Coosa River

I developed the roll of Ektar film without any problems. I scanned them in this morning.

There were kayakers in many of these photos that didn't show up.

My favorite

Color Developing

Today, after work, I want to try developing color negative film. I got a kit in the mail today. On my lunch break I shot a roll of Portra 160 film, mostly of September wildflowers by the creek. I also have a roll of Ektar 100 film I shot on a kayaking trip with a friend with my pinhole camera. I'll develop the Portra 160 film first and if that turns out ok I'll go with the Ektar next.

Color negative (C-41) developing kit.

This development will be harder than the black and white with Diafine. You have to be precise with times and the temperature has to be maintained at 102 degrees.

Rolls 2&3

I've developed two more rolls of film since this weekend. I'm starting to get the hang of loading the reel and agitation. This time I developed a roll of Ilford HP5+ film I shot in my pinhole camera and Rollei Infrared film I shot in my Hasselblad.

Thurlow Dam, pinhole camera. This uncropped scan shows the felt shadows at the edge of each frame.

Tallapoosa River, pinhole camera

Tallapoosa River, pinhole camera

Tallapoosa River, pinhole camera. I like the swirls and the little goldenrod at the bottom.

Island in the Tallapoosa River, pinhole camera

Tallapoosa River, pinhole camera

I experienced some streaking on the film with the HP5+, so I increased the agitation on the next roll and it turned out better.

Tallapoosa River, Infrared/Hasselblad

Tallapoosa River, Infrared/Hasselblad

My uncle's barn, Infrared Hasselblad

Rollei Infrared film is also sensitive to visible light, so I used color filters to create an infrared/red/green trichromy.

Diafine

Yesterday, after work, I walked around town with my Hasselblad camera. I was trying Kodak Tri-X film for the first time, an old black and white film that was used extensively by photojournalists in the past. It's good for street photography.

I had another goal in mind, too. I recently bought Diafine black and white film developer, and all the other supplies for developing film. When I got home from my walk, I closed all the doors in my hallway and stuffed the cracks with towels, and I had my first darkroom.

Loading the film on the reel in total dark was terrifying. I kept telling myself everything was okay and laughing about it. I was sure I was messing up the film, and it took me about 15 minutes of trying before I got it on the reel.

Then I mixed up the chemicals, followed the directions, and bam, I had developed film!

I went with Diafine because maintaining a precise time and temperature is not as important with it, although you have less control over how it develops the film.

Negative hanging to dry

Harpsichord

Through a wall at Foy Union

Amphitheater 

The Old Rotation

Tailgating

Sunset above the streets

Toomer's Corner

Pinhole fascination

Pinhole film photography is such a gratifying undertaking. I don't know what I love about it most. Delayed gratification, for one. There's nothing quite like seeing how the photos turn out, for me days or weeks after I took the photos. It's like receiving a letter in the mail.

Pinhole cameras also see the world in a dramatically different way than human beings. For a pinhole camera, everything is in focus and nothing is quite in focus. You can't use focus to draw attention to the subject, and there are no out of focus areas to hide distractions. 

Pinhole cameras also usually have a much wider angle of view than humans. This can lead to what appear to us as wild distortions, especially if the camera is not level and flush with the subject. But this can also be exploited intentionally.

The wide angle of view means that you must get much closer to subjects in order for it to fill the view. But getting close to objects can also make them appear distorted.

On most pinhole cameras, there's no way of getting a preview of what the camera is seeing. To take photos, you need to use your imagination, and if you want to be more careful, you need to use tools and math. I now use a compass and a level when I take pinhole photos. I take note of how tall and wide my intended subject is, how close I am to it, and what objects are in the line of sight between the subject and the camera.

On top of this, there's the issue of the film and exposure. How long does the film need to be exposed to a scene? You can use a light meter, and calculate a time, which is usually in the range of several seconds to several minutes. But film is more complicated, because it has an issue called reciprocity failure, which requires the film to need to be exposed longer than the light meter says with longer exposure times. And each film is unique in its reciprocity failure.

For instance, if my light meter tells me to expose 100 ISO film for 2.5 minutes, I will actually need to expose it for a little over 8 minutes if I'm using Ektar 100 film. If I'm using Tmax 100 film, however, I will need to expose it for about 13.25 minutes. And if I'm using Velvia 100 slide film, I'll need to expose it for about 5.25 minutes.

All this is to show just how complicated it can get if you want to be a perfectionist. Otherwise, you can take a rough guess. And sometimes a guess is all you can do. For instance, in taking a photo during sunset, you may need to expose for 8 minutes, but during those 8 minutes, the scene is gradually getting darker. So do you need to expose for longer than 8 minutes? Yes, but how much longer? And if you're taking a photo in cloudy weather and during your exposure the sun comes out, do you cut the exposure short? Probably.

For these and other reasons, you pretty much never know what you're going to get when you get your photos developed. That's why it's so gratifying.

Here are some pinhole photos that didn't turn out as I'd imagined them:

I was expecting this rock pile to be more prominent and the grass to be less prominent. Also, there is the vehicle behind the rock pile that was unintended.

In my vision this rock pile would look like a mountain scene. The large trees in the background mess up that vision. In any case, I like how the close rocks and the far rocks are equally in focus.

This view from within a row boat is not what I intended, but I kind of like it anyway. I was hoping to see more of the water.

Spring Villa. I think I was going for more house and less grass. In most of my early photos I always had the camera close to the ground.

Some more pinhole photos:

Harpsichord

Samford Hall

Shelby Building

Chewacla

My uncle's shed

Fomapan 100

I recently shot a roll of Fomapan 100 Classic film. It's a Czech black and white film that also happens to be one of the cheapest roll films out there now. I fell in love with its look and tried it for myself while at the beach last month.

Bright blue water and light green foliage show up quite dark on this film. It must have a lot of red sensitivity.

Morning glories on the beach. The flowers are white and the foliage bright green, which shows up very dark here.

I definitely want to buy more, and maybe learn how to develop it myself.

I also shot a roll of Cinestill 50D film, which is a Kodak film made for shooting movies but repackaged for use in still cameras. Here's a couple of shots from that roll: