bjhurley wrote:
I could have very easily gotten this image with a roll of heavily expired film from the 1950s but no, I had to work for it. This is Washi Y, a panchromatic film emulsion coated onto washi paper by a one-man operation in western France. It can be shot at ISO 100, which I did, in my Diana camera.
I developed it in an old Kodacraft tank (Rodinal 1:25 for 9 minutes). My previous roll of washi film got incredibly twisted and wrinkled as it dried, making it almost impossible to scan, so for this roll I decided to cut the negatives while wet and dry them in an improvised herbarium press. Big mistake (which I could have foreseen): the film got stuck to the blotting paper as it dried. I was able to peel it off but a lot of paper was stuck to the film. So I resoaked the film in water, long enough to loosen the stuck paper so I could scrape it off with my fingernail. Then I hung the negatives to dry just enough so they were still damp and not wrinkled, then taped them by the edges to an acrylic board to dry.
All that work for this result, which I do kind of like although it was the only usable image from the roll of 16 shots. I think instead of Washi Y I will call this film Washi, Why?
Thank you for the write up. I just recently picked up two rolls of Washi Y ... after being on the "in stock" notification list for I don't know how many months.
madNbad wrote:
I used it up by trying different tools to remove the end cap. The church key works the best but only if it’s an older, heavy duty one.
Mine I got at a gas station in the mid 1970s - in a bowl near the cash register - it's an old one. I bet good will or salvation army have a bunch of thick metal vintage ones.
theHUN wrote:
Thank you for the write up. I just recently picked up two rolls of Washi Y ... after being on the "in stock" notification list for I don't know how many months.
Cool! It tends to be pretty low-contrast (unlike Washi W, which is orthochromatic and very contrasty) so it would probably benefit from a contrasty lens or at least high-contrast scenes. Drying the film is the only challenging part; as I mentioned it becomes wrinkled and very twisted as it dries, and putting it under a stack of books helps flatten out the twisting but not so much the wrinkling.
It has to be developed in trays unless you have an old-fashioned Kodacraft developing tank with the "lasagne noodle" aprons, which is what I used. The film is too thin and delicate to be loaded onto a regular reel, although the Film Washi website has instructions on making a leader that you can attach to the film and load it into a standard reel. Since I have a Kodacraft tank that I bought for this purpose I use that and it works well, just needs to be agitated more frequently than a Paterson tank as you can't invert it and there's no twizzle stick.
I researched traditional Japanese techniques for drying washi paper, and it seems they get the paper thoroughly wet, using a brush to remove any air bubbles, and then tape down the edges to an impervious surface. I used the removable masking tape used for house painting, and that worked well. The only trouble I had was cutting the wet film, it's not easy with scissors but I managed.
Bruce Marriner wrote:
Okay, as promised here's a few photos from my first set of developed film. Though, these are not my first film photos because the first 3 rolls got dropped off at place that said it'd take 2 weeks, the 4th roll dropped off somewhere that said 1.5 weeks, and finally, my most recent 2 rolls went to another lab and they had them done in 3 hours. (Trying all my local labs).
These are all with a Nikon F3, Nikon 105f2.5, Fujicolor 200. "Basic" scan at the lab.
Great photos - so cool that she shares your hobby with you!
lifeandmylens wrote:
Great photos - so cool that she shares your hobby with you!
Thank you I'm so thrilled too that I got one of my kids interested. It's a bit selfish I guess but I have a lot of fun sharing photography with her. I hope she doesn't lose interest as she gets older, kids change so much.
I'm actually slowly getting a bit of a photo hook into my 10yo son too because he's taken an interest in stop motion videos. So we've been working together to do little videos of his legos. I hope that develops further into more interest!
I'm so thrilled too that I got one of my kids interested. It's a bit selfish I guess but I have a lot of fun sharing photography with her. I hope she doesn't lose interest as she gets older, kids change so much.