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I like film...(open thread)


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London (85/1.8 pre-AI Superia 400 (EI100) X1).

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1 hour ago, paulmac said:

To me the Leica has always been a camera for recording life and It's been my life long passion to use it in this way. 

Recently I was looking through some B&W negatives of a story that I photographed some 25years ago in 1994. The story was a Pakistani wedding in my home town of Bradford in West Yorkshire, UK. At the time I was working on a project about Islam in Bradford and I was a regular visitor to one of the Mosques, where they had let me in to their confidence and given me unlimited access. I still visit the Mosque to record it for posterity and always I give the Mosque images from my visits. In deference to their wishes I usually now shoot things in digital colour but my heart has always been and always will be for film based Black and White photojournalism.

On one visit I was invited to attend a local wedding that was to be held in a nearby school hall. The men were sat at one side of the hall and the women were behind a partition at the other side. Now men are not really allowed to see the bride BUT I was given a special permission and allowed to go into their area for about 5 minutes to make the attached images of the bride and her party.

This is the first time that I have seen and exhibited many of these images because when I was drying the film, being eager to see the images whilst still wet, I knocked the film off the drying hooks and it fell to floor and was badly damaged. The damage was such that as I had some other negs of the day, I decided not to bother printing these as the physical retouching would have been massive with a tiny camel hair brush and black retouching colour. The negs have lain in a drawer in my dark room but a couple of weeks ago I decided to clean them up in Photoshop and then put them all through Silver FX. 

These are some of the restored images from that 1994 Saturday afternoon in Bradford. The film was my usual at that time Kodak TRI-X 400 ISO loaded from 30m bulk rolls and the camera was a Leica M6 with 35mm Summicron - 50mm Summicron and 90mm Summicron lenses. The dev would have been Kodak D76 1+1 as that was the combination that I always used. Sadly Kodak don't seem to supply TRI_X in 30m rolls now and so I use Fomapan 400 developed in Rodinal which is a bit grainier but a very good substitute for TRI-X. Grain though has never been my consideration in reportage type photography and even with the Monochrom I will always put the files through Silver FX with a TRI-X or HP5 preset just to give the image some grain and to me more feel.

Anyway here are the pics - I have used several posts to get the whole sequence of 15 that I have decided to show on the LUF:-

 

 

They look like your efforts in recovering/treating the negs was very much worthwhile, Paul. 

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1 hour ago, Steve Ricoh said:

I'm tempted to have a go, but camera choices??? Pointers anyone?

Dunno, it's "interesting" for sure, not my cuppa, but interesting.

I'd hazard a guess at an older 120 folder or similar, one where the shutter and wind-on are not inter-connected. One where the shutter can be released endlessly, and on the same slither of film. 120 film, 6x9, so 8 shots. I've possibly got something here but that won't help you of course.

Gary

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Phnom Penh, 4x5, Nikkor SW 90, Delta 100...

A008 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

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This one had me look a few times before I realised what you had done. Very cool. And it's great to have you back, Eoin even if just for a while. But do come back again again when you're back from the next trip (and post pix) :D

15 minutes ago, EoinC said:

Phnom Penh, 4x5, Nikkor SW 90, Delta 100...

A008 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr

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vor 55 Minuten schrieb gbealnz:

Dunno, it's "interesting" for sure, not my cuppa, but interesting.

I'd hazard a guess at an older 120 folder or similar, one where the shutter and wind-on are not inter-connected. One where the shutter can be released endlessly, and on the same slither of film. 120 film, 6x9, so 8 shots. I've possibly got something here but that won't help you of course.

Gary

Exactly. As Gary pointed out almost every old folder cam will do. Mine Zeiss Ikon Nettax 6x6 was a Ebay bargain, less than 50 EUR, in near mint condition

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6 hours ago, paulmac said:

To me the Leica has always been a camera for recording life and It's been my life long passion to use it in this way. 

Recently I was looking through some B&W negatives of a story that I photographed some 25years ago in 1994. The story was a Pakistani wedding in my home town of Bradford in West Yorkshire, UK. At the time I was working on a project about Islam in Bradford and I was a regular visitor to one of the Mosques, where they had let me in to their confidence and given me unlimited access. I still visit the Mosque to record it for posterity and always I give the Mosque images from my visits. In deference to their wishes I usually now shoot things in digital colour but my heart has always been and always will be for film based Black and White photojournalism.

On one visit I was invited to attend a local wedding that was to be held in a nearby school hall. The men were sat at one side of the hall and the women were behind a partition at the other side. Now men are not really allowed to see the bride BUT I was given a special permission and allowed to go into their area for about 5 minutes to make the attached images of the bride and her party.

This is the first time that I have seen and exhibited many of these images because when I was drying the film, being eager to see the images whilst still wet, I knocked the film off the drying hooks and it fell to floor and was badly damaged. The damage was such that as I had some other negs of the day, I decided not to bother printing these as the physical retouching would have been massive with a tiny camel hair brush and black retouching colour. The negs have lain in a drawer in my dark room but a couple of weeks ago I decided to clean them up in Photoshop and then put them all through Silver FX. 

These are some of the restored images from that 1994 Saturday afternoon in Bradford. The film was my usual at that time Kodak TRI-X 400 ISO loaded from 30m bulk rolls and the camera was a Leica M6 with 35mm Summicron - 50mm Summicron and 90mm Summicron lenses. The dev would have been Kodak D76 1+1 as that was the combination that I always used. Sadly Kodak don't seem to supply TRI_X in 30m rolls now and so I use Fomapan 400 developed in Rodinal which is a bit grainier but a very good substitute for TRI-X. Grain though has never been my consideration in reportage type photography and even with the Monochrom I will always put the files through Silver FX with a TRI-X or HP5 preset just to give the image some grain and to me more feel.

Anyway here are the pics - I have used several posts to get the whole sequence of 15 that I have decided to show on the LUF:-

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Paul, this is an exceptional series showing warmth and character in your trademark style - I also feel your reportage work has a far more "present" dynamic on film with the attendant grain - yet film renders a certain softness, too, which to a great extent ameliorates the harshness. Plus it is inarguably a "classic" look and your style is of classic photojournalism. Thanks so much for rescuing these negs and sharing. Will you take any prints to the mosque?

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