redisburning wrote:
you give me far too much credit. it would be an overstatement to say that I know what I am doing.
however, if you like what I do and wish to emulate it, that I can help you with.
I shoot Acros at 100. Development is 13 minutes in Rodinal 1:50 at 68F, invert continuously for 30 seconds then do 5 seconds of "wine swishing" every minute (second at 1:30, last at 12:30). water stop, fix then wash.
most of what you see in my images is aggressive post processing. I used to just do levels to set a white and black point and while I perceived that as being "nice" it did not look to me much like a print, of which I have made a few. so what I did was take a bunch of photos by my personal favorite Jean-Loup Sieff and spend time analyzing their histograms and saw that they were either flat or looked like the bottom of a flat bowl, and mine looked like a little hill. what you see now is aggressive curves -> levels to push the histogram into that shape and then set the white and black points.
fwiw the following images are all acros in rodinal 1:50, with the same process, but you can see how different they look:
b&w processing is a long journey; just as long as learning composition. I must admit I do chuckle a bit at things like that nik conversion software....Show more →
Thanks for the tips. Sounds like some Rodinal is in my future as I have also thought of trying it on stand developing too. For scans, I usually set black/white points and then fiddle with the curves and levels for HP5+ and Tri-X scans and I have been pretty pleased with the results, but figured it would be worth asking someone who had some experience with Acros as I don't want to futz around completely blind in my exposure/development regime on any rolls. I'd love to have darkroom access in order to compare scans to some real prints, but that won't be a reality until I move to a new house or larger population center in the state.
KatieInTexas wrote:
I like the color shot. It's subtle enough that it almost seems B&W, but with coolness on rocks and warmth in sky, it makes it for me!
....
Here are some shots I took last weekend at Willow Springs Raceway, Ca. Camera was Nikon F5 and 70-200mm f/2.8 VR I. Color was Fuji Velvia 50. B&W was Kodak Plus-X 125.
Used my Kodak Hawkeye 620/120 film camera for these two. Had Fuji Reala 100 film in there intending to use it outdoors, but after plans fell through I ended up putting a portrait lens on the camera and shooting indoors using light from the window. I liked how these two photos came out.
Scanned with an Epson V500 scanner and Vuescan software using the Fuji Reala 100 (JAPAN) film profile for a flat output. Rest of the processing, mainly for levels, done in Lightroom.
These are really, really nice. Good job with the lighting!!
Adam Bavier wrote:
Used my Kodak Hawkeye 620/120 film camera for these two. Had Fuji Reala 100 film in there intending to use it outdoors, but after plans fell through I ended up putting a portrait lens on the camera and shooting indoors using light from the window. I liked how these two photos came out.
Scanned with an Epson V500 scanner and Vuescan software using the Fuji Reala 100 (JAPAN) film profile for a flat output. Rest of the processing, mainly for levels, done in Lightroom.
Haven't posted anything in quite some time. Been shooting a lot of digital and processing a backlog of old images. Hope to be posting a good bit of film in the near future and shooting more film. I picked up an old Nikon L35 AF from the thrift store. It was an impulse purchase but has a supposedly nice 35mm f2.8 lens. Here are some from the first roll I put through to test lens, autofocus and metering. I am pleasantly surprised. Meters accurately, little to no visible lens flare, autofocus is fine (albeit antiquated), lens seems to perform well and a joy to shoot. These were shot around town on fuji200.
rattymouse, your last 2 posted images have outstanding detail. By the apparent 3:2 format ratio I take it your shooting 35mm film (or at least on the last 2 posts). Are you scanning yourself or are you outsourcing to photo store (like ncps) to do it?
Jon Buffington wrote:
rattymouse, your last 2 posted images have outstanding detail. By the apparent 3:2 format ratio I take it your shooting 35mm film (or at least on the last 2 posts). Are you scanning yourself or are you outsourcing to photo store (like ncps) to do it?
Thank you very much. No, I am not shooting 35mm. I am using a Fuji GA645, which is from the name, a 6 x 4.5cm film camera.
I do not do the scanning. The photo service that develops my images does that.
. I couldn't quite get the color the way I wanted it, though it's entirely possible that it is my scanner.
