Photos in August - Part 2 - Galleries and Museums
Following on from Part 1.
Off-brand “Cinestill 800T”
I started this roll in my Olympus 35SP that had been serviced and hopefully had its focus fixed, but I didn’t trust it complete, so I ended up cutting the roll to check the first few frames. Glad I did. Infinity focus was pretty good, but it was back focusing bad at anything within a few meters, and also the left of the frame is just soft while the right is sharp 😔
Olympus 35SP - Vision3 500T @640 - processed in C-41
The 35SP has been retired to the healing drawer for now.
The film is Kodak Vision3 500T, but it has had the remjet layer removed, hence the red glow around the highlights. Designed to be processed in ECN-2 chemicals it has a fairly flat look, but with C-41 chemicals being more ‘potent’ it can be shot at ISO800. I went for ~ISO640 because it really needs more light, especially in the day. But my goal was to take this to the gallery when mum visited and shoot some photos inside.
Galleries with Mum
Olympus 35RC - f5.6, 1/250 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
I wanted to take a shot like this the last few times I had visited. I wanted it under exposed, but not by that much 🤣 I like it, but I think it would work better in B&W. I did have the Pentax PC35AF with a roll of Ilford XP2 Super 400 (Black and white film designed to be processed in C-41 colour chemicals), but the point and shoot camera has no way to manually tell it to under expose ISO400 film (the film ISO selector goes from like 25 to 400, so you can underexpose ISO200 film (Is that context need? (How many side thoughts can I have in one sentence?))).
Just another reason to return again, I guess.
NICK CAVE (1999) by Howard Arkley
I love this portrait of Nick Cave by Howard Arkley in the portrait gallery. I enjoy the portrait gallery, and I need to go back soon for the National Photoraphic Portrait Prize 2025 exhibition.
Men In This Town 04 (2024) by Atong Atem - Olympus 35RC - f2.8, 1/125 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
We then headed back to the National Gallery and had a brief walk around and some lunch before our booking to see Cézanne to Giacometti.
NGA - Olympus 35RC - f4, 1/60 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
Sitting in the cafe I was admiring the roof. This was a photos I actually had in mind before getting to the gallery 🤣 I love the geometry and concrete, and I really wanted a photo of the lights with the red halations. I am a simple person, a basic boi.
NGA - Olympus 35RC - f4, 1/60 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
NGA - Olympus 35RC - f4, 1/60 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
What made this exhibition really good (aside from all the visiting artworks) was how it showed the impact and links from work in Europe to Australian artists. There was a small section of the exhibition of work done in Australia linked to the Bauhaus Movement from Germany I found really interesting.
Untitled - grey squirl (1968) by Normana Wight - Pentax PC35AF - XP2 Super 400
Two sculptures by Alberto Giacometti
The next day we visited the National Museum, or was it two days later? What day is it today?
I enjoyed spotting random cameras in display cases. There was an original Widelux used to document the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy in Darwin, and a random Exacta that had a long remote tiger on a stick for selfies.
1967 V8 Repco-Brabham prototype - Olympus 35RC - f2.8, 1/30 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
This shot turned out pretty good, framing and composition aside. I wanted to expose the car, but leave the surrounding dark - as it was presented in the museum. It was right at the limit for hand-holding the camera though, f2.8 and 1/30 of a second. Stabilisation and high ISO on modern cameras is amazing.
I think this shot also ran into the limits of the off-brand Cinestill. The film has a lot of yellow “noise” on the unexposed portions of the negative - which then comes up as blue in the final image. I think this a side effect of the remjet anti-halation layer removal process. So in unexposed areas of the image you get a lot of blue “noise” that looks a lot more like digital noise than it does film grain. I don’t remember this from the one roll of Cinestill 800T I did shoot, so something unique to the off-brand version? There is also the hint of some static - subtle blue streaks, something that can also happen with Cinestill.
We looked in the gift shot for some postcards for mum to write for the grandchildren, but they didn’t have any. So I got a couple of shots to turn into postcards ourselves 😎
I think basically all the (film) photos in the gallery needed another stop of light (or two). Maybe I should have just stuck with a ‘real’ ISO800 film, but I am basic and I wanted the halations 🤣
Nighttime
Later in the week I popped out in the evening to get a couple more shots I had been thinking off specifically for this film. I am nothing if not a cliche, shooting 500T at night?? Crazy.
Again, I should have over exposed this a bit more, the second shot was bulb mode, and that was almost exposed enough. I didn’t want the sky to have any light in it at all - but I shouldn’t have worried 😆
Tram - Olympus 35RC - f4, 1/15 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
Tram - Olympus 35RC - f4, ~3sec - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
While I really love the little Olympus 35RC, and I love the 40mm focal length, but looking back at these images I am seeing alternative compositions I think would have worked better. Horizontal on the tripod with basically all of the tram stop is, fine. But I think a vertical shot at around 70 or 80mm with the one street light and a section the tram stop would have worked a lot better. I wasn’t trying to get ‘the tram stop,’ I wanted to get a photos of the colours and the lights and the glow. I didn’t need the whole tram stop to do that. A note for next time. More growth? 🤔 Do I realise now that the context of the whole tram stop wasn’t needed? Is ‘forcing’ myself to review my photos like this and write about them helping me?
We’ll never know.
Since I was already out, and had a tripod …
Ouroboros by Lindy Lee - Olympus 35RC - f8, ~2sec - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
This one turned out pretty good. I like it. Maybe another stop of exposure, again?
Daytime
To hurry up and finish off the roll I took some shots of sunset and sunrise the next weekend. For a film that is supposed to be used indoors with artificial light, it works quite well outside.
Nearing the end of the roll there were a lot more artefacts and marks on the film, even some scratches. I think this is another downside of the off-brand film, the removal of the remjet and re-spooling can damage the film.
There is a love blue streak across this image from the bottom left. Nothing to do with the development, the film was processed in a tank with another roll of film at the same time, and that had no marks on it at all.
Sunset - Olympus 35RC - f16, 1/250 - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
Processing the scans of this film in Lightroom with Negative Lab Pro I think I need to go back and look at that one roll of Cinestill 800T again. I also realised just how much detail could be pulled back from the highlights. Blasting this film with light is always fine. I also wonder what else Cinestill does or doesn’t do to the film they sell, aside from being very careful with the processing. The sprocket holes on Cinestill are very ‘normal’ the sprocket holes on other re-spooled film is notably different. I know Cinestill aren’t re-spooling Vision3. They are of course working with Kodak on sourcing and preparing the film.
Traffic Cone - Olympus 35RC - Vision3 500T - processed in C-41
Will there be a part three? Foreshadowing