Checking in - after a long break

Image Source: http://stearmanpress.com/sp-445.html

 

My latest post, about shooting black and white film, specifically 4x5, is a reasonable hint at what I've been doing in my photographic life recently.

 

Spurred on by an incredible gift of a fully functional black and white darkroom, and the further gift of a place to set it up, I've been keeping my head down and practicing my large format black and white photography skills. I've come a long way quickly, but this style of photography does not lend itself perfectly to blogging. It's film, paper, and wet chemistry all the way.

 

For now, let me share a tool that's really helping me along, the SP-445 4x5 film developing tank by Stearman Press. (Click Here) to check it out. Once loaded, this is a daylight tank, and allows you to process up to four sheets of 4x5 film in 475 ml of chemical volume. It does a wonderful job.

 

I'm also still shooting digital and smaller format film, of course. But, the joy of printing great big negatives has had me focused on 4x5, and to a lesser extent, medium format. Lots to share, but it's going to take discipline for me to sit and scan images. I'll probably end up scanning silver prints to share my final products.

 

I feel that this is an important new phase in my creative development. I can honestly say that while it's much less forgiving, I really prefer darkroom work to post-processing on my computer. It's hard work getting a good print, but I think that makes it more rewarding, personally.

 

Of course, I'm not prescribing this for anyone else. I'm not sure that I'll always feel this way about going back to the basics, working with big black and white negatives and wet chemistry, but that is not what matters. What matters to me is that I'm learning new aspects of the craft.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Discontinued Agfa APX400 Film - Testing and Tuning Up

My friend Dennis Gallus gave me a 100' roll of Agfa APX400 that he had in his freezer. I shot my first roll of it at the indicated speed of 400, and processed it alongside a roll of Ilford HP5, which I developed for 11.5 minutes in Kodak D-76 developer at 1:1 dilution. Those negatives came out pretty thin overall and very low contrast (underexposed and/or underdeveloped). After reading some old posts online, I learned that APX400 was known to need additional exposure, with some people treating it as iso 320 film, others at iso 200. I also found development guidelines that indicated it needed more development.

 

So, a test roll ensued. I shot a short roll of the film, capturing the same scene exposed for iso 100, 200, and 400. I also changed my development protocol to 10 minutes in full strength D-76. Here are a couple of the results.

 

Scenes exposed at iso 400, 200, and 100, APX400 Film

 

From this, I conclude two things - 1) additional development in full-strength D-76 definitely helped, and 2) somewhere between iso 200 and 320 is probably best for this film.

 

On the same day, I guessed and exposed a full 36 exposure roll at iso 200. It looks pretty good overall. I think I've figured out this film. Not that this information is much use to anyone else; as far as I know you can't get this film any more, though I do see single rolls for sale in some places. But, 100' of it will keep me busy for a while!

 

Thanks again, Dennis!

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com

 

Obscured

I made this shot recently at work. I was shooting my Leica CL and Rokkor 40mm f2 lens, one of my all-time favorite combinations.

Obscured, by Reed A. George

Leica CL, Minolta Rokkor 40mm f2 Lens

Ilford HP5+ Film, Developed in Kodak D-76

 

I've recently gotten back into bulk loading 35mm film, with a couple of my friends. It's weird, but at current prices, Kodak's products cost the same per exposure in bulk (100' rolls) as they do packaged into single rolls. So, there's no advantage to bulk loading Kodak at the moment. Ilford's products are still priced so as to make bulk loading economical. At $54 per 100' roll of Ilford HP5+ (Adorama), I'm paying $3 per roll of 36 exposures. You get 18 rolls of 36 exposures from a bulk roll.

 

I'm also back to processing my own black and white film. I figure that with the relatively little time I have available for shooting, bulk loading will force me to focus on shooting black and white for a while, which is a good thing. So, I'll take the much cheaper route of processing my own film, since it will be mostly black and white anyway. To be honest, I really enjoy the hands-on processing of my film, anyway. It's good to smell the fixer once in a while.

 

The fact that my friend Dennis gave me 20 rolls of Gekko 100 black and white film, and a 100' roll of Agfa black and white 400 speed film only adds to my rationale.

 

So, get ready for a lot of black and white film shots from me! Hope you enjoy.

 

DMC-365.blogspot.com