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Monday, January 19th, 2015
Today was a glorious sunny winters day here in Oxford and I made good use of it by doing some photography with Tori during my lunch break. I had three different film cameras with me today and here are two shots from the Polaroid Land Camera I took (the b&w shots are drying in the darkroom overnight so they’ll follow at a later time). There’s something really nice about winter sunshine and how it can make colours pop, it can also be very harsh and contrasty so it’s a nice challenge to look at how the light is falling on your subject and how the smallest of movements can mean the difference between nice and not so nice. Tori was incredibly easy to photograph and I hope we can do some more photography with different cameras and film. There is zero retouching on these two images, no Photoshop fakery, no filters, no plugins, just straight scans from the film.
These two shots were made on Fuji FP100-C instant pack film that expired 9 years ago. When you store it carefully and pay attention to how you expose it it’s capable of creating some fantastic results. I tend to underexpose it by a stop which results in a darker print but a nice negative that can be recovered with bleaching the black carbon layer off. The negatives are much sharper than the prints and you also get 2 stops of more detail in the shadows compared to the print.
[Tech info:] Polaroid Land Camera 190, Fuji FP100-C (expired), recovered neg.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7488/16320113772_068478e685_o.jpg)
Posted in film, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait, Street portraits, students | 2 Responses »
Tags: film, fp100c, fujiroid, oxford, polaroid, polaroid 190, portraits, students, tori
Thursday, January 15th, 2015
Spilt is a short film written and directed by Alvin Yu and I was asked if I’d like to do some portrait photography while they were filming in Oxford a couple of weeks ago. Due to timing conflicts I was only able to make it to set on their final day of filming after it had gotten dark outside so I made these portraits indoors with the available light (a bulb hanging from the ceiling in the hallway). The crew were setting up for a shot so I had to work quickly, one frame on each person, no re-takes and no second shot. What you see here is the entire roll of film, uncropped. Apologies to any crew members that I didn’t manage to include, hopefully I’ll get you on another project.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss Planar 80mm, Kodak Tri-X 400 rated at ISO 1600, processed in Kodak Xtol 1+1.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7546/16100981298_f6bac6e6d4_o.jpg)
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, backstage, black&white, film, filming, oxford, people, portraits, rolleiflex, spilt, students, Tri-X, xtol
Tuesday, January 13th, 2015
Here are a few more shots from the first time out with my Industar 210mm large format lens. I only took six sheets of film with me and I used two sheets on one of the shots because the light was changing and I decided to try out a greater depth of field on the second sheet. I ended up preferring the light on the building in the first exposure so that’s the one I’ve posted here.
[Tech info:] Graflex Speed Graphic, Industar 210/f4.5 lens, Kodak Plus-X Aerographic film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6 mins.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7523/16087123278_352550d255_o.jpg)
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Posted in Architecture, Equipment, Oxford, Photo shoot, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aerographic, black&white, film, graflex, hc110, industar, oxford, plus-x, portraits
Monday, January 12th, 2015
Here are some of the first test shots made with my Industar 210mm Russian large format lens. I bought this lens back in July last year but it took me a while to get it mounted on a lens panel to use with my Speed Graphic. Finally the wait is over. The light was fading when I made these exposures and they were made at the slowest shutter speed on my Speed Graphic which is 1/30th with the lens fully open at f4.5. I pushed the film a little in the developer to try to lift the shadows but there doesn’t seem to be anything there to bring out. I’m pleased with these results and can’t wait to do some more at a closer focussing distance. I made a few other shots which will follow another time – I left them drying in the darkroom.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Industar 210/f4.5 lens, Kodak Plus-X Aerographic film, processed in Kodak HC110 1+31 for 6 mins.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7516/16079558440_6aae2ae6cc_o.jpg)
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Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait | 3 Responses »
Tags: 5x4, aerographic, film, hc110, magdalen college, oxford, plus-x, speed graphic
Saturday, January 10th, 2015
This afternoon I visited Magdalen College to test out a new (old) lens I recently fitted to a lens board for my Speed Graphic and here is the first test shot made on Fuji FP-100C instant pack film. I also took some b&w sheet film with me and those shots will follow at a later time. The beauty of FP-100C is being able to bleach the black carbon backing from the back and ending up with an almost large format sized negative. This shot was made late in the afternoon as the light was fading and I used the slowest shutter speed on my Speed Graphic (1/30th) knowing that the print would be a little on the under-exposed side but also knowing that the negative gives you an extra 2 stops of exposure. It’s nice to get two shots for the price of one – the only instant film that does.
[Tech info:] Speed Graphic 5×4, Industar 210/4.5 lens, Fuji FP-100C instant pack film.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7535/16247055961_89bd81d8db_o.jpg)
Neg
![](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8584/16063053147_f9fc5c6d33_o.jpg)
Print
Posted in Architecture, Equipment, film, Oxford | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, film, fp100c, fujiroid, graflex, industar, magdalen college, oxford, speed graphic
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
At the end of November I went into town on a Saturday morning to do some photography and here are some images that I made. This was a couple of days after Black Friday and shoppers were out looking for bargains in the run up to Christmas. It was great to come across a breakdance crew busting some moves. When I was younger I remember seeing breakdance crews in town, laying out their square of lino to dance on, boom box blasting out tunes to attract the attention of passers by. It’s nice to see the current generation keeping the tradition alive.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 35mm and 50mm lenses, Fuji Superia 200 (expired), Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scans.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7491/15595364084_e1d3c9b452_o.jpg)
Stag do
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Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: film, fuji, leica, m2, oxford, pakon, people, superia 200, voigtlander
Monday, January 5th, 2015
These shots are from a few days ago during a photo walk around town with a fellow film photographer friend of mine, Chris. Neither of us had anticipated the icy cold wind that had come in and after braving it up until the light started to fade we decided to head to the Natural History Museum which is not only one of my favourite places to photograph but it’s also guaranteed to be warm 🙂 I made a mistake with this roll because it came in a batch of mixed expired films and had no box. At a glance the roll looked like Fuji Neopan 100 Acros but it was actually Neopan 400. I wanted to test Acros pushed 1 stop in Xtol developer but because this was an ISO 400 film I ended up over-exposing it by 1 stop and then pushed it 1 stop in the developer. I’m amazed I got anything usable from the roll and it’s a credit to the latitude of film.
[Tech info:] Mamiya Universal, 100/2.8, Fuji Neopan 400 (expired), rated at ISO 200 and pushed 1 stop in Xtol 1+1 for 13 mins.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7547/15586750854_6408ba8c45_o.jpg)
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Posted in Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: 6x7, black&white, film, mamiya universal, natural history museum, oxford, xtol
Sunday, January 4th, 2015
A couple of weeks before Christmas I went into town on a sunny Saturday morning to photograph the Christmas market that had been set up on Broad Street and just generally see if there was much going on. I also wanted to test out some Kodak Gold film which I haven’t used in decades and after seeing lots of fantastic results online from other photographers I felt that a sunny winter morning would be good conditions for testing. As it turned out I found it difficult to do much photography because of the volume of shoppers around but I did manage to do some photography and here’s a selection.
[Tech info:] Konica Hexar AF, Kodak Gold 400 (expired), processed in a Rollei Digibase C41 kit. Pakon scans.
![](https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8573/16010676328_a833e77314_o.jpg)
Posted in Oxford, People | No Responses »
Tags: film, gold, hexar, kodak, konica, oxford, pakon, people
Saturday, January 3rd, 2015
Happy New Year! Despite my best efforts I’m sorry to say I didn’t manage to post very much last month (December 2014) and although I’m not into new year resolutions I do plan to try to post more this year if only to share some of the mountain of images I made in 2014. It’s not going to be easy because I haven’t slowed down in making new images and don’t plan to any time soon so let’s see what this new year brings…
During a recent end of year tidy up I came across a box of Fomapan 100 5×4 sheets that I had forgotten I had. I thought it would be wise to test some of them before using them on any important shots so I decided to do some still life photography of one of my wife’s orchids which I’ve been meaning to photograph for a while. The light was very flat and less than ideal but I went ahead because Fomapan can tend to be on the contrasty side and you can’t get much contrasty than white petals on a black background. The film seems to be okay and for my next shots I’ll try to do some with a wider contrast range.
[Tech info:] Wista field 5×4, Schneider 150mm and 180mm lenses. Fomapan 100 processed in Xtol 1+1 for 8 mins.
![orchids](http://www.simplyoxford.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/orchids_web.jpg)
Posted in film, Oxford, Still life | No Responses »
Tags: 5x4, black&white, film, fomapan, orchids, oxford, wista, xtol
Sunday, December 7th, 2014
Kodak 500T film is designed to be used in tungsten light but as I do most of my photography during my lunch break I wanted to test how it looked when used in daylight with an 85B colour correction filter. These shots were all made on the same day during my lunch break (apart from the last shot which was made without a filter after work).
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5, Kodak 500T film, processed with a Rollei Digibase C41 kit, Pakon scan.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7503/15969768815_23f72c6404_o.jpg)
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Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 500t, film, leica, m2, nokton, oxford, pakon, voigtlander
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
It’s been a long time since the last time I can remember pushing Kodak Tri-X film to ISO 1600 and processing it in Rodinal developer so that’s what I decided to do a few weeks ago. There are a mix of images on this roll ranging from some night portraits that I made during a photography class I was teaching to Ruskin art students on the High Street during their drawing sale to raise funds for their end of year degree show. I’d like to do some more work with Art students but they seem to be an illusive bunch so it’s currently a work in progress.
[Tech info:] Nikon FM2, Zeiss 50/1.4 lens, Kodak Tri-X 400 (expired), rated at ISO 1600, processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 18 mins.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7502/15747740417_28143660e5_o.jpg)
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7519/15932842302_71200859be_o.jpg)
Posted in Art, film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, film, fm2, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, students, Tri-X
Saturday, November 29th, 2014
These are the first shots from my Voigtlander Nokton 50/1.5 lens which I tested during my lunch break yesterday. Technically this is the second roll of shots with this lens – the first roll was unusable because I forgot to close the back door of my M2 properly so the film wasn’t flat and the whole roll was out of focus. That’s what can happen when you’re excited to use a lens you’ve been looking forward to for quite a while. Lesson learnt. The weather was heavily overcast sky with a really gloomy feel everywhere. It’s the kind of light I would never usually waste a roll of film with but I really wanted to see how this lens performed so I decided to go out regardless and I must admit I do like the results, especially the bokeh, this lens is definitely a keeper. My thanks go to Jason Howe for all of his help and advice about this lens which I prefer for b&w over my Summicron 50/2. I’ll be keeping the Summicron because I shot some slide film with it and the results look fantastic so I can see it being useful for colour (as suggested by my friend Anthony).
[Tech info:] Leica M2, Voitlander Nokton 50/1.5, Ilford Delta 400 (expired), processed in Kodak D76 1:1 for 14 mins.
![](https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7483/15906260281_55a3be9e5b_o.jpg)
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Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, d76, delta 400, film, leica, m2, oxford, pakon, people, portraits