Di Lieto - first story draft

It is now two weeks after my first to Di Lieto visit and I have shot 11 films. One came underdeveloped, three have been developed with the wrong amount of developer, four have been over developed, three came out as they should may be.

You live you learn. It has been a very exciting process, not only in terms of actually being out there and putting myself out of my comfort zone when I had to talk to strangers and be nice and make sure I am not in their way. When you watch the same process over and over you start wondering - what is there I still haven't seen in this, so where is my story, what else can I shoot, can I climb up there, where do I stand.

It has been very difficult for me to find new angles, take portraits and ensure everyone is comfortable around me. And I am not even going into all the technical stuff, like proper metering. Looks like with the Pentax which has a faster lens and altogether better meter than the Zenith is simpler to use inside, when there is not enough light.

Now the sifting through and selecting the pictures that would make it. My great friend Alyssa is so good in this. She is may be the best photo editor amongst my friends. And I am so crap in this. The editing process is as important as actually taking the pictures.

Here is my process of picking up 20-30 pictures out of 300+. I sorted them in different themes: kneading, mixing, baking, people, equipment etc. Afterwards from each group I picked up the ones I felt I like best and put them all together. Than came my brilliant house mate, who not only doubles as a model, but also now doubles as a photo editor.

This is how the draft looks.

Di Lieto - test pictures

I thought no drying misfortunes this time. I will share something I have been working on for past few weeks.
I started a Documentary Photography Course at Zoom-in which is another reason why I love SW9! It is smack on my door step. Also compared to the ridiculous fees at St. Martin's this seemed like a great value for money.

Our assignment in the first week was to shoot portraits, relationships and people doing something. I only managed the portraits and the pictures in the previous post are the some of the good shots. Below two more of my brilliant house mate who doubles as a model :).

This is a great Acros 100 film. I love it! It is smooth, does great in low light and gives beautiful depth! And of course Sasha is a great model!

Now, Di Lieto. It is the Italian for the happy one. It is the family name of the guys who own the place. And it is a part of my assignment for the next class. We had to come up with a story and shoot it. This one seemed nice and sort of easy and I thought will get me totally out of my comfort zone, because it meant going and actually asking if I can go and take the pictures. To my greatest amazement the guys said yes! Di Lieto is a family run Italian bakery, which sells brilliant bread and is run by two brothers - Giovanni and Luigi! You can't get more Italian than that!

So there I was 6 am, very nervous, without any idea what exactly I am going to do. I had to go back again. And I am still go back again this week. Overall, this has turned out more of an adventure than I thought. You know most of the people I know including me will look at a picture and will say - oh I love this! Simply because the picture is of something beautiful or the person on it is smiling. So I am currently sitting with over 100 pictures and I need to decide which will make it. And they need to feel well together, not just be good as a single image. They need to make a story, be different in terms of pace, distance, composition, things they say... Quite challenging because this is out of my normal very linear and logic way of thinking. Yes, I am boring, but I love it. 

Drying misfortunes continued

Will, I ever get this right?

This time we have water marks! Yeah! Not too much wiping, so the hard water did its best to leave marks. I have bought now a bottle of Photo Flo and it will hopefully save me from more drying disasters....
Yes, I am talking about the white spot in top left corner...

Not quite black and white

This is to remember I should not be using the Fuji 100 film. Ever. Again.
This is why - flat colours.

This is quite striking compared to the Fuji Superia which back in autumn has given me this. Well, ok, this was also shot on the Zenit. The above by Pentax MeSuper, but still....

Acros 100 and how not to wipe negatives (vol 2)

So far my biggest issue has been drying negatives. I don't seem to be able to dry them without leaving any marks...
I thought this time to avoid the scratching I will use a tissue to wipe off the water. Bad idea. Tissue is fluffy, so leaves stuff behind and you can end up with this - lot's of small white stuff.

On another note. I have tried a new film Acros 100, which is a different speed compared to the usual 400 I use. It has been all sunny and bright in London, so I though I will try a less sensitive film. 

I have also being testing the Pentax MeSuper with a 55/1.7 lens which I got from a colleague of mine. So this was a completely new take. 

Well, the Pentax meter's brilliantly! The f 1.7 allows for pictures inside to be taken without tripods, flashes or long exposures. The one above has been taken in the office. No natural light whatsoever. 

I normally use The Digital Truth Massive Dev Chart and for some reason it doesn't have the development time for 35mm 100 ISO. Well, the 80 ISO was 11.5 min and my wise friend Natasha who was eager to learn how to develop said let's try 12 min. And so we did. 

The negatives look well exposed, and are not under or over developed. So the gamble paid off. Also the Acros 100 is a great film!There is virtually no grain visible, such a difference to the HP5 +. Must try it on available light portraits. 

You live you learn

Just when I thought I got it right this time: almost no spilling around, metering correctly, right development time, etc. here comes my newly discovered 'not to do'.

One of the spirals I use is a bit sticky and of course I managed to get that one, as a result the film would not roll in properly as a result on a shot which otherwise would have been rather nice I get those white lines out of nowhere.

These lines appeared because I managed to bend the film while trying to wind it into the spiral... as a result I guess the chemical layer has been damaged.

On a positive note, I managed to get the reflection stuff right

as well this rather lively scene at Monmouth at Borough Market

and this duck family which I haven't seen before outside of the Globe at Bankside Pier.

How not to dry negatives and other misfortunes

With the confidence that I now know how to do it I thought this time I will develop the two Ilford HP5+ films together, in other words in the same developing tank.

So far so good. With a bit of spillage and mess since I didn't get everything mixed when I should have done so I got the films developed.

Opening the tank, first film looked ok. However disaster struck with taking out the second film. Now, films go into the tank on a small spiral. As a result the end of the second film, which was at the bottom of the tank on the inner side of spiral looked suspiciously dark. At first I thought I have accidentally exposed it to light, on a second thought I realized it was left under-developed! I used the amount of developer I should have however I should have left the films for may be another minute or so in the developer...

Well, since I couldn't fix it thought I will move on and put the films to dry. So there they were hanging in the bathroom and I knew that now I will fix the mistake from previous time and won't leave water marks. On comes the cloth and down it goes until I don't see any watermarks. Only to realize I have deeply scratched both films! 

Because it is a very thin layer of chemicals on the film even the smallest speck of dust can scratch it... and you will end up with this

Here is some of the underdeveloped film...

I have about 5 more exposures left in the Zenit which I need to finish this week, as well as the colour in the Smena. 

Points to remember: 

- meter properly

- do not wipe the negatives to death