Back to the Basics

I was editing my most recent set of pictures from my four day trip to Las Vegas. I'm kind of having a problem with the pictures I've been taking as of late. And its the same problem I've been bitching about since I bought my digital camera. I haven't really been shooting any film recently except for the occasional shot here and there, and I'm not liking how my white balance and composition have been coming out in my shots. The rejection from the stock agency has kind of magnified my thoughts on this. And it might not even be  an issue of what medium I'm using. I really haven't set any parameters on what I am shooting at a given moment. Whatever I see that's interesting is usually what gets shot.

What I'm going to do first is buy one of these

which should allow me to use my main film camera without having my DSLR hanging inconveniently on my shoulder and focusing on shooting, and then I am going to set some more strict parameters on what I can and can't shoot. So, it looks like I am going to have an easier time since more of my niche will be showing up instead of blind pay and spray shots which have been coming up as of late.

You may all return to your regularly scheduled programs. .................... Now!!

What is Film?

I realized as I was writing part 2 of my development guide is how can anybody understand the process unless they actually know what they are working with.

Film is a major medium that is used in photographic still cameras and movie cameras. While many people have declared film as being a dead media, the majority don't even realize it is still vastly used in professional, amateur, and fine art work.

There are several different types of film that are still used and some that aren't.  These types include black and white, color (c41 process), color reversal/positive/slide (E6 Process) and infrared. Infrared film comes in black and white now, and used to come in color. Color infrared film is no longer available for general use, but can probably still be found on EBay or some obscure web sites, and newer cameras can be converted to it if need be.

The process of recording the image is kind of interesting, at least it was for me. The film has a coating of a silver halide gelatin mixture. The ISO of the film is how big and how dense the silver crystals are on the film, making it more or less susceptible to light. When you hit the shutter release on your camera, the shutter opens exposing light to the surface of your film. This image is called a latent image. Once the film has been developed, it is called the recorded image or a negative. The negative is then placed either into a flatbed scanner or into an enlarger which prints the image onto special photosensitive paper.

That was kinda boring huh. Hopefully that was understandable. There isn't too much to it, but there are some factors that you have to watch out for. Black and white film is fairly susceptible to blue light, so they tend to mix together if you have multiple blue objects near each other. The other major factor is the rate of reciprocity failure. This is an issue with trying to develop the colors correctly because the film has an odd quirk to it. One that comes to mind is Fujifilm Velvia RVP 50 that has some odd color shifts if you have an exposure longer than 30 seconds.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comment section and I will answer them. Thanks! :-)

Well if you are all still awake, I will have my last post from my last Disneyland trip, which is from Disney's California Adventure. Parts 1 and 2 are available here and here. You can check out some of my older work on my page at Smugmug here.

Developing Film, Part 1

I got a great comment from Joker last night

          "So weird how shooting with film is only for the hardcore these days..."

Shooting film is such a fun experience that it doesn't need to be only for us crazy people. So here is a  3 part guide on how to develop your film. Its probably the most fun part of 
shooting film in general. I'm going to go through the process and I will have a list of what you need to do this.

This part is on probably the hardest part of the process which is loading your film tank with the roll of film you just shot. There are two different types of developing tanks, and then there are many sizes of those two types. Steel tanks and Plastic Tanks. Steel tanks are incredibly sturdy, they last damn near forever, and they are slightly more difficult to load the reels. Plastic tanks are less durable but are fairly easy to load. I've used both and I prefer my plastic Paterson tank to the steel ones my school used.

I use a dual reel paterson tank. My film is bigger than yours.

You might want to buy a junk roll of film so you can practice how to load your film before you use an actual roll. Its much harder when you get in the dark room and trying to load the film the first time anyways. The more experience you have the better you can do. I guess that last sentence was from the desk of Captain Obvious.

Ok, so you need to find the darkest room you can find. I use a small closet. You need to make sure there is very little light and if there are any leaks, they need to be covered. Shove a towel under the door, use some tape, whatever you can do. If even the smallest amount of light reaches your film, it will fog and that will be bad.

My bottle opener. Its seen the end of many beers. Also purchased at the 99 cent store.

take a can opener and open the flat end of your film canister and use the push tab to push out the film spindle. The end of the film has a small tab that needs to be cut off. When that is cut off you can slide it under the two tabs on each side of the reel.

A little blurry, but you can clearly see the two tabs and the film going beneath them.

You should hear or feal the film catch onto the ball bearings just behind the tabs. These reels are ratchet like, so you want to hold onto the left side and turn the right side forwards and backwards until the film has been fully loaded. Some of the issues you should worry about are creasing, tearing and sticking. The film only sticks if you didn't fully dry the reel beforehand. if you feel it start to crease or tear, then just do your best to try and get it in, but dont overly force it in. The shiny side of the film must be up, not the tan/whitish/pinkish side.

Depending on which length of roll you use, it will feel different when it is fully loaded. The 24 shot roll will end and have about a quarter of the reel uncovered. A 36 shot roll will end just inside of the tabs. If your roll ends really far outside the tabs, then you need to unload the reel.

Normal reel.

Reel after being liberated from its other side.

To unload the reel you want to hold the left side and turn the right side forward until you feel the click and pull both sides apart. Then just dump the film on the table and start again with either side. When you put the reel back together, make sure the grooves are set in the right place without it being forced together.

See the tabs on the inside of the middle section?

Match them with the corresponding grooves. This reel can be used for 3 different sizes of film.

Once you get the reel loaded while in the dark, you want to put the pieces back together. inside the tanks. The funnel piece keeps the light from touching the film so you can get to that point without the lid when you can turn the lights on.

I usually set all the pieces out on a table in order so its easy for me to put everything back together without fumbling around too much.

Part 2, I will jump into the actual process with times and chemicals you use and when to use them.

What you need:

Paterson Film Tank.     Single or Double

It beats my why the double tank is less expensive than the single, but thats the reason why I got one. and it came with 2 reels, not just 1.

I'm sorry if this guide was confusing, it was my first time at writing instructions like this. If you have any questions, I shall try to clarify.

Check out my most recent set of pictures from Venice Beach

Choosing a 35mm Camera

Check out my most recent set of pictures from Venice Beach Here.

I found a good article on I Still Shoot Film talking about what to look for when you buy a 35mm film camera for people who are looking to get into film photography. Shooting a film camera has great benefits such as slowing you down/thinking critically, higher quality images (even still at 35mm), and being a hell of a great time to shoot.

Finding them are ridiculously easy. I bought both of my 35mm cameras on ebay. My old pentax K1000 I got  for 45 bucks but regularly go for 45-100 for a decent one, and my canon rebel for $20 practically brand new. I highly reccommend it to anybody who shoots pictures regularly. Even more so to my readers in Japan since film is still fairly easy to find and get developed.

I've also shot with a Nikon FM10 and a Canon AE-1 and those were great options as well.

You can check out the article here.

 My newest set of pictures will be out on Thursday morning.

Go out and shoot this Wednesday and have a great time not blowing up your hands with fireworks, and enjoy your 4th of July. I think i am going to Downtown Disney to get some Firework shots.