Film and Alt-Process Photography

[timp]

first attempt at cyanotype cameraless longexposure

[antiphon]

Exploring photo opportunities on the back porch.

[marcus_fischer]

really expired and home developed film shot on an old russian lubitel 166 that i found at a flea market in rome in 2006.

[Net]

20 characters of oof

[brasslens]

A year since i was last in the darkroom. I decided to use some old paper as negatives and set up this ‘still life’. Had some developer mixed up from 2019 which was still good! Used the Bender 10x8 and a Hermagis brass lens. 18 minute exposure. Keen to do more now to get my mojo back!

[timp]

[zanderraymond]

i don’t know how i have never shared this here but my partner is a experimental filmmaker and works primarily on 16mm. the windows in our home studio are velcro-lined for blackout fabric so it can double as a darkroom! he has an enlarger, 6 or 7 projectors, a bolex and a whole lot of other equipment.

here is his website (that has other work including fibers work, some truly incredible alt-process photography stuff, drawings, and more!): nolanbarry.com

his instagram is @/nolannbarry

and here are a few of his films:

“landscape of the mind” — this one uses optical printing to print multiple clips of 8mm home movies onto the same frame:

“of sun” — a visual diary of travelling during summer 2019 with an original cello + norns soundtrack:

and finally probably the most fit for lines folks…

“into the shade, to rest, to dream—“ — utilizes optical printing to expose an image onto the sound track of the 16mm film to attempt to hear the sound of a still image:

[andrew]

@zanderraymond

“of sun”

hadn’t seen this one, it’s super nice !

[antiphon]

[varispeeder]

I just got my first two rolls of film back, and I am so incredibly happy this thread inspired me to make the leap. 35mm feels like cheating because everything comes back looking so beautiful, it feels the same way as recording to tape.

Nothing too crazy to show off, just some upstate winter shots, but I’m proud and wanted to share a couple.

I was hiking up by Lake George and the light in the forest was amazing, plus I found this incredible semi-frozen waterfall.

and these are from Hudson, on my walk to work the morning after a snowfall. It’s the office (where a few of us are bubbled with a covid-safe recording studio), the gazebo across the street (I eat lunch sitting in it when it’s nicer out), and a snowy tree I passed that hit the light just right.

[john-smith]

Wow is that ice in the first picture? I really love the muted tones in all these pictures

[varispeeder]

yes it’s ice! it’s so cold up here that I’ve seen some really crazy ice formations around flowing water. The color is probably due to the Fujifilm 200 ISO film, it’s pretty magical with winter colors. I also shot a roll of Kodak 400 that’s warmer and more saturated, it’s super interesting to compare the differences!

[timp]

Nagra SN cyanotype blueprint

[mike]

miss taking pics on trips before covid

[praffensperger]

That first shot is amazing. How did you get the stars? A long exposure at night?

Edit: or maybe they’re not stars, just noise?

[mike]

haha thats just dust on the neg but wow that would be super cool if it was stars

[timp]

(apologies if this is obvious but if you use Photoshop, adding a nondestructive adjustment layer and temporarily cranking brightness/contrast to extreme levels (up & then down) makes any dust spots or hairs very obvious & easy to spot… I usually use the healing brush, rather than Dust & Scratches filter to fix… then delete the temp adjustment layer)

[mike]

I have photoshop but was just lazy. I still like to print my negs in a darkroom! But making a layer to mess with the contrast to spot bits n bops is a great tip - thank you

[timp]

I learned the hard way - proudly posted what i thought was a great xpan photo of snow landscape on Flickr & the first comment was ‘its great… apart from the massive hair!’ - sure enough there was a hair the size of a tree that I somehow did not even see! Removed the photo and have been a bit hyper about it ever since

[praffensperger]

In the case of @mike 's photo with dust in the sky, I think the dust adds something really interesting. Probably because I’m used to looking at perfect photos, I just assumed that the dust was intentional and actually part of the scene.

Expensive digital cameras / audio recorders can produce very high levels of fidelity (in the sense of scientifically accurate reproduction) and we can use Photoshop / Pro Tools / whatever to remove any lingering imperfections. Definitely there’s a place for all that!

On the other hand, sometimes more grit, more dust and more distortion can be pleasing in a strange way.

I guess it’s like if you make a mistake when playing a piece of music, it could either be damaging to your career, or jazz.