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Film

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Welcome to OPF, Americo!


EPSON scanner image
"PENTACON SIX TL"


"Ilford Delta-400 Professional 120 Black & White Negative (Print) Film (ISO-400)"

"Ilford Delta-400 Professional 120"

"Ilford Delta 400 120"

CARL ZEISS JENA DDR BIOMETER 80mm 2.8

Carl Zeiss Biometar 80mm, f/2.8 (Pentacon six)

I am impressed that you are working with a Pentacon Six. That Biometar is supposed to be a sharp lens. So I guess your film got scratched. Was this done recently or is this older film you are now paying attention too?
Glad to see another person using film!

The mood here is pretty dark, even though we know it's just a setup, but you've done it well. The mask looks like it came from Phantom of the Opera!

Asher






Are you also editing the scanned files in Photoshop or are you only scanning to show us the pictures?

Asher
 
Asher,Thank you very much, for the warm welcome, and kind words! I guess I left out way to many details, in my mad rush to enter my first post, please excuse my ignorance,and possible breech of forum rules! I sometimes lack the common sense that should be held high, and cherished!
This photograph of my son, dressed impromptu due to my cheer joy to finally shot film after many years of analysis paralysis, as one member of another forum had diagnosed me! Not only was this my first roll of film ever, I also went one step further, and developed it myself! Too top it off, I used an experimental developer know by users, as caffenol! This was my very first try as well!
The fact that I knew nothing about the whole film processes, aside from what I saw online via Google searches, and video's, I still had no clue to what to expect! The scratches are a result of my first use of a darkroom bag, and my first experience loading a rod, and reel as well!
These were all very hard to do, as I knew that I was going to most likely ruin my film, I still had committed my mind to getting done! A part of me feels the loss of the other images, that I will never see again, but my soul is still settled due to the little results I had, especially the only surviving one, of my son as my muse! The others can never be reproduced, or revived, ever, and a hard as it is to accept, my final results, still brings joy to my heart!

I have used Photoshop to crop my film strip, since, I don't want to cut them up to a possible fatal error! The dark one was cropped a little tighter, but I also messed with the look in order to find a mood that may look appealing, well, at least to my amateur eye's! The first photo should be the one that is super bright, is basically straight out of my film! I do have a few others that I used a "Ilford Delta-400 Professional 120" presetting in order to try and maintain its film integrity!! xD


I am glad you have enjoyed them, and that you acknowledged my use of film! This camera is my sole medium, as I had to liquidate many of my digital Nikon items, D800, 85mm 1.4, 28m 2.8 AI-S, and more, in order to avoid near ruin due to my daughter's medical bills that saved my daughter, and killed her cancer! xD God is good, life if precious! I am so fortunate to have the ability to shoot photographs from my medium, from my cellphone, down to my fantastically made elder Pentacon Six TL film camera, and its CARL ZEISS JENA DDR BIOMETER 80mm 2.8! It was a miracle that all this cost me way less than $200, which, compared to my liquidated Zeiss lenses, and the ones on my lost, but not forgotten, Rollei 6008 Pro, it is a testament to what Zeiss is capable of!!

Thank you very much, and happy photography! Americo.Rodriguez aka a.rodriguezpix at (banned) fredmiranda, arolleibrujo at APUG, anikkorguy at NikonCafe a.Rollei.brujo at Nikonites, photocamel as a nikkorguy too, and many more aliases at those fantastic photography related websites and Flickr too!
 
I left out that I scanned these via my Epson V500 Photo scanner, with my BetterScanning ANR insert!
I also should mention that this was shot in door, with inside light, hence that overexposed part, plus I used my Galaxy Note 3's meter app, Light Meter, the paid version,lol! It's a life saver! xD
Stay tuned, as I still have a box of various films, with 3 rolls already exposed! LONG LIVE FILM!




http://www.betterscanning.com/
 
Hi Americo and welcome to OPF!

What a story about how these images on film came about. I'm glad to hear that your daughter is better and yes, I can certainly understand the priorities of medical care over keeping digital camera and accessories. I feel so fortunate, especially reading this, to live in Canada where it wouldn't matter how much money I had, I would have treatment.

As for the film, at first I thought it was old film fished out of a long-forgotten box, but was surprised to see that this is new and the scratches because of a first attempt at developing them. I have not had the opportunity to try to develop film at all and will probably never get the opportunity and although I use Photoshop in somewhat the same way, I would love to have that tactile experience of touching and pouring and seeing something develop before my very eyes.
 
Hi Americo and welcome to OPF!

What a story about how these images on film came about. I'm glad to hear that your daughter is better and yes, I can certainly understand the priorities of medical care over keeping digital camera and accessories. I feel so fortunate, especially reading this, to live in Canada where it wouldn't matter how much money I had, I would have treatment.

As for the film, at first I thought it was old film fished out of a long-forgotten box, but was surprised to see that this is new and the scratches because of a first attempt at developing them. I have not had the opportunity to try to develop film at all and will probably never get the opportunity and although I use Photoshop in somewhat the same way, I would love to have that tactile experience of touching and pouring and seeing something develop before my very eyes.

Thank you for the kind words, I appreciate them very much! Don't get me wrong, I have no issues with our current health care system, or previous one, they are an existence due to demand, I guess! The bills we pay not as large as they would be had our PPO not covered them, and despite their over $150k USD prices, the insurance companies through, and through, no matter what! Her illness came in a period of weeks, if not hours, it seems, and as soon as the fine doctors were able to have an idea, she was sent to our fine doctors, and scientist at the U.C.San Francisco Medical Center, and in my opinion, worth any camera gear, or monetary offerings, we work hard for. I guess nearly 18 years of not being sick, and premiums paid toward the PPO, resulted in dividends of greater importance. The residual payments are our own of course, however, it has been excepted, and accepted. xD
 
Ah, somebody else on the forum who has discovered the joys of processing his own black and white film! I can truly share with you the joys of the tactile, hands-on nature of this medium, when you do the end-to-end process yourself.

I am surprised by the amount of scratches you've managed to incur here (were they really accidental?), but that only gets better with time. I've been pretty lucky with metal spiral reels, and 35mm and 120 film - almost no scratches ever, but I did manage to scratch some of my first 4x5in sheets while loading in my small and silly dark bag.

When finances (and space) allows, you have to go the next step, and set yourself up a small home darkroom, and print images like these - even if on small sheets - of some good, thick, matte, fibre-based paper. They come alive like no on-screen rendition of a direct scan could ever convey.

While scratched, abused images have a certain aesthetic to them, you should now go ahead and explore the tonal possibilities of carefully-processed film. This was one of my first images that really showed me what monochrome film (here pushed to ISO1600) can do:

Twice Bitton, not shy
10052358263_c09684e7bf_o.jpg

Please do continue to post about your experiences and ideas with your Pentacon. And for heaven's sake, don't feel the need to upgrade to a "better camera" any time soon. That path leads to the destruction of creativity.

I've walked that path once, and rapidly got off it. The best cameras I own, are the Mamiya RB67, and Linhof Technika, that I've owned for years now. It's nice to play with shiny new toys now and then, but they are no substitute for a perfectly good tool that you know and trust. Spend your money on film and chemicals instead!

All the best in your personal life also - I, too, know the pains of a sick member of the family, and non good public health care system (South Africa). Welcome to OPF! I fear you have missed a time past when there was much more activity here, but people are at work to grow this community once more.
 
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