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Site News Archive - April 2016 (Click here for current.)

2016 April 29
Friday

Food & Nutrition

A reader asked me about foods and acid reflux. He'd already seen the Cider Vinegar article and wanted to know what I thought about chocolate and tea. Like most of us, he'd like to be able to keep eating these foods. (Disclaimer.)

New Article: Can Foods Worsen Acid Reflux?

2016 April 26
Tuesday

Where Did The Time Go?

Canon EOS 620

with EF 28-135mm

IS
Fujifilm Superia 200

One day in autumn 2015, I went to take a picture with the EOS 620... and the battery died in mid-photo. The camera sat around until something like January, when I got a new battery for it. This picture was taken in October 2015 and (I think) January or February 2016.

Developed with the Unicolor C-41 Kit

.

2016 April 22
Friday

Ultronic Panoramic 35mm

camera
Kodak E200 slide film (xpro)
Developed with the Unicolor C-41 Kit

.

Larger.

2016 April 15
Friday

Film

Light Bulb Aisle (120)

Yashica MAT 124G

with Yashinon 80mm lenses
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 (120 film)

Look at the shadow detail here. There's no blocking, no clipping; this has the full range of tones. The scan required almost no adjustment. So, you tell me: what EI was this? Do you think it was 400, 320, or what? Guesses welcome.

Hint: This was shot at 1/125th of a second at f/8, indoors, no tripod.

2016 April 11
Monday

Highly-Pushed Film

This was shot as EI 12800, I think, but as we'll see later, it was probably developed only as 6400.

Scenes like this one are very difficult to meter with anything, whether spot or incident. That's because the lighting is harsh, the scene is ultra-contrasty, and the light source is in the picture. Also, most of the light doesn't actually illuminate the building... it shines away from it, out into the night where it's of little use to photographers.

2016 April 8
Friday

Negatives Drying

Fujifilm Superia 400
C-41 Home Developing Kit

(Unicolor / FPP)

Chems at t=12 days after mixing
Kept refrigerated when not in use

Hanging up the negatives to dry gives a sense of accomplishment (usually), because by this point you've correctly done the film-developing process, the negatives have been washed, and now you can see the results. From here on in, the negatives simply have to dry for a few hours or perhaps overnight. And after a few rolls, you learn to know when the negatives look right.

This photo appears in a New Gallery: Unicolor C-41 Gallery, Page Two.

2016 April 4
Monday

Film Developing

New: Film Developing section on the Site Map page. Look for more film developing articles in the future.

New Article: Re-Using Diluted HC-110. You've probabaly read that dilute HC-110 is a "one-shot" developer. Well, I wanted to see if that was really true. Let's see if we can make HC-110 even more economical than it is. The corporate bean-counters would probably like you to buy an already-dilute developer that costs a million dollars and gets used up instantly. They might not "get" what I'm about to say, but I think you will: Many times, the most economical developer is also the one you'll be using in preference to others. Kodak HC-110 wins, not only because it's fantastically good for Tri-X and almost everything else B&W, but also because the concentrate lasts a long time. And actually, I find that I want to shoot even more film and buy even more HC-110 because of that. Thanks to HC-110, next thing you know I'll be shooting 8x10 with X-Ray film...

The digital camera companies dread this, but only because they don't understand how their product fits into film photography. (By the way, ignore the troll review; somebody gave it one star because-- get this-- the free preview didn't give away the contents of the book........)

2016 April 2
Saturday

Film Developing

This was shot on Kodak TMax 100 (a.k.a. TMX) rated at 64 or 80. I used an orange filter but did not adjust the EV dial for the correct number of stops; only the camera's own light-metering adjustment, because of the darker filter over the lens, was at work here. (These never get it quite right with orange filters.) I think the lower EI rating is why this photo worked as well as it did in this situation.

TMX is not my usual film (I mainly shoot Tri-X), but I have to say, it's quite fine-grained. If you want pretty much the lowest amount of grain with 35mm, TMax 100 is a great choice. (Ilford FP4 would be another good one. FP4 seems to be an under-appreciated film.)

Anyway, this photo was from a test roll in support of a new article I'll be posting.

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