The familiar Rollei film (I still have to decide if I like it or not), developed this time in a Kodak HC-110 developer. Results are finally decent regarding contrast, but obviously questionable regarding anything else: subjects, composition, supposed photographer’s skill and whatever you think applies. My cat is superb though.
Another Rollei, maybe too many Rolleis but they’re very cheap and I shot too many Ilfords years ago so I’m, like, recovering. I suppose I have to apologize because the subjects too, they are very common for this blog: friends, kids, park, trees, you know. But there’s big news hidden in this gallery: I used a new developer, the Ars-Imago FE, without even knowing a reliable developing time. So, the gentle folks at the Ars-Imago shop told me to try 12 minutes, but I’m slow so at the end it was around 30 seconds more… and not bad, not bad […]
Another Rollei RPX and another mess of i-dont-know-what-happened-in-the-tank – yes, the infamous IDKWHITT sindrome that every home-developer is sometimes affected by. Probably the D76 in the bottle wasn’t fresh enough or clean enough so I’m happy it’s finished. Regarding the flat boring pictures in the gallery below I don’t want to say it’s entirely developer’s fault, I’m accountable too. And the weather. And my self-portrait is not going to make it better anyway.
Probably not a super-interesting batch because sometimes it happens you just have a b/n film loaded but you’re visiting a place that’s more interesting in colors. So, if you’re wondering what’s this sort of a crater with some milky-looking water springing in the middle, that’s the “caldara” you can read about in this wikipedia page. I was expecting stranger pictures, probably, shooting that day, but it’s ok anyway. Shooting green areas in b/w is always a mixed bag and not everyone’s cup of tea. Oh, I have not digitally removed the usual amount of dirt and scratches (how many!) from […]
Finally a good old Kodak Gold 200 on this blog! You can find plenty of them in the old blog, actually. Being one of the most easy to find film in brick-and-mortar stores, it’s inevitable to use it sometimes. Unfortunately this is just a sample of the 37 shots I was able to capture with my adorable Canon compact: they are mostly shots of my daughters and my friends on the beach (or in a swimming pool), so very undressed, so I don’t want to publish them. But how NOT lo love a Kodak Gold 200, even from just 4 […]
Not too much to say. Just a Silvermax shot during a couple of weekends out for walks with the kids, in the surroundings of the Bracciano lake and in the Caffarella park. All shots by me and my Canon Sureshot compact. Developed in D76. I think I like this Adox emulsion but I’m not very impressed. I mean… it’s versatile, very flexible, it’s easy to correct the scan if they are not perfectly exposed. It’s a reliable tool but I don’t know, I’m not seeing myself buying a lot of them in the future. But who knows.
Here we go, the first roll on this blog that’s been entirely NOT shot by me. Yes, the 12 years old daughter decided to use something like half-an-hour to totally waste a precious Rollei Retro 400 S just goin around our “quarantine in the country” house, in a not-so-sunny morning, framing just plants and buildings in black and white. Isn’t she crazy? The funny thing is: i would never ever do that, she did, and some result is very interesting and unexpected. It’s not the “totally wasted roll” I was presuming before scanning the negative. There’s something, I think.
A good vibe on film it’s pure magic when you have it in front of your eyes. On this roll there are a couple of shots with some magic. The others are not bad but the poor Sure Shot Supreme – contrary to what its name boldly suggests – had quite an hard time trying to focus, in fact it missed focus a lot, so I discarded many pictures. And I have to say that the only good shots are the ones when there’s still some light from the sunset, and the flash was off. With sun down, and flash […]
One of the cheapest – if not The Cheapest – black and white film you can buy nowadays, that’s the Kentmere 400, introduced in 2009 by Harman “as a lower priced brand to their Ilford offer to compete in the US market” (thanks Wikipedia!). I have no instrument to compare Kentmere 400 to Ilford HP5+ so let’s assume that this is a completely different emulsion, even if it’s a just a rebranded HP5+. So, what’s interesting here? What a silly question, obviously the only interesting thing is the donkeys! They are so cute!
There’s something I’m slowly realizing: that it’s possible to come back home after a short vacation, see the pictures (slides and negatives in this case) and not needing the digital “coverage”. I have hundreds of digital raw files still to edit, mainly shot by my daughter, and there’s also something nice there. But I’m not feeling the pressure to look at those files, to edit and publish them. It’s like I’m already satisfied, I don’t need “more”. I need to shoot better pictures indeed, but it’s not a matter of quantity.
Hello again Perutz Primera! Here we have selected results from probably 5 or 6 different rolls, all shot during Summer 2018 mostly in Siracusa. There’s something from Francesco and Chiara’s family trip (the handsome guy is Francesco) and during the grape harvest at Pupillo’s vineyards. Something also shot at night with a terrible (but very vintage) “flash and grain and totally wrong tones” effect and also something from a “cheap plastic swimming pool birthday party” at Andrea’s place. The roman age things they are from another trip in late spring with Francesco and Chiara at the Ostia Antica archaeological park, […]
Ok, 16 minutes and 30 seconds of development times, and still I’m not there with an acceptable result. Honestly I don’t think the problem is development-related but mostly linked to the camera: my little Canon decides ISOs reading the DX code that’s obviously missing for the Ferrania P30 Alpha. So this film is effectively pushed 1/3rd of a stop, just to begin. And – 2nd thing to consider – even shot at 80 iso it comes out underexposed anyway – I tried with my SLR before. So what? I have other two rolls to try and overexpose a lot, this […]
