More stand development

As I am running low on developer and being a bit lazy as well I thought I will develop the roll of Rollei 100 doing stand development. I am fairly pleased with the experience given Rollei 100 is not amongst my favourite films and also my previous experience with it was mostly grain and burnt areas. This time though I got very clear film and quite good shadows. very little grain as well.

There is a bit of fogging which is I suspect the result of the developer being slightly warm and also London being quite muggy and warm yesterday which probably has resulted to the developer going up to 21 degrees while standing.

It has also been a very pleasant suprise to see how well it behaves at low light and slow speeds. Sharp! Sharp, ladies and gentlmen! This was shot at 1.7/30!

I developed this in R09 deluting it 1 to 100 and leaving it stand for 60 min and agitating in the first 30 seconds and once at 30 minutes. I didn't use any stop bath, only water and fixer for 5 minutes. 

Flying high

My ghost friend

I have always been very sceptical about shooting film in low light, let alone 100 ISO film in the middle of the night. As you can see it is quite possible. This was an exposure of about 30 seconds and the camera was on a tripod. I like how we are both looking ghost like. 

I have a 1600 ISO film I have been keeping in the fridge for some special occasion, I am not even sure why I bought it or what to use it for. Any ideas?

Lift me up

Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, October 2010

I really liked how the old woman was looking small and alone in the concrete background of the Royal Festival Hall. I could have done better on composition. Different lens and even may be a square format would have done the trick. 

Rollei 100 vs Acros 100

Ever ready to experiment with film I use, I am still to find the film to replace Acros 100 from my heart. Rollei Retro 100 is ok, fine I would even say. Gives a very good contrast, almost no grain when using stand development and Rodinal. However I still can't get quite right the exposure for it...

This is what I'm talking about: 

Burnt areas. Lot's of grain as well. Sharp and good contract though. 

This is how Acros behaves inside, on a grey day outside, without any extra light

No grain. None. I just love this film! It gives really soft greys, warm even somehow tones. Perfect for portraits. 60 min stand development in 20 degrees (might have been even 18 towards the end as it is quite chilly at home), 1:100 dilution in R09 (which is technically speaking Rodinal). The only downside is may be contrast, but other than that this is the best film I have used so far. 

Friends

A great brunch with wonderful friends few weeks back.

 Nadya (with a lamp growing out of her head... Sorry about this, otherwise I love the shot!)

Stephanie

Yat Wan

Let me in

I have a few upcoming posts about the photography courses I have been doing recently as well as to share some more images of autumn in London and around. In the mean time the above is an image from my first roll of Rollei 100 film.

From the upper deck

Fashion idol

All square

Fomapan and Rodinal stand development

The Acros 100 film from the Fed was not necessarily a good one to judge how stand development is different from my usual development timings. 

So here is a Fomapan 100 film developed for one hour in Rodinal (R09 to be exact). I used 2,5 ml of developer in a 300 ml tank. The thing is the development time for Fomapan in R09 in a 1+25 dilution is only 3,5 minutes, where as for the Acros in the same dilution it is almost 6 minutes, I sometimes give it 7. So I was risking overdeveloping and getting burnt areas (areas which are white rather than a shade of grey), which I think is still the case in with some of the shots, particularly those shot at higher speeds. Like this bike.

Strangely enough there is plenty of grain despite the fact I didn't touch the tank within the one hour I have been developing it. I am not sure if this is simply the way Fomapan reacts in Rodinal, which very much can be the case. 

 Well, here is to another experiment! :)

Stand development

After the disaster with the expired developer I have managed to try stand development.

Stand development is a different development method where you basically use a very small amount of developer and leave the film for 1 hour for the developer to do its job. Now I am no expert in the whole agitation business (people say that agitation seriously affects how your film looks afterwards, I can't really say as I am rather random with this... so no experience really to share here.) so supposedly stand development gives slightly flatter negatives, no grain and very smooth shades.

I used R09 with Acros 100 with a 1:100 dilution and 60 min stand with agitation in the first minute and after the first 30 minutes. I am not sure if I am particularly happy with what came out. The thing is I have been using my new Fed5 camera, which is a range finder and meters differently compared to the Pentax. The Fed similarly to the Zenit uses a needle meter. But that is a different story...

Back to stand development: I will give it another go tomorrow with a Fomapan film from the Pentax. The Fed is being funny and I think it is a matter of getting used to it. Although I am not sure if I want to get used to it. It is very difficult to focus with it with my poor eye sight and although it might be good on the street as it is fairly small and the external light meter certainly helps I think so far the Pentax has been excellent!