Film and Alt-Process Photography

[simondemeule]

I really love the work you’ve submitted here so far, I’m looking forward to that!

[antiphon]

Trying out a magnifying glass as a lens.

[cmcavoy]

Has anyone tried any of these open source / 3d printable large format cameras from Goodman Labs? The idea of it is interesting…the 3d prints are more complicated than I’ve tried in the past, so would love to hear these things are great before I put the time in. If there’s 3d printed alternatives that people like, also up for hearing about them.

Found another on Thingiverse, the terraPin OSKAR Lochkamera (pinhole camera)

[Rupert]

I have a Zone that I printed, just needs screws and finishing. I printed the film back as well since I don’t have any RB backs. I’ll provide some images once I get it together.

[eyecubes]

I just started getting back into film photography again last year, after using exclusively digital gear sine 2003. I really love the process so much more than digital. Its helped me shoot slower and smarter, my good to bad shot ratio has gone from 1:100 to 1:3 . Sure, the process is much longer, but its much more exciting waiting to see what you’ve got captured and how it turned out.
Funnily enough, I started using film again after seeing a talk by Suzanne Ciani. I brought my digital camera, but didn’t take any photos because I felt that digital couldn’t capture a person’s “essence”. Now, shooting film, I feel like I’m capturing photons in time rather than a digital representation of the light in front of me.
Anyway, here are a few of my latest that I am happy with.

[afr]

Woah. This thread totally inspired me to dig through some scans from the past few years. Not fond of my scans - I need to improve in dust removal…

I’ve been neglecting my film cameras for the past year or so in favor of digital. You all are convincing me to get back on film. I mean, 90% of the music I record these days goes to cassette, so it only makes sense, right?

[mattlowery]

Speaking of scans, how are you guys digitizing the stuff you shoot on film?

[antiphon]

I’ve been using a ten-year-old old Epson flatbed scanner (can’t remember the model offhand). It will natively scan negatives or transparencies from 35mm up to medium format. I made a jig that will allow me to scan 4x5 negs in two passes. Not ideal, but it works OK.

Overall the quality is fine for online presentation. If I wanted to print an image I’d have the negative scanned by a pro.

[mattlowery]

Very cool. Are you then inverting the image in photoshop or something?

[antiphon]

Yeah, I use an ancient version of Photoshop (CS 2) for post-processing. I’m not very good at it. All I do is invert the image, remove dust and/or scratches, and make some curves adjustments. I eyeball everything, which is why my color scans are usually not well balanced.

[brasslens]

Epson v700 for negs and prints.

[GrantB]

I used to develop at home and scan with a Plustek and Silverfast. Now I can’t develop at home so I’m just having The Darkroom develop and scan. Seems a little expensive but I don’t shoot much and for the time I save scanning it’s worth it. I did fire up the scanner recently to see if I could do better, but the differences weren’t that great at least on grainy 400 speed.
Here’s an unprocessed Darkroom scan:

And here’s the same frame scanned by me at a higher resolution and processed with Photos, then exported in a size lines forum will accept:

Weird comparison maybe, and I also have no idea what it looks like on your screen (mine is not pro), but in the end I decided to just keep using the Darkroom scans and then try myself if I wanted a different result.

[Hovercraft]

I have a Microtek Artixscan M1 and Silverfast software. The M1 is finicky, but it’s a focusing flatbed (as opposed to Epson’s fixed focus scanning). I don’t think they make it anymore. It’s ok for large format, and medium format, but I don’t like the quality of any consumer-grade flatbed for 35mm. I used to have a Nikon Coolscan 9000, which was fantastic quality for 35mm and medium format, but I didn’t use it enough to justify the money tied up in it.

[louis]

I’m using an Epson V600 and am still, to this day, so pleasantly surprised that they released updated 64-bit software after the latest MacOS update. Astonishing. I would have guessed that such a thing would still be years away…

I’ve tried some third party software but didn’t get on with it. I was initially worried that scanning would take some of the pleasure out of the process - but it’s actually a real treat getting to finally see the images.

I’m also still unsure to what extent my scanner asserts its own opinions on colour/contrast - but I’m really pleased that the particular tonal quality of the film being used still seems to shine through.

[brasslens]

First processed film for about a year - relief the negs came out ok and excited at the prospect of printing again over the next couple of days.

[mattlowery]

I just ordered a couple rolls of cinestill film. Excited to try it out.

[squim]

are those 4x5? Looks like good contrast!

[brasslens]

They are 5x4 - Fompan 200 dev’d in Foma R09

[nuun]

Sorry I forgot to post my first results with cinestill on lines. Here we go:

[Album] Joris

And

[Album] Joris

Soon: cinestill 800t 120 film

[nuun]

Epson v800 with Silvervast works good enough for me. I have no experience with other scanners or software though.