First MF photos.

[Blooze]

I finally got all my developing stuff in and tried my hand at a roll of Acros in my as of yet untested Yashica Mat. Photos are terrible, due to many factors, but hey, gotta start somewhere. I've only scanned a few. Most of the other ones I haven't scanned are just different settings for the same shot or out of focus.

Here's a link to a few more with info if you want: http://rollinghillsimagery.tumblr.com/

 

[lister]

Hi Blooze, not sure what you see as the problem with the shot; they look pretty darned good to me

 

[Uncle Brian]

I just saw the same post on RFF !

Photos aren't that bad maybe with a little cropping and straightening and they would be very good.

 

[Blooze]

I just saw the same post on RFF !

Photos aren't that bad maybe with a little cropping and straightening and they would be very good.

I haven't really messed with cropping or straightening yet. Here's the warehouse straightened (across the top windows) and cropped a bit. I hate cropping because I'm always fidgeting about how much and where. Kept the square format on this one though.

 

[Edcculus]

Not too shabby at all!

All in all, I find loading 120 onto a reel much easier than 135. Heres how I do it. In the dark, start separating the backing paper from the film. The film will roll itself back up. At the end you will get to where the paper is taped to the film. Carefully peel the paper and tape away from the film. I'm right handed, so reverse this next part if you are a lefty. I also use a plastic reel, so that plays a part too. Hold the reel in your Left hand, film in the right. Grab the film with your right forefinger and thumb and kind of "pull" it onto the reel evenly until the first part is past the bearings. It may take a few minutes to get the film edge lined up straight etc. Once its on past the bearings, you can just ratchet it on. I also like to use my pinky on my right hand to hold the rolled up film kind of out in front of the reel so the film path is straight going into the reel.

As for exposure, its possible the meter in that camera is not quite up to snuff. Do you know if its a selenium cell, or does it take a battery? Id be willing to bet that meter is center weighted average too, so the bright sky in some of the shots will throw off the exposure. Could also be that you need a little more exposure compensation for the filter. One good thing though is that with that filter on you didnt blow out the skys, a problem I have a lot. I really want to try out a deep red filter on some landscape shots!

If you doubt the meter in the camera there are a few options. I've been using the light meter app on my iPhone. From what I can tell, it works pretty darn well. It basically works as a spot meter since you can tap around the screen to choose where to meter. You could also take along a DLSR set to spot mode.

Keep shooting!

 

[Blooze]

I'm thinking I may get a couple of Paterson reels for doing 120. I was using a Kindermann steel reel and it was a PITA. They're not bad with the 35mm. My main problem was getting the film started on that reel.

The camera doesn't have a meter. I was using a Gossen Luna Pro SBC that may or may not be off. It actually matches the matrix metering on my Nikon DSLR's when I use it as a reflectance meter. Most of these were me trying to use the Gossen as an incident meter. For now it's what I have. I don't have an iPhone, but I've tried the Android ones and they don't work worth a flip on my Galaxy Nexus.

I was opening up the aperture two stops or adjusting the shutter speed to compensate for two stops worth when I had the filter on. A couple of shots I also read through the filter with the Luna Pro. If I used the Luna in reflective mode it would read about 1 1/3 stops under metering through the filter. No guarantee that the camera shutter speeds are accurate though. I've got a roll of 35mm out of my Retina that's flattening under some books that might tell me a little more about the Luna Pro as well.
I actually have a roll of color film out for developing out of my ME Super where I used the camera meter, a selenium meter, the Gossen, and a center weighted meter off my DSLR (to try and match the Pentax metering). Hopefully that will give me a little idea of where the Gossen is at.

 

[djh]

You are off to a good start! Once you get the meter nailed down, things become much more enjoyable.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[celestino]

The pics look fine to me. Good luck with the process and thanks for sharing.

 

[Blooze]

Picked up some used Paterson reels and tanks off Apug today. I'll see if I like them better than the steel spirals.

Obviously with this hybrid workflow I can really manipulate and tweak the curves on the scans to get something decent out of most negatives if I need to.
If I was to start wet printing what would I be looking for in a b&w negative? Is this something that can only be learned by experience? I figure a lot of it is by experience and knowing what a good negative looks like, but where does a newbie start to learn what to look for without making contact prints? I can see scanning to put some photos on the web, and maybe the occasional inkjet print for a really good scan, but something in the back of my head is telling me wet printing would be the lway to go in the future, even if the darkroom can be a cruel mistress

 

[Edcculus]

I'm by no means an expert. What I've found so far is a negative that is easy or hard to scan may not be the same to print. I normally do contact sheets to proof my negatives instead of scanning now. With enough time and patience, you can probably print just about any negative unless the whole thing is way over or under exposed. MF negatives are much easier to look at, but I'm really not extremely great at looking at one and telling how easy or hard it will be to print. I normally use a loupe on the contact sheet to look for focus, composition etc. If I find a negative I want to print, I'll do a test strip at Grade 2 and adjust the time/fstop to get a general exposure of around 20-30 seconds. Then I'll make a full exposure and see how I need to adjust. Do I want a harder grade (I use multigrade paper and can adjust with the built in Ilford MG filters in my enlarger). Does it need more time overall? After that I start looking at dodging and burning. I found this post (translated from a Turkish photographers blog) very enlightening on how he approaches dodging and burning. http://www.theonlinedarkroom.com/2013/04/raki-fish-and-kemenche.html

 

[GregS]

Not too shabby at all!

All in all, I find loading 120 onto a reel much easier than 135. Heres how I do it. In the dark, start separating the backing paper from the film. The film will roll itself back up. At the end you will get to where the paper is taped to the film. Carefully peel the paper and tape away from the film. I'm right handed, so reverse this next part if you are a lefty. I also use a plastic reel, so that plays a part too. Hold the reel in your Left hand, film in the right. Grab the film with your right forefinger and thumb and kind of "pull" it onto the reel evenly until the first part is past the bearings. It may take a few minutes to get the film edge lined up straight etc. Once its on past the bearings, you can just ratchet it on. I also like to use my pinky on my right hand to hold the rolled up film kind of out in front of the reel so the film path is straight going into the reel.

As for exposure, its possible the meter in that camera is not quite up to snuff. Do you know if its a selenium cell, or does it take a battery? Id be willing to bet that meter is center weighted average too, so the bright sky in some of the shots will throw off the exposure. Could also be that you need a little more exposure compensation for the filter. One good thing though is that with that filter on you didnt blow out the skys, a problem I have a lot. I really want to try out a deep red filter on some landscape shots!

If you doubt the meter in the camera there are a few options. I've been using the light meter app on my iPhone. From what I can tell, it works pretty darn well. It basically works as a spot meter since you can tap around the screen to choose where to meter. You could also take along a DLSR set to spot mode.

Keep shooting!

I never used 120 film. I had a Yashica 44 (because I ciuldn't afford a Rollei 44), and used 127 film. When I started my darkroom work, you could still use a red safelight when loading the tank. This made it a lot easier since I could see what I was doing. Two things my uncle told me about loading roll film: Peel the tape off SLOWLY so as not to cause a spark that might fog the film, and cut the corners on the lead edge of the roll to make it easier to get started on the reel. I had a plastic Ansco tank and reel, and it worked.

 

[Edcculus]

I'm not sure what film you were using, but if you are using any modern B&W panchromatic film ( or color film) you have to load in complete darkness or you will fog the film. Panchromatic films are sensitive to all wavelengths of light. Only Lith and xray films (ortho chromatic) can be handled under a red safelight because they are sensitive to mostly blue and green light. You CAN handle some films under a very dark green safe light, but thats mainly for people doing tray development of sheet film to quickly check development.

As far as the tape goes, I don't think you have any chance of fogging the film. Peeling the tape absolutely does emit light. Its not sparks however. The effect is called Triboluminescence. Its the same phenomenon you learned about in science class when you went into a dark room and crushed wintergreen candies in your mouth. The light will fog the portion directly under the tape, but there is generally a good 2 inches of leader before any actual frames start.