Dark Days Bright Flight

I've now developed 10 rolls of film with Caffenol (Delta recipe). Some evolution has taken place, since there is a learning curve inherent in these kinds of enterprises, where testing and research is required.
The first roll came out blank. I'd followed advice on a forum on how to make washing soda out of baking soda. Which when I tried it fell through and didn't work at all. I subsequently had to order washing soda on the web.
The second came out very dark and with weak grain. Here is a picture.

The first two films were black and white 35 mm ones: Fomapan 400.
The third was a 120 format colour Portra 160 ASA and came out really well as a b&w film.

This is cropped and not close to finish edited. It's my portrait made by my neice.
The third roll was an Ilford FP4 (?) 125 ASA and was not even close to the Portra's rendering. Grainy and dark. It was underexposed by half a step, though. But that doesn't explain the extent of grain. My girlfriend will be a huge help in editing those...

Today's process went as follows:
The two first 35 mm films (one Fomapan 400 and one long since expired and exposed FLT colour 100 ASA film) came out very dark - again. But again there are exposures visible. They are still hanging to dry as I write this.
Since they came out dark I did some research and came upon one possible solution - I fixed them too short a time or with too weak a fixer. When films have been exposed to camera leaks the whole width of the film is dark - the sprockets as well. So my solution was to add another minute fixing time - now 6 minutes with Ilford Fast Fixer. And I added another 1/20th to the solution too.
Films 7-10 look more like they should - darker than lab souped films, but more transparent than my first (second and third) 35 mm disasters.

I'll keep posting more on the Caffenol adventures...

Comments

Celebrating 20 + Articles Elsewhere

I have had a fun eight years burrowing deep into the world of film photography. Within a few weeks my 22nd contribution to 35mmc.com will be published. The website, which is run by a small group of people, publishes contributions from the global community of mostly film photographers. I have contributed sporadically with reviews and other articles on photography related issues since May 2017. Almost as long as I have written about photography on this blog. Disposable Cameras Canon QL17 Rangefinder Canon Demi half-frame Canon Lens Modding Olympus LE Camera Olympus Pen-F Yashica 50 mm Lens Halina Lens Modding 4 Minolta Cameras Steinheil 50 mm Lens Instamatic Voigtländer Lens Modding Meikai Camera Ricoh Auto 35 Camera Chaika Camera Modding Redscale Film Hanimex 110 Camera Canon 1980s Compacts Canon Prima Mini Camera Reviving Instamatic Cameras Focus-Free Digital Lens During this time I have also contributed a few art...

Chaika Leica

Well, here's a Chaika 2M that I bought from Alex Helios via Instagram. It's a great full manual viewfinder half-frame camera. The wheel on the top is for shutter time selection, from B to 1/30th to 1/250th of a second. The square button on the front right of the camera is the release/exposure. The lens mounted on the camera in the picture is not the original Industar-69. The Chaika is a rare model compact camera since the prime lens is detachable. What is more is that it has M39 screw mount. But - like with the Paxette M39 system - you can't get focus with a lens from another M39 system. Unless you adapt the lens or - in this case - the camera (mount)! The Chaika mount is easily detached from the body by loosening four screws. If I want to mount the Leica thread mount M39 (LTM) lenses on the Chaika - which is my goal with this mod - I have to add 1.3mm to the mount. That is what is needed to change the camera's flange focal distance (FFD) from Chaika system to L...

Lomo-Modd-Orama

A Lomo Smena 8 camera with a faulty shutter. An Olympus Pen F camera. Part of a microscope adapter for the Pen. That's what I started out with. 45 minutes later I had a new lens! Mount The mount came off a microscope adapter. I got the adapter from my first (of two) attempts to buy an Olympus Pen F. There seem to be some unscrupolous ebay sellers around peddling useless Pens with microscope adapted prisms. Luckily - in hindsight - I got a microscope adapter with this first Pen. Which I now trashed when a Lomo Smena 8 without a future landed on my doorstep (figuratively speaking). Conversion / Havoc Smena I only knew the camera as a half-frame camera [Correction - it's a full frame camera!] called Smena 8 and hadn't thought to place it in Lomography-land until I read the name Lomo on the lens when it was already modded. Unwittingly I had tread the tiles of lomo-dom twice in as many weeks, also having put two rolls through a Praktica CX-1 which appears to be Gr...

getOBphoto

Search This Blog