#306

Light refracting through glass is one of my favorite subjects.

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#307

I only have a few rolls of Fuji Natura 1600 left in the fridge, and usually shoot it in my little Fuji Natura S camera but just had to blow a roll in XPAN…

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Sad to near the end of this film… Local film lab have been reloading Natura 1600 with HP5, so that the DX code triggers the Natura S camera into its special mode - will try it once all my Natura is done…

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#308

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#309

Hadn’t heard of that before – cool!

#310

Not my idea, but some artists use mold for interesting effects.

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#311

Natura S are great little cameras - I own a Contax T2 as well, but prefer the Natura S as has a wider faster lens (Contax maybe better for portrait/street photography)
If its of use, here is a link to many of my photos shot with my Natura S, gives an idea of lens & how beautiful it is when paired with Natura 1600 film:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=84002111%40N00&view_all=1&text=Natura%20S

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#312

This is stunning!!
Apparently a 1 in 500 success rate, which is an impressive commitment! I’d love to try it but not sure I’m willing to risk the film doing so.

#313

Very beautiful indeed!

(Quick look on eBay reveals these are the sleeper cameras I imagined they’d be :cold_sweat: :joy: )

1 Like
#314

I work with 16mm and 35mm motion picture stock. I use a lot of alt process in my films.
Check out my site ecstatic-erratic.com Or my Vimeo for a sense of what I do, some is less alt process and more experimental non fiction. Much involves modular

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#315

beautiful work!
ps there is a typo on first link
http://www.ecstatic-erratic.com

@ spacelordmother
The Natura S cameras were never released outside Japan, no english manual exists although they are fairly easy to use… they seem as reliable & quality similar to Contax T2 so they sell for similar $/yen…

#316

Some recent xpan shots in San Francisco (don’t want to overload the page, more here: taxonomies.fr)

Unfortunately my community darkroom is still closed so these are merely scans from negs :’(

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#317

It’s funny how you normalize things when you’re a kid. Growing up where I did, it took a long time before I realized that all ocean views didn’t include oil platforms.

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#318

Wow. these have a very ‘what decade is this?’ feel.

Only the cursive writing in the second suggests 1990’s or later, but it’s hard to say why, since this lettering isn’t for a commercial purpose.

#319

When you don’t get out much, you start photographing what’s at hand.

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#320

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4 minute long exposure at Petone Wharf, NZ…

Just got home from first road trip of 2020 and managed to shoot 24 rolls of film in 2 weeks!
All that time in lockdown doing location research & planning hopefully paid off…
Dropped film off to lab last week, can’t wait to see the scans!
13 rolls x Kodak TMax 100 x XPAN, 6 rolls x Kodak TriX 400 x Contax T2 and Canon 1V SLR
2 rolls x Kodak Ektar 100 x XPAN, 3 rolls x Fuji Natura 1600 x NATURA S

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#321

this is gorgeous. i see iso 100. what was your f-stop and aperture? it looks like a REALLY BRIGHT day from the upper left photo. i am surprised.

1 Like
#322

It would not be possible without using external filters - you can just see the top of the square filter in the iPhone photo. On very sunny days (as above) I use a Lee Filters Super Stopper which is ND15, so a 1/500th exposure becomes 1 minute. On less sunny days I use the Big Stopper which is ND10, so 1/15th becomes 1 minute.

I think for the shot above I was F8 or F11 for depth of field, but when setting up a shot it always involves a little bit of checking with apps, to compensate for ND filters and for film reciprocity, which varies depending on the film stock (eg the above shot with ND15 required a 2 minute exposure, but with Kodak Tmax100 that requires a 4’29" exposure once reciprocity is taken into account. 4+ minutes gets to the sweet spot for sea shots imho… For monochrome long exposures I use Tmax100 or FujiAcros100 due to predictable and manageable reciprocity. On this trip I also shot some colour long exposures using Kodak Ektar 100, cant wait to see how they come out)

Two apps that are essential for me shooting long exposures:

Lee Filters ND exposure app (free)

Film Reciprocity Timer (US$1.99)

To use the Lee Filters Seven Five system, I bought one of their adaptors for each xpan lens, and I can then load two filters into the filter holder (I have a few grads, ND3, ND10, ND15, and red, yellow filters) and the holder clips easily & securely on to the lens. Lee just released a new 85 system, which supersedes mine… You can buy screw on ND filters, but for ND10 and ND15 they are so dark you cannot see through them, so screw in makes framing & shooting a PITA as you need to focus & frame the shot, then add the filter etc… Clip on = much faster!

This is the new 85 system… I have had the 100mm system for much longer as use it with my DSLR. They also make a 150mm system for medium format cameras.

Apart from camera, lens & tripod, learning to use filters has been the best investment I have made for my photography. A great landscape photographer described the use of filters as ‘balancing the light’ especially when using grads (which is more tricky but not impossible with a rangefinder camera like the xpan)

5 Likes
#323

i have never worked with filters before. i am extremely intrigued. thanks for sharing all this stuff to research. i typically shoot 35mm with a canon ae-1. do you have any recommendations for a good starter set? the must haves, if you will.

#324

It’s definitely worth spending some time on the Lee Filters site - they have some very useful short videos with example shots using no filter, then ND10 and ND15 and grads.

When I started with filters my primary aim was long exposures, so I just got the Big Stopper ND10 (and the filter holder and an adaptor for each lens) Along with a cable release & good tripod, and those two apps and that would enable learning to shoot longexposures…

A lot of people shoot long exposures on digital, with very complex and time consuming post production, which almost turns photography into more of a graphic art… I prefer to try & get it right in camera and do minimal post. As above that is the raw scan on the top right - the lab always send me RGB scans & I have to always remind myself to convert to monochrome as I want black & white, not brown and white. So just a simple conversion and a little contrast control/black level tweak & done.

Also worth mentioning: there are a heap of great film photography books in secondhand bookstores that are a great source of info eg for filter use and lab processes etc…

Sorry, one other aspect to be aware of: as the shutter is open for so long you dont have your face/eye pressed against the back of the camera so you have to be careful of getting light leaks ie light entering via the viewfinder and exposing light on to the neg. Its especially bad if the sun is behind you, so direct sunlight is hitting the back of your camera. I wrap a filter cleaning cloth around the viewfinder… Will work out a more elegant solutions sometime… some people use a bit of sticky tape but I don’t want gaffer tape residue on the VF…

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#325

yesss i am all about getting it right in camera. i miss the dark room days at college, alas. thank you so much for the recommendations and advice.

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