Photos in August - Part 1
Technically, I finished the roll of Harman Phoenix II in August, but I also shot a few other rolls.
More Adventures in Black and White
Olympus OM-10 loaded with Kodak TMax 400
I started a roll of Kodak TMax 400 in my OM-10 back in June. My first experiment with black and white wasn’t great. I didn’t like the film, and I think I under cooked the development just a bit. The second roll with Kentmere Pan 200 was much more successful, and I got a few photos I really liked from it.
Olympus OM-10 - OM 35-70mm - f8, 1/250 - Orange 21 Filter - I really like the detail in the trees
I bought this roll when I dropped off my last film to be processed by a lab - been processing everything at home since, to varying degrees of success. Foreshadowing
On the roll of Kentmere Pan 200 I had tried a couple of very plastic coloured filters in an effort to increase the contrast and bring down the brightness of the sky. I could see it working a bit, but the photos themselves weren’t great, rather muddy from the plastic filter, and I am still convinced one of the lenses is back focusing very badly. I wanted to try this again with some cleaner glass filters.
Olympus OM-10 - OM 50mm - f8, 1/250 - Orange 21 Filter
So that turned out pretty well. The orange filter is working, and brought down the bright morning sky quite a lot and made the tower stand out. Not an amazing photo, but I can see how the orange filter is making a difference. Composition wise, because I cut off the top of the tower with the 50mm lens I probably should have just chopped even more off, gone tighter on the details around the middle. But I don’t hate not showing the whole thing. That isn’t the focus of the image.
The morning I took this photo was quite amazing. There was think fog blanketing most of Canberra. I spent a couple of hours driving between Black Mountain and Mount Ainslie taking photos. I did have some photos also taken on colour film, but it would turn out that that camera had a bad focus issue - it has since been sent off for repairs, but it is still back focusing quite bad 😒
Olympus OM-10 - OM 35-70mm - f8, 1/500
Olympus OM-10 - OM 35-70mm - f8, 1/500 - Orange 21 Filter
Back at home I did actually take a moment to take two very similar frames to look at the difference when adding a filter. The neighbour’s yaccas provided a good subject against a very blue sky. Here I used a Yellow 12 filter. The effect is more subtle, but still noticeable. No filter on the left, yellow on the right. Bonus starling on the left.
What did I learn?
I have a better idea in my mind how the different filters work now. I also need to think about how to expose the images when using a filter. Even when the camera is metering through the lens and the filter it can underexpose depending on what you are looking at. Telstra Tower was exposed pretty well, but some other shots turned out a bit dark. Nothing I couldn’t adjust on the scan, but something to keep in mind. But also, maybe I am still stuck on having too much detail in all the areas of a photo.
I think the next thing for me to do is push a roll of Kentmere 400 or HP5 to ISO1600. I am pretty sure that’s how this film speed run / flow chart works.
Olympus OM-10 - OM 50 F1.4 - f2, 1/60 - One day I will get ones of these in focus and exposed correctly, but today is not that day
More phots from the roll of Kodak TMax.
More Adventures in Square Photos
After the roll of Harman Phoenix II in the Franka Solida II I put in a roll of Kodak Gold. I wasn’t planning on it, but when we were at the arboretum I wanted to get some photos of the bonsai trees. While I was struggling to load the film someone came up to me and asked if it was film and he hadn’t seen a roll like that in a long time. I said yes and was worried he was going to have follow up questions, but after I managed to get it loaded he had walked off.
Franka Solida II - f8, 1/125 - Kodak Gold 120 - basically(?) in focus
With focus being such an issue for me with the zone focusing, and the straight up lies from the hyperfocal marks on the lens, I had actually purchased a little external range finder I found on eBay. Less than $30, but shipping was slow, so it hadn’t arrive yet. It seems pretty accurate fairly close, which is good, and a little less accurate further out, which isn’t too bad. It isn’t tied to the camera or the film plane in any way, so it does remain a guide, but a helpful one.
Also managed to get this photo of some cyclists enjoying the sun and the trails around Canberra. Really happy with this. The 70 year old camera maxes out at 1/300 for a shutter speed, but that’s OK. After I had pressed the shutter one of them waved, but I like where they were in the frame as it is 😌
Franka Solida II - f11, 1/300 - Kodak Gold 120
Later in the week I popped out in the evening to get a couple of photos on a roll of Vision3 500T that had no remjet layer, seeking more red halations like the basic boi I am. I took the time to setup the Franka Solida II on the tripod as well, because too much Ouroboros is never enough.
Ouroboros by Lindy Lee - Franka Solida II - f8, 10sec - Kodak Gold 120
The next weekend I had a few frames left on the roll so I went for a (drive to, then a) walk up Mt Goodwin to watch a sunset. It is just down the road, not very far. While waiting for the light I tried to get a shot of the wattle that was starting to bloom. Using the afore mentioned range finder that had magically arrived that this point.
Franka Solida II - f8, 1/125 - Kodak Gold 120
I spent a surprising amount of time trying to get colour in this scan to look how I remember it. There was quite a lot of magenta and yellow in the sky from the sunset. The sky wasn’t quite this washed out, maybe?
Franka Solida II - f8, 1/125 - Kodak Gold 120
So, not overly fun fact, when I was processing this roll of film I started with the usual presoak to warm up the film and make sure it was clean. When I went to pour in the developer I was very surprised that the daylight tank filled right up. I forgot to pour out the water, so now I had a tank full of 1-1 diluted C-41 developer, which isn’t really a thing. I quick emptied it into jug, and washed the film again, before then making up another batch of C-41 developer from powder. Looking at the whole roll I can see some water marks / streaks down one end of the roll and I think I blame it on that. But in generally the photos survived.
Getting processing chemicals in Australia can still be a bit annoying, they are constantly out of stock, and we do not have the range available overseas. They aren’t overly expensive, and the powdered stuff is cheap to ship, as long as they are in stock.