
I was quite pleased with the resulting images even though they were quite contrasty.From Black and White
35mm film loaded into a camera that takes 116 film (that is no longer available). Kodak Autographic Special No. 1A (1917-1924). The resulting negative is 3 times the length of a normal 35mm negative which was the point of this exercise.
I might need to do a better job at fixing the light leaks.
The film was colour but it didn't turn out too well so I converted it to b&w. Plus the camera(?) scratched the film in a several spots. I also didn't bother to do any spotting - might as well leave it as scanned except for the conversion to b&w.
Looks like I didn't line up the shot too well either.
Can we say 'fail'?
I loaded this Kodak Brownie six-16 (that takes the no longer available 616 film) with 35mm film. The purpose was to get the extra long negative with the sprocket holes. The result was a negative that is roughly 3 times the length of a normal 35mm negative. Kodak Brownie six-16 (1946 - 1951) loaded with Kodak Double-X b&w movie film developed in HC-110 dilution B for 7 minutes at 18C.
From Black and White
I've seen this technique before but hadn't had the chance to try it out. First off - it's a little easier to have someone help you. A bunch of us from our local photography club decided to get together to see what we could capture.
Taking some steel wool, a wisk and a leash or chain that you can attach the wisk to you place some steel wool inside the wisk. To allow more oxygen to flow into the steel wool you kind of fluff it up a bit. Taking a 9V battery or a flame from a lighter or matches, you start the wool burning and you start swinging it around.
Using a slow shutter speed allows you to catch the trails as you see here.
It was a lot of fun trying this out and hope to get the chance to try it again.
To do the photo justice, look at the larger versions of the photo.From Scenic Photos
Used welders glass for a (13 stop) ND filter. This is a 30 second exposure F4.0 and at ISO 800.
Not sharp but not bad either. I'm impressed. This was taken at 2pm (May 10, 2014) during a bright sunny cloudless day. I had previously set a CWB and I'm really impressed that I achieved proper colours.
This was totally a test photo. I wanted to see what I could achieve with the welders glass on a bright sunny day and I wanted to see if I could get good colours. Most of the photos I've seen that used this technique didn't get great colours, or the photographers turned the image into a black and white photo.5D34405aUsed welders glass for a13 stop ND filter. This is a 30 second exposureF4.0 and at ISO 800. Not sharp but not bad either. I'm impressed at the colours. I had previously set a custom whitebalance using the welders glass. As you can seethis was taken during a bright sunny cloudless day. The time was 1400 May 10th2014.
Paper Negative Test #1
I've read a little bit about using darkroom enlarger print paper (the paper you use to make prints from your negatives in the darkroom) and thought I would give it a try since I had some kicking around.
This is my first attempt as using enlarging paper for a negative.
I rated the Ilford paper at iso 3, exposed it at 1/4 second at F6.8, and developed it with Rodinal.
The paper has not been properly stored, and I was not even sure if it had accidentally exposed or not.
Loaded my Toyo 810G - placed it in the living room (cold out today and I hate the winter), and pointed it out the window.
Will keep trying with the paper I have left, and if I'm liking the results I will get some fresh paper.
Some dodging and burning is about all I did (in the computer). Some developing issues as seen upper and lower right corner areas (not enough developer in tray).
Totally guessed at rating the paper at ISO 3, and what dilution of Rodinal to use. In the end I went with about 9 ml of developer in 300 ml of water (or so).
I like the results so far. It's a real cheap alternative to using film.
