Week 8a – Never Look Gift Film in the Mouth – Kodak Max 800 (expired) (-1 stop)

So by the time you read this, hopefully I'll be feeling much better. This last week the plague going around Atlanta knocked me on my ass. However as I write this I am feeling mostly better, so that's a plus. 

I have to also make a few short shout outs too for this week. Firstly to Vivi from Vivifyphotography. She donated the rolls of film I shot with this week, as well as the Kodak BW400CN stock from Week 6b (and Next week's entry as well). 

Second I want to thank my model Morgan who found me via Instagram. She saw some of the work I did for the self censorship project, and immediately wanted to be on board. Over the next 2 weeks I will be posting not only that entry, but some other photos that we took that I just can't bring myself to "deface" for the project. 

Granted all of this film was probably horrendously expired, but I still don't think I "get" shooting color stocks yet. I'm not sure if its my post process, or my choice in film. But it never seems to look the way I want it to. Any tips on shooting and post production would be much appreciated!

Development Notes:
Standard Development
Unicolor C-41 Kit. 

Week 7 – "Stand" and Deliver – Ilford HP5+ (+2 Stops 1600iso)

Oh yeah, I am going to pull out as many puns over the next year as I possibly can.

Based on the title of this post I wanted to experiment with stand developing this week. For those who may not know what that is basically its a development process that uses very diluted developer for much longer than one would typically use. Its very "set it and forget it" developing. Its supposed to develop very deep shadows, while not blowing out highlights. Or so they say anyway. 

Along with the last few weeks I am trying to get back into shooting portraits. You may remember Justin below from a few weeks ago for example. 

I have to say, I have always been an ilford delta 100 kinda guy. But after playing around with HP5 just this once I think I may have a new favorite film on my hands. Over the course of this year I will need to play around more with pulling it back to 100, as well as shooting it at box speed. But from what I can see I already like it at 1600iso.

 

Development Notes:
Rodinol 1:100 Dilution
Semi-Stand Development 120 minutes (4 agitations every 30 minutes)
Pushed +3 Stops to 1600 iso
VERY Happy with results. Minor adjustments needed in post.

Tumblr users (you should know this by now) will need to visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls to see the gallery.
Wordpress-ers will just see everything in a row under this:

Week 6b – Self Censorship Project, Experiment – Kodak BW400CN (Expired) (-1 Stop)

So I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while. I shoot a lot of nude model photos, it unintentionally has become what I am most known for. And sometimes it just seems like people looking at the photos are looking at the model's "bits and pieces" and not the image as a whole. So I came up with the idea for a project where I purposefully censor myself.

Now this concept is not quite what you are about to see, but this is pretty close. I'm going to keep at it and see what happens.

Development Notes:
Unicolor C41 Kit.
Standard Development Process
Ultra fine tip black Sharpie marker on negative before scan.

Just in case that first warning wasn't enough.

Unmodified Gallery Below:
Tumblr users will need to visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls to see the galleries.

Modified Gallery:

Week 6a – All Hail the God-Film, Portra – Kodak Portra 400

Just a fair warning this update will be a little longer than my previous blog posts. Mostly because I ended up shooting double what I set out. 2 rolls of Portra 400 ends up to be 72 frames. I will be presenting it in two sections in this blog post. The first will be random shots taken to start roll 1, and the second will be my first attempt at a cohesive photo shoot for this project. Portraits have been my focus, so I hope to master a few things and present more of them soon.

With that many frames, and the fact that I am still learning the quirks of a manual camera, I had a lot more frames that I was not happy with this time around. I will save you all a lot of the hassle and not be including near as many "outtake" photos as I normally do. 

Also its worth noting I'm not entirely sure I'm doing what I am supposed to with the developer kit. I seem to have had a lot of very bad water spots on these rolls even after following instructions. Any tips would be appreciated!

Gallery One Below:
Tumblr users will need to visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls like always.
Wordpress users...well, I think it just posts everything in a row.

If you have made it this far, now here are the shots from my portrait session with a friend of mine. We have worked together many times, and like always it was more than a pleasure this time as well. 

Sadly these photos didn't turn out 100% the way I wanted. I'm still trying to master the camera I am using, and full manual everything is still a bit of a challenge. I found that many of the shots taken were out of focus. I'm still trying to work out what the issue was, but I think its better to move on and learn from my mistakes. Maybe slow down a little (which was one of my goals anyway for this project).

Titan Gallery Below:
Tumblr blah blah blah, Wordpress blah blah.

Developing Notes:
Standard Development using the Unicolor C41 kit.

Post Processing Notes:
I am genuinely surprised at the latitude (I guess you would call it) of this film when it comes to adjusting color levels. It was very easy to create more than a few different "looks" using the scanned negative. I tried my best to color the images as I remember the scene, but I still think it was pretty neat. "God-film" indeed. I think next time however I will try to purposely underexpose by a stop. I ended up doing that digitally and has much better results.

Next week's post will also be technically from this week. I mean, I shot them both at the same time. But it is entirely different, and I think will be a departure from something I would usually do.

Week 5 – Push it (Push it real good) – Arista EDU 400 (Push +1 Stop to 800)

It's funny to me how things work out sometimes. The roll that I loaded for this week actually ended up in the trash a few minutes after putting it into the camera. I realized that the film wasn't advancing through the camera, popped open the back, and then instead of rewinding just the leader I ended up rolling the entire roll back into the canister. 

After a few awkward minutes of butter-knifing I decided it was a lost cause, loaded a fresh roll, and ordered a film extractor. Then I took the first shot actual shot on the new roll.

I have this sign on my wall, it just says "Make mistakes". Its a reminder that not every day will be perfect, and that sometimes you just have to experiment. That was what I accomplished with this roll. None of the following photos will be winning any awards any time soon for their content, but I still consider this a success because I feel I have a grasp now on pushing film during the development process. Enough yammering, onto the photos:

Developing Notes:
Arista EDU - 400 iso (Push +1 to 800 iso)
Recommended Development:  
Rodinal 1:25 dilution
5.5 Minutes Development time at 70º
Used: 
Rodinal 1:50 dilution (5ml in 250ml water)
16 Minutes Development time at 70º
Standard Fix - 4 Minutes
Used Photo Flo. 

Very low contrast images (easily corrected in post), expected grain increase.

 

Wordpress and Tumblr Visit UNEXPhotography.com/52rolls for gallery below:

© 2006 – 2023 UNEXPhotography and Blake Griffin.

Privacy Policy