Week 4 – Rodinol and Robots – Arista EDU 100

January 23, 2015

Its been cold here in Atlanta. I know, Laugh all you want. Comparatively speaking our "cold" isn't nearly as cold as some other places around the world. And I'll admit after living in Montana for several years I am still mostly comfortable walking around without a jacket. However its still cold enough that I don't want to go outside in the windy-wetness-of-misery.

This week was all about experimentation. I tried to use all of the various lenses that came with the manual 35mm camera that I have been primarily shooting on. Not everything worked out exactly as planned, and it probably didn't help that I was trying to shoot indoors on 100 iso film mostly without a flash. But I still think I did ok for the most part, save for a few focus opportunities.

This was also my first time processing with Rodinol, and I have to say "where have you been all my life?". This is so much faster and easier than the caffenol process I am used to. I love it!

But without further ado, here are the images from this week. As always Tumblr/Wordpress users may need to visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls to see the gallery.

Obligatory cat photo.

Developing Notes:
Arista EDU - 100 iso
Recommended Development:
Rodinal 1:25 dilution
3.5 Minutes Development time at 70º
Used:
Rodinal 1:50 dilution (5ml in 250ml water)
7 Minutes Development time at 70º
Standard Fix - 4 Minutes
Used Photo Flo.

I was very happy with how this roll came out. Now I just need to conquer my dust problems.

52 Rolls – Week 3 Extras

January 16, 2015

Ok. So I just couldn't stop playing around with these two images. I couldn't figure out why the original scans just didn't look the way I wanted. Then I realized that even the best scanner can sometimes not reproduce things 100% correctly.

So I made a few changes through photoshop to adjust levels and curves and all that fun stuff, and I came up with these two final images. To see the originals please make sure to check out my 52 rolls blog at UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls.

Week 3 – Old Camera, Modern Flash – Fuji Superia X-TRA 400

January 16, 2015

Most of this roll (about half) was an experiment. The camera I'm using has an external flash port. The studio lights at my day job have a cable to hook into said flash port. So why not put 2 and 2 together. Using a digital camera as a light meter (since I didn't have one that could sync with the flashes) I composed a shot in our studio and had two of my co-workers step in as models.

The rest of this roll was from walking around work and shooting more "abstract landscapes" much like my test rolls.

Unicolor C-41 Kit:
Standard Everything.
See Week 2 post for more details.

Wordpress and Tumblr users visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls to see the gallery below:

Week 2 – Pack Faster Film – Kodak Max 800 (Expired)

January 09, 2015

So far so good. I am on schedule to make things happen this year. It's becoming harder than I expected already, not because of shooting and processing a roll a week, but more because I am trying to only shoot a single roll a week.

The following images were taken on New Year's Eve/Day using a roll of film that was given to me sometime within the last year or so. It hasn't and hadn't been kept in a temperature controlled environment so I had no idea how the images would come out. My only worry shooting it was thinking that I should have experimented with pushing it to 1600 iso. The only image I thought was properly exposed was of a lit up cigarette machine.

This was also my first attempt at home developing C41 film using this kit.

I read and watched everything I could to hopefully get everything right. Needless to say I was a nervous wreck the whole time. I have processed film before (See Week 1) using a Caffenol process, and in a darkroom during college, but this was my first time using a pre-made system that was very temperature specific.

UNICOLOR C-41 Powder kit:
Factory instructions/Dilution

Tumblr/Wordpress visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls to see the gallery

Week 1 – The Great Dust Bowl – Ilford Delta 100

January 02, 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to the first official roll from the year of film project!

Ever want to know the fastest way to see how clean your apartment isn't? I would be willing to say it involves developing a roll of film after a day at work, and with no prior preparation. Then throw in a white fluffy cat who has more fur than I know what to do with (just for good measure).

I am going to need to figure out a cleaner option for future development cycles. Or basically what I mean is that I have a week to figure this all out. I think I'll need to invest in a lot of canned air. Although Photoshop's automatic dust removal tool is pretty good at doing about 80% of the work in exchange for a little sharpness. I'm going to try and retouch some of these for the sake of the project, hell I may even try to re-scan them. But a fair warning these started out very dusty and covered in a bunch of junk.

Also this roll is also kinda a cheat roll. Since my chemicals haven't been delivered yet I needed a quick way to get something together. I also didn't want to have a roll of unprocessed C41 film just lying around for another week, and its far too early to break out the instant film yet.

"I'm a fluffy cat, my fur gets on everything...especially negatives". I'm leaving this one specifically to shame both the cat and myself.

(Not my cat)

Just a heads up, the next two images are NSFW.

I kinda liked this one with the dust.

Development Notes:

Caffenol Developer:
250ml Distilled Water
2.5 tsp Instant Coffee
2 tsp Vitamin C
2 tsp Washing Soda

18 Minute Developing Time @ 70 Degrees F

Standard Fixer 3:1 Dilution

Negatives were a touch underdeveloped. But my scanner was able to get most of them scanned no problems. I would probably increase my developing time to 20 minutes to insure that everything was solid on the negative.

Gallery below. Tumblr Viewers be sure to check out UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls