Hankering after Large Format.

[otto.f]

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3 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

squeeze the sides before tightening the caps

Thanks!

 

3 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

• Exposed one sheet twice.
• Forgotten which sheet was exposed twice.
• Forgotten to close the shutter before pulling out the slide
• Forgotten which film was exposed to an open shutter
• Put the slide back the same way round
• Forgotten which film holder had the slide in the wrong way round.

I found this:

1. I had that a few times, see below

2. there are locks on the filmholder: standing outside means unexposed, inside exposed. 
3. I close the shutter before  I put in the filmholder, then I double check if the shutter is closed before I go further

4. If I was aware I write it on my memo which is on the filmholder, where I wrote the name of the film also with crayon

5. And 6.  ? I turn the slide around when the film is exposed, so I have a double check.  I work with Chamonix’s wooden holders with carbon slides, which only have white spots on the outside. I marked them for color or B&W films

Difficult to put this into words, it is as if you try to explain someone how to ride a bicycle. But I hope at least something is useful. 

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Edited May 15, 2021 by otto.f

[LocalHero1953]

8 minutes ago, otto.f said:

Thanks!

 

I found this:

1. I had that a few times, see below

2. there are locks on the filmholder: standing outside means unexposed, inside exposed. 
3. I close the shutter before  I put in the filmholder, then I double check if the shutter is closed before I go further

4. If I was aware I write it on my memo which is on the filmholder, where I wrote the name of the film also with crayon

5. And 6.  ? I turn the slide around when the film is exposed, so I have a double check.  I work with Chamonix’s wooden holders with carbon slides, which only have white spots on the outside. I marked them for color or B&W films

Difficult to put this into words, it is as if you try to explain someone how to ride a bicycle. But I hope at least something is useful. 

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Thank you - yes, my (Fidelity) film holders are clearly marked with white and black sides to the tabs - it still didn't stop me making the mistakes😒. In future I shall put sticky labels on them so I can write the shot details, which will make it easy to find again slides which I realise afterwards I have taken wrongly.

Edit: I can add another mistake from today - leaving my cable release at the last location - much higher up the mountain.

Edited May 15, 2021 by LocalHero1953

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[otto.f]

The most recent Fidelity holders had a wheel with numbers inside trom 0 to 9, which are exposed when the photo is taken. So sad they aren’t to be found anywhere no more. I have a friend who has them for his 8x10, he wants to sell his Tachihara with these holders,  but I don’t want his Tachihara 😃

[James S]

Otto there was a YouTube video by Matt Marash on Friday talking about notching your holders so you can see which Meg came from which holder, but I won’t be taking a file to the one rather sexy chamonix holder that was included.

The results are in from today’s testing and I am pleased to say I made none of the mistakes I listed earlier. Well, I can’t say that with complete confidence as it appears the developer I used was a little too expired and I have four very clear sheets of film.

Now what’s a good affordable all round developer?? And stop and fixer?

[otto.f]

10 hours ago, James S said:

what’s a good

I wouldn’t advise you about that for the films you got with this purchase, how old are they? If they are beyond expiration date it’s hard to evaluate the developer with that. Personally I was a great Tri-X fan, but I abandoned Kodak, or they abandoned me. In recent years they have problems with reliability and stability of quality, coming in one package deal with very high prices. My expired Tri-X was better than a new pack, X-tol has problems at the moment, etc. You might like the site Photrio and can find everything about it. Normally I would say HC110 is a very good developer and very versatile, but I don’t dare to speak about it anymore. 
I switched to Adox alltogether, I’m extremely enthousiastic about their Silvermax developer and Adox CHS 100 film. All priced very reasonable. Whatever you choose, download the app Massive Development Chart.

[James S]

1 hour ago, otto.f said:

I wouldn’t advise you about that for the films you got with this purchase, how old are they?

Tri-x 320 expired 2020, Ortho Plus in date, Delta 100 exp 2020, FP4 in date (3x boxes), HP5 exp 2020.

Also got some Velvia 100 exp 2018 and Kodak E100 in date.

Quite a few to play with but no idea how many sheets in most boxes. And why do they come in boxes of 25? What do they think you put in the other side of film holder 13???

 

[otto.f]

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Hahaha, I got only 6 or 8 holders and I’m still practicing to trust myself with one shot per situation/subject.

Perhaps you could start with Ilford DD-X, its about the same as HC110, but from a reliable company that runs steadily. 

[James S]

Day 2 & 3 Update.

Day 2:

Ordered Sp455, new developer, fixer and stop bath. Hoping the old wetting agent will still do its job. Oh and film sleeves as well, because obviously I didn't have those.

Load film. It's getting much easier, now I've had a proper look at the film holders in the light with nice blank sheets from day 1. Get distracted and take arms out of dark bag before realising I haven't put the film back in the box. Hope to God that it was far enough away from the sleeves to not be fogged. Very very gingerly put arms back into sleeves ensuring no more light gets in.

Image 5: Setup and perfectly expose still life. Realise 30s later, that I'd been fiddling with the light-meter app and set it to 125, not the 320 ISO of tri-x

Image 6. Meter with app set to 320, and make an even more perfect exposure.

Image 7. Set up another still life aiming for more DOF. Read up articles from Large Format Forum on getting DOF spot on. Set everything perfectly at f/45 for a 2s exposure, recklessly not bothering to check reciprocity tables as no modern film would have issues as soon as 1s, or even bellows factor.

Day 3.

Check reciprocity tables for Tri-X - anything over 0.5s needs adjusting - oops. Download Reciprocity App, Viewfinder App and Massive Dev Chart. Normally I'm a tight-wad when paying for apps, but wildly throw those beliefs to the wind.

Image 8. Try to recreate Image 7 in totally different lighting conditions. Open Viewfinder App. Meter at 320, still a 2s exposure. Open Reciprocity App, dial in film, exposure, measure bellows length. Perfect, a bit of reciprocity and 1/3 stop for bellows gives me a 6s exposure.

Wait patiently for developer and Sp455 to arrive.

Package up 24mm Elmarit, Sigma 10-20 EFS and Canon TS-E24 for sale (part of the bargain I made myself when I clicked Make Offer on ebay). Feel awful packaging up the Leica, but no concerns for the other 2.

[Stuart Richardson]

I don't think you are going to have any major problems being a stop or two over or under with Tri-X...it is a rather forgiving film. For my money, the one to shoot is TMAX 400, as it is a truly exceptional film. It is more expensive than some, however. My favorite developer is Xtol, which is what I have used at my lab for 12 years without any major issues, but if you are using Ilford films and you are in the UK, then you might as well get an Ilford developer. I would suggest good old ID11 to start. DDX can be great, but it is expensive (at least here) and I am not so sure how good it is on the storage front. One of the benefits of large format is that you do not really need to obsess quite so much about speed enhancing developers or fine grain developers, as you are on a tripod the whole time and you have so much film that grain is usually not significant. So you can choose a more standard developer that will probably give you a nice pleasing tonal range at a low cost. Rodinal is another good choice for large format, as the tonality is lovely and what can read as graininess in 35mm becomes acutance in medium and large format. It also lasts forever and ever, so if you are an amateur or not shooting a lot of film, it is really ideal.

 

P.S. After looking at your lovely Svalbard pictures, now I really think you should listen to me, haha, as I tend to photograph very similar places and things! Craggy mountains partially covered in snow are basically my backyard (the snowy mountain peak photo is what I drive past on my way to the grocery store). Tmax and Neopan Acros (v1...not sure on v2 yet) in xtol are my favorite films for taming the bright highlights while still giving you some shadow detail in the deep tones without having a completely flat photo. They seem to give you a nice midtone gradation with a shoulder in the highlight curve.

 

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Edited May 18, 2021 by Stuart Richardson

[James S]

Lovely shots Stuart. I rather fancy a trip to Iceland, and hope to get there before too long: Unfortunately we're a little thin on snow at the moment, and with all the travel restrictions, my subjects are more likely the rolling muddy fields of Somerset rather than craggy mountains - think Don McCullin's Somerset landscapes and you'll get the idea - I live in the same village. So if I want to avoid his dark landscapes, I probably need a film with a little less contrast 😉

 

[otto.f]

18 hours ago, James S said:

Package up 24mm Elmarit for sale

So that makes only one crucial and irreversible mistake, not bad for a first shoot 😉

Edited May 19, 2021 by otto.f

[James S]

First results are in. Only way to get our first positives (lacking scanner or neg carrier for photographing the neg) was with some cyanotype paper we had kicking around. Here’s the result…

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[otto.f]

Great!

[stray cat]

This is superb - congratulations!

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by stray cat

[James S]

31 minutes ago, stray cat said:

This is superb - congratulations!

 

Thanks. I'm rather pleased with the results from my first (successful) batch of developing!

[Jon Warwick]

On 5/14/2021 at 4:52 PM, Stuart Richardson said:

One free tip -- if you find you have really odd, cloudy looking amorphous light leaks, check if you are using a newer Toyo holder with plastic or composite dark slides. They had a batch that did not fully block out bright light, so they led to progressive and difficult to trace light leaks. They replaced the defective ones with aluminum slides.

I had this issue - it drove me bonkers!! Incredibly hard to pinpoint as the problem, and it was only after stumbling across Stuart's similar and very helpful comment (thanks Stuart!) on the matter a few years ago that I investigated my own "plastic" dark slides to discover I could trace the beam of an iphone torch through the slide ...so one can only imagine how strong sunlight could pass through!  The photo below shows one of the poorer outcomes when I was using these "plastic" dark slides. The images weren't always this badly affected, but pretty much every one was impacted to some degree. But the story ended well .....I got these dark slides replaced with "metal" ones, and all been perfect since.

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Edited May 24, 2021 by Jon Warwick

[LocalHero1953]

12 hours ago, James S said:

First results are in. Only way to get our first positives (lacking scanner or neg carrier for photographing the neg) was with some cyanotype paper we had kicking around. Here’s the result…

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I don't have a scanner or negative carrier, but I have had good results from a Kaiser LED panel with my SL2-S on a tripod above it, set to multishot mode. I've just laid the negative on the panel, emulsion side down (to minimise Newton's rings, and they haven't curled - I'd have taped them down otherwise.

I like this result, though. I have some cyanotype chemicals and will try this.

[Stuart Richardson]

1 hour ago, Jon Warwick said:

I had this issue - it drove me bonkers!! Incredibly hard to pinpoint as the problem, and it was only after stumbling across Stuart's similar and very helpful comment (thanks Stuart!) on the matter a few years ago that I investigated my own "plastic" dark slides to discover I could trace the beam of an iphone torch through the slide ...so one can only imagine how strong sunlight could pass through!  The photo below shows one of the poorer outcomes when I was using these "plastic" dark slides. The images weren't always this badly affected, but pretty much every one was impacted to some degree. But the story ended well .....I got these dark slides replaced with "metal" ones, and all been perfect since.

 

I had it while I was doing my MFA and when I had to shoot constantly for critiques within the course. I am pretty confident with LF, so I would generally only shoot one or two sheets of a given scene, so I had a number that were ruined before I got some help. I posted on the large format photography forum about it, and someone there had had the problem and sorted it out. It made me pretty pissed at B&H and Toyo though, as they knew about the problem and did not seem to do a recall or tell customers. They replaced the slides, but to this day I have not seen any outreach about the problem. In any case, if you are starting out in LF, it is good to know about it, because as you said, it is maddening to trace as it only happens on film holders that are sitting in the light for awhile. I mostly store my holders in dark bags, so if you were to take one out of the bag, shoot, and put it back in, you would see no issues. But if you left one on a table in the sun...well, then you wound up with something like this:

 

 

Ok, sorry for the hijacking!

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[James S]

1 hour ago, Stuart Richardson said:

But if you left one on a table in the sun...well, then you wound up with something like this:

Ok, sorry for the hijacking!

No worries re hijacking - useful to know. Currently have fidelity and chamonix dark slides so hopefully not an issue.
 

And agree it’s poor not to have done a recall; I think if I really wanted that effect I might do it as a cloud layer in PS, but then there are those who think everything should be done in camera (and on the kitchen table) 😉

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[James S]

3 hours ago, LocalHero1953 said:

I don't have a scanner or negative carrier, but I have had good results from a Kaiser LED panel with my SL2-S on a tripod above it, set to multishot mode. I've just laid the negative on the panel, emulsion side down (to minimise Newton's rings, and they haven't curled - I'd have taped them down otherwise.

I don’t have a light panel either and my iPad might work but then the neg needs to be an inch or two away, and then it needs support etc etc. A new scanner is currently winging it’s way to me!