Slide film, regular film

[venchka]

Originally Posted by Big Dog

Welcome to the dark (room) side.

... My suggestion (strictly my opinion, understand) is to start with something like Tri-X and D-76 and then move on from there when you feel comfortable.

Sound advice for sure. You may never need anything else. I ran across the last 3 rolls of film I developed a few weeks ago. Tri-X, 1:1, 6x7, Rapid-Omega and 90mm lens (Konica again). The 8x10 prints are grainless. A very nice, very predictable combination.

[venchka]

Originally Posted by corazondedios

WOW.

dayumn!

I just joined apug.org

that is one helluva site!

i'll definitely have all my analogue questions thoroughly dealt with there!

Caution: Never ever say the "D" word over there.

I'm kidding, almost. Some of those folks take their film serious.

[corazondedios]

yeah they seem like a real serious group of film lovers for sure. I saw one picture that was well composed, but when I enlarged it, it was horribly grainy. Yet everyone was raving over it, so I knew I did not know enough to know what was up with that. Maybe it was a very old style camera he was using, or maybe it was the developing process -- at any rate, I'm going to read and learn quite a bit before saying much there. It's been a looooooong time since I've used film, and I never developed it myself. I have a LOT to learn in the arena of film development.

[Big Dog]

Originally Posted by corazondedios

I saw one picture that was well composed, but when I enlarged it, it was horribly grainy. Yet everyone was raving over it, so I knew I did not know enough to know what was up with that. Maybe it was a very old style camera he was using, or maybe it was the developing process

Or, it could have been that it was a relatively low res scan for the internet. The images on apug can't be too big in order to save bandwidth and storage space. It's one of the ironies of the site that all the work is film and chemical prints, but the gallery is low res digital scans. They aren't a very good representation of the quality of some of the images. If you "enlarged" it, it probably did look horrible, but that is not a fair test.

And grain does not come from an "old style" camera. Maybe from an "old-style" film.

And, a lot of the members are very um, computer challenged, so they couldn't make a good scan if they tried.

[corazondedios]

No, it was not a low res scan. I'm familiar with what that does to photographs. This thing was noisy as hell.

Here is what the person posted:
Equipment Used: Holga
Film & Developer: TriX400 rodinal
Paper & Developer: Varycon in Fotospeed lith

Here is the link, but I think you can only see it if you are a member of APUG -- it's $24 a year
http://www.apug.org/gallery/showphot...=26465&cat=501

ooooooooooooooooh. ok.........
it's a toy camera!

I just looked it up on Wikipedia -- the crappy photographic quality is part of it's aesthetic
"charm" -- to aficionados.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holga

sorry for the false alarm, folks....

I'll google before I comment -- here or there...

[Big Dog]

Originally Posted by corazondedios

Equipment Used: Holga
Film & Developer: TriX400 rodinal
Paper & Developer: Varycon in Fotospeed lith

ooooooooooooooooh. ok.........
it's a toy camera!

The Holga won't make it "noisy" - which is grain. (The Holga will be soft, and uneven, and god knows what, but ...)

However, Tri-x in Rodinal will be grainy and any print made with a lith developer will look grainy.

My apologies - you were right! FWIW - I don't get it either!

[corazondedios]

o well.

chaque a son gout!

anyway, it was definitely a good composition. I would have preferred the crystal clarity that some cameras and methods of print offer, but that's obviously not what he was going for.

It's not that I don't like rustic, or noise, or blurs, or whatever -- but in a shot like that with so many broken pier piling protruding from water -- it's already competing for the eye's attention. Adding excess noise to the mix does not enhance its aesthetics, in my opinion.

[venchka]

It's grain! In the right photo it's wonderful. For color, today's 400 speed films rival the 100-160 emulsions for lack of grain. Kodak's BW400CN overexposed slightly (ASA 250-320) is virtually grainless.

I don't get Holga & I never will. On the other hand, here is a pleasant surprise from a few weeks ago. Probably the most abstract photo I have ever made. This may not be everyone's idea of a good photograph. I like it. That matters most to me.

M5 | Konica 35mm/2.0 UC-Hexanon | Agfa 400

[corazondedios]

Wow! How did you do it? Is it one shot with reflection, or a double exposure? It's Texas rainyfied

[kenmyers70]

Was this taken from inside a Starbucks? I think I recognize the reflection of lights and shelving. I like the way this shot captures the rainy day mood.

[venchka]

Originally Posted by kenmyers70

Was this taken from inside a Starbucks? I think I recognize the reflection of lights and shelving. I like the way this shot captures the rainy day mood.

Exactly. Starbuck's at 1960 & 249, next to Texas Land & Cattle, during my first ever NW Houston TPF get together. Camera on a table at arm's length. No eye to the viewfinder. Single exposure. A total surprise.

[corazondedios]

amazing!

no wonder I love Starbucks so much!

[amadjuster]

Film is still the best medium for legal matters. I have found that using slide film will have no problems in court. If the attorney challenges it, I whip out the positive and say, here is the original. Also, juries just love it when the old slide projector is pulled out and the pictures are projected onto a screen that has to be set up. The pictures are usually sharp and clear, and look better than digitals through a digital projector. I find myself using 100 to 200 ASA (I'm old) slide film, either Kodak or Fuji and I find 400 film not as good in dark rooms after a fire. 100 with flash works best there. In high contrast situations say at an accident scene at high Noon, fill flash is usually needed because slide film, in my experience, has a lot less latitude in bright light for the shadows. Shadows will be a beautiful black. Slides also make you a better photographer since everything needs to be just about perfect. Unlike RAW, you can't change them.

[keensb]

for slide i shoot provia and velvia

for c-41 i like the kodak portra, both nc, and vc

b+w: tri-x and hp5

just wish it was more convenient to process...