rodinal
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2015
St Giles’ Fair rolled into town last week and this is the first of what will probably be quite a few blog posts of pictures shot over the three days (including setting up). This year I only used black & white film for a change. It was nice to see some familiar faces again and as usual there was lots going on and plenty to photograph. I missed the fair last year so I was crossing my fingers for nice weather this time which we were fortunate to have. In the second shot down you can see Tommy Noyce who has been visiting St Giles’ Fair since he was 6 years old. He is now 73. The well known galloping horses carousel has been in his family for three generations and takes five trucks to transport. Sadly it no longer comes to St Giles’ Fair. The last frame below was made on the way back to my office during my lunch time visit to the fair – two of the tailors from Clements & Church on Little Clarendon Street.
[Tech info:] Fuji 6×9, Neopan Acros 100 developed in Rodinal 1+50 for 14 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 6x9, acros, black&white, fair, film, fuji, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, st giles
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.
Posted in Art, film, Oxford, People, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, film, fm2, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, students, Tri-X
Tuesday, November 25th, 2014
Recently I managed to pick up a roll of quite unique film and these are some of my first test shots with it. The roll is 350ft long and 5 inches wide so it’s perfect for being cut down to 5×4 inch sheets to use for large format photography. The film is Kodak Plus-X Aero film that was developed for aerial photography – this is stock used by the M.O.D. and expired in 2000. During my lunch break yesterday I went into town hoping to make some test portraits because the tonal range in this film is more like what you find in wet plate photography and I wanted to know if it was going to be usable for portraits. I’m very happy with the results which look very smooth tonally and the grain is almost non existent.
[Tech info:] Polaroid 110B (modified for 5×4), Kodak Plus-X 2402 Aero film, ISO 100, processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 14 mins.
Here’s the camera I used (shown below with a roll film back). Modified by Randy at HolgaMods.com
Posted in Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits, students | No Responses »
Tags: 110B, 5x4, aero, black&white, film, oxford, people, plus-x, polaroid, portraits, rodinal
Monday, September 1st, 2014
A large format portrait made on 10×8 inch xray film. The making of pic below was made by Amanda from her viewpoint but you don’t get a sense of how large this camera is. I really enjoy making simple honest portraits like this with nothing fancy in terms of styling, lighting or location – just one light, subject and camera.
[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, Sinaron 300mm lens, green sensitive xray film, processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 6 mins.
Wista pic by Amanda | Xray film hanging up to dry
Posted in Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait | No Responses »
Tags: 10x8, amanda, black&white, film, oxford, portraits, rodinal, wista
Sunday, August 10th, 2014
Here are some shots from back in March that I made with my Zenit Russian tank of a camera. It gives random light leaks which I’ve come to quite like. This film is Kodak Double X motion picture film as used by some Hollywood movie studios.
[Technical info:] Zenit 35mm, 50/2 Helios lens, loaded with Eastman Kodak Double X film, processed in Rodinal 1+25.
Posted in Oxford, People, Street portraits | No Responses »
Tags: 35mm, black&white, double x, film, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, zenit
Thursday, May 8th, 2014
Here are some shots from a rehearsal for The Mikado that I attended a few months ago at New College thanks to the show’s director, Tim Coleman. I had hoped to photograph at the dress rehearsal as well but unfortunately the timings didn’t quite work out. I used this occasion to test out some film that I’ve been struggling with to find a look that I like. The film is Ilford Delta 3200 which is designed for low light photography but finding a developer that produces results that I am very happy with has proven tricky (not least because the film expired 7 years ago and has lost some of its sensitivity) but I think I’ve finally cracked it with a developer named Rodinal. Ironically Rodinal is renowned for increasing grain which is usually the last thing you want with fast film but I like these results and will continue to test with this combination.
[Tech info:] Bronica ETRSi, 75/2.8, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 rated at ISO 800, processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 7 mins.
Posted in Behind the scenes, film, Oxford, students | No Responses »
Tags: backstage, black&white, bronica, drama, film, oxford, people, rehearsal, rodinal
Saturday, March 29th, 2014
This was a great night at a packed Oxford Town Hall. I struggled with the lack of space back stage to make many pictures, instead I wanted to record the ambience of the venue. In the end Oxford won which was a fantastic end to the night. I have some other shots on a roll in a different camera that I haven’t finished yet but I’ll post those when I have them.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8f, 80/2.8 Zeiss Planar, loaded with expired Ilford Delta 3200, processed in Rodinal 1+25.
Posted in film, Oxford, Sport, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, backstage, black&white, boxing, film, oxford, portraits, rodinal, rolleiflex, sport, students, varsity
Sunday, November 17th, 2013
Here are some medium format film shots that I made last weekend during one of the rehearsal’s for Chicago that is on in a few days at the Keble O’Reilly theatre. This film expired in 2007 and generally high-speed film doesn’t age well so I’m very pleased with how these turned out considering the light level was incredibly low and not very contrasty. I was partly using this occasion as a test for a bright (Beattie) viewing screen that I recently installed into my Mamiya C330f camera and I’m happy to report that it’s a lot brighter and easier to focus with than the stock screen.
[Tech info:] Mamiya C330f, 80/2.8 lens loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 (expired 2007), rated at ISO 1250, processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 10mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, students | No Responses »
Tags: 6x6, black&white, c330, drama, film, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, students
Thursday, November 14th, 2013
Some shots from a rehearsal for Chicago which is on next week at the Keble O’Reilly theatre from 20th – 23rd November. From what I saw I can tell you that it’s going to be excellent. I almost titled this post ‘adventures in grain’ because that’s something I was testing when I chose to use some Ilford Delta 3200 that expired in 2006 for this shoot and then developed it in developer that is renowned for its ability to increase film grain. I think the film coped very well considering the room where the rehearsal took place had sunlight pouring in at one end while the other end was only lit by the energy saving light bulbs hanging from the high ceiling which was quite a punishment test for this film. My thanks go to Jack Sain, the director, for allowing me to photograph during the rehearsal and I hope to do some more photography during the dress rehearsal next week.
[Tech info:] Nikon F100, 50/1.4D and 70-200/2.8 lenses, loaded with Ilford Delta 3200 rated at ISO 1250 (expired), processed in Rodinal 1+25 for 10mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, students | No Responses »
Tags: black&white, drama, f100, film, oxford, rodinal, students
Monday, September 9th, 2013
The fair has just rolled into town along St Giles so I went along there yesterday to see some of the rides and stalls being set up. I can remember the images I made there last year, one of which was a man on a coconut shy stall who is back here again this year. When I saw him setting up yesterday I stopped to say hello and he remembered that I had photographed him last year. After looking back at my previous posts I notice that this shot of that man didn’t get posted for some reason so I’m posting it here so that he can see it. I’m hoping the weather will stay dry long enough for me to do some more photography at St Giles’ fair over the next couple of days.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, 80/f2.8 lens, Fuji Acros 100 processed in Rodinal 1:50 for 10 mins.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Portrait, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: 6x6, acros, black&white, fair, film, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, SL66, st giles
Tuesday, August 20th, 2013
Here is a set of large format images that I made on 10×8 (green) x-ray film a couple of weeks ago on a stroll into town. I was glad to see the workmen on the steps of the Clarendon Building because I often see them there on my lunch photo walk and think to myself how nice it would be to make a group shot of them on 10×8 film. I took 8 sheets of film with me but only used 7.
[Tech info:] 10×8 Wista Field, 300mm Sinaron lens, CXS green latitude x-ray film (ISO50), processed in Rodinal 1+50 for 6mins.
Setting up (photo by Clive Jones)
Posted in film, Oxford, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: 10x8, black&white, film, oxford, people, portraits, rodinal, summer, wista, workmen, x-ray film
Saturday, August 10th, 2013
So far all of the x-ray film that I have been using has been of the green variety which I think means it’s sensitive to a certain colour of light when used for medical x-rays. Recently I acquired some blue x-ray film from the FPP online store and here are some of my first test shots with it. These shots were all rated at ISO25 and I experimented with two different developers, Kodak HC110 and Rodinal. This film seems very sensitive to over agitation and I think the Rodinal seems to be better because of the higher dilution of 1+100 and longer development time of 10mins.
[Tech info:] Wista 10×8, 300mm Sinaron lens, Fuji Blue x-ray film, ISO25.
The view on the ground glass screen of the Wista. It’s upside down on the camera when I’m using it.
Posted in film, Oxford, People, Photo shoot, Portrait, Street portraits | 2 Responses »
Tags: 10x8, black&white, film, hc110, oxford, rodinal, summer, tamsin
