The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

More and more film fun with something other than a Leica M

Stuart Richardson

Active member
Those are amazing. I should be there. I really don't know why I am not! (other than work....) It's really funny, because life just goes on here in the capital. There is no outward sign of the eruption at all, and if you are not watching the evening news or reading the paper, you would have no idea that anything unusual was happening.

By the way, lovely photos with the Tri-x and blad. It really does have wonderful tonality.
 

photoSmart42

New member
Finally got my photos from the Tahoe trip. I did indeed have some metering issues, so I'll have to consider getting a new battery. I also see some potential light leaks, so might be time for some CLA. In any event, here's some photos.

Canon FTb(n); Tamron SP 24-48mm (most taken at 24mm); Velvia 50




This one was severely overexposed, but I made an attempt to salvage it through some PP:
 

Cindy Flood

Super Moderator
sizifo, The tones from the blad are really wonderful. I love landscape in black and white.

Dragos, Lake Tahoe looks beautiful with the snow. The first one is my favorite.
Sometimes you can save a shot that is slightly overexposed by copying the layer and setting the blend mode to multiply (in Photoshop). Also, I always carry a little hand-held meter with me when I'm using my vintage cameras for exactly the reasons that Stuart mentioned in post #1032 above. I have a little Gossen digiflash that fits in my pocket.
 

sizifo

New member
Thanks for the comments. Just redid the sharpening because I thought it looked wrong in the browser. Apologies for reposting. It's difficult to get this right.







Regarding the lightmeter, I used the GRDII for the more difficult exposures (and messed up some exposures anyway). It seems to me that reflective metering is a lot more useful for landscape stuff than incident. Incidentally..., the GRDII is perfectly accurate compared to my sekonic.
 

photoSmart42

New member
Cindy - thank you for the feedback. I'm trying really hard to not have to buy another expensive piece of gear, so for the moment I'll try to figure out the 'character' my light meter exhibits and work around it. I only had metering issues on a small percentage of shots, so I can live with that even though I spent a fair amount of time composing all my shots.

Here's a few more:




 

Maggie O

Active member
Speaking of light meters, I have a Lunasix that I use when I really want to go old school, but most of the time, if I need a meter, I use the Light Meter app on my iPhone! It's quite good, too!

Dragos and sizifo, those are some stunning sets of photos! I love the colors in Dragos' and the tones in sizifo's are to die for! Well done and thanks for posting them!
 

photoSmart42

New member
Speaking of light meters, I have a Lunasix that I use when I really want to go old school, but most of the time, if I need a meter, I use the Light Meter app on my iPhone! It's quite good, too!

Dragos and sizifo, those are some stunning sets of photos! I love the colors in Dragos' and the tones in sizifo's are to die for! Well done and thanks for posting them!
Thank you, Maggie! Is this the Light Meter app you use on your iPhone, or something else?: http://itunes.apple.com/app/lightmeter/id320768222?mt=8. I've been getting a bunch of free apps so far for my 3GS, but I might actually pay for a light meter app that works well.
 

sizifo

New member
Thanks for the comment Maggie. Very nice photos from Tahoe. Love how the last one, with completely blown highlights, still works.

BTW, can anybody recommend a developer for Tri-X? I used DD-X for the above, which was just a random choice, but have run out now and would like to try something more interesting.
 

Maggie O

Active member
BTW, can anybody recommend a developer for Tri-X? I used DD-X for the above, which was just a random choice, but have run out now and would like to try something more interesting.
Helen and Eric are getting gorgeous results with Rodinal, so much so, I'm going to be giving it a go myself, any day now.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
Sizifo -- Tri-X works well in just about anything. It really depends on the look you are going for.
Xtol is a fantastic standard developer -- it is very sharp, fine grained, maintains true film speed, and has nice tonality. It is also good for pushing. It is Kodak's most advanced developer, and their best from a technical standpoint. DD-X is somewhat similar, but uses a more standard developing agent (it is a hydroquinone developer, while Xtol is sodium ascorbate).
If you are looking for the old standard, try it in D-76 1+1 (or ID11 1+1). That is the classic photojournalist formulation, and it is one of the most commonly used film/developer combos. It is a great general combo -- good sharpness and tonality.

On the other end of the spectrum, Rodinal is another special case. Rodinal is very sharp, gives a strong salt and pepper grain, and wonderful, irreproducible tonality. Rodinal just has a look -- sharp, textured and great tones.

If you want to keep the grain down, you can try Perceptol, for which you will have to sacrifice some film speed and sharpness, but you will be rewarded with very fine grain.

One final more specialty option would be Diafine. Diafine is a two bath developer that gives fantastic speed (Tri-x is native at 1250 in it), good grain, and a compensating effect (it compresses the highlights and shadows so it is good for contrasty light).
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
Let me see if I can find some samples:
This is Tri-x in Rodinal 1+50 or 1+100...semi-stand I think.


This is in Xtol I think...


I think this is also Xtol...


Not a great photo, but I remember that this is diafine...
 

sizifo

New member
Wow. Thanks for the extensive answers. These will get printed for future answers. I'm looking forward to experimenting.

Presumably that last one is not Tri-X but some lower speed film? Otherwise it looks really clean for iso1250. Or did you "pull" process (hopefully that's the right term).

Cheers,

Vid
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
No, it is Tri-x at 1250 -- diafine has very low grain for the speed. The only issue is that it locks in the speed at 1250 -- you cannot push or pull. The process runs to completion. It also does not give the same nice tonality that you can get from normal developers...the results tend to be pretty gray.
 

Stuart Richardson

Active member
Very nice Dragos! I like the Flying A's the best...

Maggie -- Thank you so much! I am sorry I did not see this earlier. That is very nice of you to say. It is one of my favorite photos I have taken, but I fear I post it too often as I tend to use it for examples like the lens used, tri-x in rodinal, etc etc.
 
Top