I’ve reached a point where I’ve gained comfort with the development process. It’s now a good point to summarise learnings accumulated so far before getting into the next phase.
- Film selection: The majority opinion is to stick to one film and developer combination; you need to get comfortable with the characteristics of the tools you’re working with; learn their feel. I have found myself in the minority and have tried several films, including Kodak TMAX, Ilford HP5+, Ilford PAN F+, Ilford FP4+. However, I have stuck to one developer. Having said that I think I will be picking one film and working with that for a while. I like the PAN F+ however at ISO 50 it’s use has limitations. The Ilford FP4+ with an ISO of 125 is ok too. HP5+ gets a lot of very positive reviews, but I find it a bit grainy.
- Shooting with film involves a lot of steps; it takes quit a bit longer to set up a shot: [1] determine zone information [2] compose shot [3] take the shot [4] record the metadata. I don’t mind; it is a bit more relaxing. But for those who found my process slow with digital will not be pleased about the film experience.
- I now have a database to track shot “meta data”; it includes date & time, roll#, shot #, film used, speed, aperture, lens, push / pull information, notes, zone information, and GPS location.
- To get 12 shots on film is harder than 120 shots digital.
- I really like the sound of the shutter. The turning of the lever to move to the next film position.
- Organization helps; another way to put it is nailing down the process and sticking to it. In the digital world the popular term is workflow. I don’t recall it being called that when I did film many years ago, but then I wasn’t as involved as I am now.
- Scanning has presented a couple of challenges: [1] blotches on the image [2] dust. It turns out the two are related. The blotches were manifest from the “ICE” processing built into the scanner (the purpose of ICE is to remove dust particles from the image…edit them out). Turning off ICE processing removed the blotches and had the added benefit of reducing scan time from 11 minutes to 4. However, I need to be clean and take steps to avoid dust collecting on the film. There are a number ofsteps to be taken here, including not letting the film touch anything, especially dusty things. I have a blower, which I use to clean off the film before scanning and a micro-fiber clothe to wipe the scanner before each scan. These steps seem to do the trick.
- Make sure chemical bottles are tightly sealed and standing upright. I won’t explain.
- Distilled water is $0.99 / 4 litres
- Use plastic envelops to hold negatives and keep them dust-free.
- Loading the onto the spindle (which is then put into the development tank) is difficult and improper loading has resulted in lost negatives and/or damaged edges.
- Post process in lightroom is a little different: [1] I do more sharpening and set radius up [2] I push the white and black sliders up / down respectively to past the end point to there is some clipping. This seems to reduce the muddiness of some shots [3] I work with tif files; they respond differently than DNG.
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