Returning to film 101 Help.

[oysterboy]

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After many years I have decided to go back to film, but many things have changed and I need help. I confess I am "green green" in the film department so if you'd be so kind to answer some of the questions bellow I would really appreciate it.

 

-In the future I intend to create my own BW dark room but it is not a possibility right now.

Where can I take my film to be developed today? What are some good/economic places that develop film these days be it a "brick and mortar" store or an online place?

 

-Where do you buy your film from?

 

-What film do you recommend for BW and Color, both for low light and shooting wide open on sunny days?

 

- Is there any decent c41 film? or should I forget about it altogether?

 

-How do I move my pictures from film to digital?

 

 

 

- Any interesting links for someone in my position.

 

 

Many thanks in advance!

[jerryharwood]

Fuji is still producing negative and transparency films, ie Velvia fifty and 100 ASA, and superia in 100, 200 and 400 asa. Kodak still has Ektachrome; Ilford still makes B&W.

You can still buy it easily in from WWW. justink&paper.com, or Fuji,Ilford,Kodak,Agfa,35mm Camera films,Discount Prices..

As for developing, try Peak Imaging, or Tempo photographic Ltd, tel. 01525 237344- both excellent companies.

welcome back to the fold !

Jerry Harwood

[andybarton]

Whereabouts in the world are you?

 

Doing your own b&w is cheap, easy and the sensible way forward. Colour work is almost as easy. A complete kit of stuff to process b&w will cost about £100, in your currency.

 

No darkroom required, but you will need a scanner of course.

[tecumseh]

I'd suggest you buy a dark bag (£10), a loupe (£5) and some chemicals (£20) and develop your own b&w. Works out at about 30p a roll. Pick the shots you like, take them to your local photo shop and they'll print them for about 50p each. B&W is really easy to process at home. Film like tri x is very forgiving when learning to process. Expect to pay about £10 a roll to have B&W processed professionally. Unless you have a good camera shop nearby you'll have to use mail order.

 

Films I'd recommend

B&W

 

Tri x

Plus x

Ilford pan f 50

Ilford delta

Neopan

 

Colour print:

Kodak Portra

Fuji 160s

fuji reala

Kodak ektar

 

Slide:

Velvia 50

 

Processing labs will give you a cd with your photos on it so you can look at them on your PC.

 

Good luck!

[tecumseh]

7dayshop.com for cheap, quality film.

[aymoon]

-What film do you recommend for BW and Color, both for low light and shooting wide open on sunny days?

 

- Is there any decent c41 film? or should I forget about it altogether?

 

-How do I move my pictures from film to digital?

 

As you're in the US, I can't help with where to buy/develop film near you, but in terms of stocks, it really depends on what look you wish to achieve. My personal preference for 'wide open on sunny days' would be Velvia 50 if shooting landscape/cityscape etc. or Provia 100F for people. I also like Velvia 100 for a mixture of the two. BUT, these are just my personal tastes, and they are all colour transparency films. I'm looking forward to trying the Kodak Ektar 100 which is meant to be a good colour C41. It should be more forgiving than the slide film, but I doubt it will look as good. As for BW and low-light, I'm sure other forum users will be able to give better recommendations than me, as my experience is limited.

 

Regarding the transfer of film to digital, there are lots of options, not all covered here. The cheapest would be to get the films developed and then scan the images yourself using a slide/film scanner (cheaper in the long run, after your initial investment in the scanner, though this is a time consuming process). The easiest would be to specify a dev + scan when you send the film off (for developing and scanning to CD). The highest quality would be to develop the film, choose the images you want digitized, then have them drum-scanned. This is also a very expensive option, but provides by the far the best quality. NB: this can cost double and triple figures (depending on the size of the file you want) per image!!!

 

I suggest doing a minilab dev + scan on your films until you get your darkroom working. After that, you can make your own prints and scan them easily on any flatbed scanner.

[tecumseh]

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I'm very impressed by Ektar. It has a velvia quality in terms of grain with a lot more room for error with no need for an 81A filter. Some people have complained that it looks "digital" but I haven't found that to be the case. Particularly good for landscapes. Lovely, luscious browns with strong contrast. Particularly impressive in MF.

[andybarton]

Ektar is a love it or hate it film. Ultra contrasty with very weird colours in my experience.

 

I hate it.

 

There are much nicer C41 films. Portra 160 or Fuji 400H to name but two.

[aymoon]

Interesting, and contrasting, notes on the Ektar... I'll let you know what I think when I try it.

 

The Portra is a great film and comes in two flavours and three speeds (correct me if I'm mistaken). The flavours are NC (natural colour) and VC (vivid colour). Both render their colours beautifully, though the NC is more subtle, obviously. You can get 160, 400 and 800 rated. I'd stick with the 160 Andy mentioned if you can.

[tecumseh]

Some examples in order:

 

Ektar

160VC

160NC

Pan F 50

Neopan 400

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[tecumseh]

and finally...

 

Kodak Tri X 400

Fuji Reala 100

Fuji Velvia 50

Fuji Sensia 400

Kodak Elite Chrome 100

 

All the photos have been home-processed. B&W and C41 is really easy, E-6 a bit more difficult. A tetenal C41 kit costs about $80 and does about 100 films.

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[AbbeyFoto]

Currently I have my film processed through a mail order service. Mainly C41 with some slide film. I aim to re-establish my own processing of B&W. I have had some problems with the colours from Ektar - it seems particularly sensitive to the temperature of the ambient light, but have not done any serious experiments on that. I like Fuji 400H Pro and Kodak 400CN.

 

Chris

[tobey bilek]

C41 film should not be forgotten. It is far and away the best scanning film on the market and the latest versions of Portra and Ektar are made for scanning. Ilford XP2 for for black and white. It developes in C41.

 

Once you have these, you can scan them for digital work or print them optically in real darkroom.

 

Slide film by its nature is high contrast which makes scanning difficult, darkroom prints without special masking techniques even more difficult. They do project the best however.

 

Without a local source, I would buy from B&H in New York. I order a years supply in the spring before the delivery trucks get hot. I believe you can order directly from Kodak store now. This film will be absolutely fresh with a 2 year expiration.

 

Kodak has a list of approved pro labs on their site segrigated by state. They will all properly develope your film. My local pro lab is the only on in Illinois certified by Kodak.

There are other competent pro labs. All accept digital files by internet file transfer.

 

MPIX is a fine lab. Send files over internet or film by mail and the prints return by US mail in a few days.

 

I also have a local Ritz that does good work. But all are not the same. One that was even closer did horrid work so you need to try them out and see what you need to do to work with them. Ritz also takes files over the internet and will hold for pick up or ship back by return mail.

 

AIProlab.com Downers Grove Illinois

MPIX in Columbia, Missouri

Ritz Camera in Hinsdale ,Illinois Use RitzPic.com Ritz provides an on line gallery also that is easy to use. Order prints from the gallery or just send file diretly.

 

Snapfish is a national lab. I have seen good work come from there.

 

I am sure there many others. Mail and internet makes everything accessable to you.

 

I use Kodak T Max film which a local brick and mortar store orders for me. In the spring naturally. I get 100 foot rolls which I respool. 24 or 36 exposure. Develope and print in my basement darkroom.

 

Tri X pulled to 200 ISO and developed in D76 prints beautifully and scans better that any black and white film I ever tried. You will find just because a film prints properly under an enlarger does not mean it scans well.

 

I also send film or digi files to all the labs mentioned for color work. I have not printed any color in my darkroom in some time. The chemicals spoil fast and are expensive so I need to save up work. and I am too impatient to do so.

 

I will also tell you even a cheap consumer Nikon dslr will make prints that rival 35 mm film no mater what camera they are from, even Leica. A full frame digi like the M9 Leica, Nikon D700 or D3 will out perform film by a wide margin.

 

 

I just bought an 8x10 print from a Nikon D200 that looks like a contact print from 8x10 camera. It was 100 ISO and a good lens and special sharpening most people will not bother to learn to do. It as sharp as a contact print and totally grainless and smooth. Newer models will do better at even higher ISO settings. The digi technology is growing fast.

 

If you want a bit of grain, photoshop is the way to go. Add color or monochrome grain, make it sharp or smooth, small or large, and use blending mode and sliders to confine the the grain to middle tones just like real film. You can even tone the prints like you used to do before 90% of the darkroom papers and chemicals went off the market. Textures can also made to reappear like that that was embossed on papers 50 years ago.

 

Good luck in your quest. I am simply pointing out the easiest paths I have found.

[andybarton]

In my experience, although C41 colour film has the widest dynamic range, a low contrast E6 film such as Astia is far, far easier to scan.

[tobey bilek]

It is only easier if you don`t know how to color balance and save the setting. Then you apply it to roll after roll after roll. Minor changes may be made for non standard daylight conditions or if you use day light film under tungsten.

 

If you expect some scaning program to auto color balance. you are in for a suprise. A machine can never out think a human.

 

I must agree, Astia is the easiest slide film to scan.

[Stealth3kpl]

It is only easier if you don`t know how to color balance

 

Tobey,

Is this something that can be taught to another? Could you write a thread on it? I'm sure I'm not the only one who'd benefit.

Pete

[aymoon]

All the photos have been home-processed. B&W and C41 is really easy, E-6 a bit more difficult. A tetenal C41 kit costs about $80 and does about 100 films.

 

Love the look of the Ektar and of course my favourite Velvia.

 

Never used Astia, but would be interested to see how a low-contrast transparency film matched with a high contrast lens like the new 35 lux would look after scanning... could be interesting.

[Stephen_L]

Whereabouts in the world are you?

 

Doing your own b&w is cheap, easy and the sensible way forward. Colour work is almost as easy. A complete kit of stuff to process b&w will cost about £100, in your currency.

 

No darkroom required, but you will need a scanner of course.

 

How and where can I learn to process B&W at home? Where can I find step by step tutorials?

 

I'm completely new to film and was going to ask a similar question as OP, so I thought I'd write in this thread instead of creating a completely new one.

[FiZZ]

I'm a happy user of Kodak Portra and Ilford XP2. Both are C41 and I just drop them to my lab and they do a great job. They're not even a professional lab, but they some how manage to come up with great developing for all intents and purposes.

 

If you plan on developing your own black and white, I would suggest Ilford Delta or Kodak Tri-X. Ilford gives very consistent results with gorgeous tones while Tri-X is VERY forgiving and has a HUGE exposure latitude (up to 5 stops in some cases). Rhodinal is probably the easiest developer I have come across since it has very low dilution ratios and can be reused more than once in some cases. The beauty of it is that you can buy it in powder form so you don't end up wasting it if you don't develop for a period of time.

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[AbbeyFoto]

How and where can I learn to process B&W at home? Where can I find step by step tutorials?

 

Good question and established LUFers may be able to point to appropriate threads. My own gut reaction is to suggest you try to find an existing B&W worker close enough to meet up. My guess is that most doing their own processing would be happy to spend a little time to get you going. Nothing better than seeing it live. Any local photo clubs? or colleges doing photo courses (some students still play with film)?

 

Chris