analog – Page 72 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Catastrophe in the Dark Room

Well, in the film-changing bag.

I have the Paterson set-up, with adjustable reels, for home developing of film. My first round of developing was smooth and easy, using 35mm black and white film. This time, though, was awful. The Paterson reels are plastic and adjustable, and I like them for the 35mm – but did not like them at all for the 120 film.

The reels are harder to load than I realized for 120, and as soon as I got the film in the bag (without any practicing), I knew I was in for trouble. I couldn’t do it. Neither could my husband. The film was bent, spindled, and mutilated. As I had already poured out my chemicals, I just went ahead and jammed the film in, figuring the practice in developing wouldn’t hurt, and since things were already a mess, what the hell.

The film here is Ilford HP5+ used with the Holga GCFN 120 camera I got for my birthday last month. I kind of like what happened, but don’t want this experience to be my usual for 120.

The funny thing is, there are some pictures in here I actually like, but will need to do some work on to get them where I find them acceptable. Contrast adjustments, cropping, whatever. In particular, out of this sea of mistakes, I like the leaves – I’ve never thought about deliberately doing double exposures, but the double exposure of the leaves are pretty cool. (I also have some Kodak Ektar 100 I double exposed in another camera that I also like.) So, even though there was catastrophe, Pandora’s box is not all dark.

What Have You Seen?

Crummy to Better

This is the original photo, scanned on the Epson V600.

This one (above) is cleaned up using Epson Scan and Digital Ice, along with post in On1 Photo 10 and LR 6.

The one below is with the Noise / Dust and Scratch Removal in PS6. Sadly, it softens the leaves in the trees. I wonder if sharpening it in LR would help.

I have been putzing around with different ways to do post processing of film . . . a lot of work, but maybe worth it for keepers.

Trail a la Lomo

Hmmm. The images I get back from the photo lab are grungy. They arrive grungy. Using the Epson V600, I find crud everywhere.

With this picture, I moved it around on the scanner to decide if it was the neg or the scanner, and the neg won.

I cleaned the image with PEC-12, and the crud disappeared – a bit.

Then different settings in Epson Scan. Final settings which produced acceptable results were 2400 dpi, 48 bit color, digital ice, and medium unsharp mask. Final clean up in On1 Photo 10 and LR. Film was Kodak Ektar 100.

Mexican Sage

Last weekend I went up to the local botanical gardens with three different film cameras, each loaded with different film. I just wanted to use them up! I haven’t sorted out what film is with what picture, or what camera, but once I do sit down – this weekend – it will be interesting to see what combinations end up being my favorite(s).