Film and Alt-Process Photography

[Cementimental]

I’ve included the fourth photo (bails/sky) because I noticed on this and some others these grey splodges

ghosts of course but yes they could be something like paranormal ‘orbs’ ie bits of dust floating in the air near the lens made visible by lighting conditions

[karst]

are you sure they’re not just some dust that is slightly out of focus that was on your scanner glass?

also, Portra is the best thing ever

[coreyr]

Ah, the mystery of the out of focus dust particles. This is not as likely, but I have one very short throw c-mount cinema lens for 16mm film that have a couple pieces of dust in between the elements. The dust is normally not visible unless I stop the aperture all the way down to f/22 or f/32, and the area of the frame is light and smooth, like a clear sky. Again, a totally functional lens that I really love how it renders light in all but that one situation.

[louis]

Dust in the lens? Rats… I guess a good approach would be to take a bunch of photos of a plain background and see if I can replicate these ghostly apparitions. Or, easier still, and more rewarding, further pictures of the sky at similar settings… I’ll report back once I’ve plucked up the courage to develop another roll of colour film. Thanks all!

[simondemeule]

My first roll of film. Shot on a Pentax Spotmatic I got for 50$ on Lomography 400, with some digital color processing after the fact.

Not too happy about the contrast (pre-digital editing) and the grain of the film, I don’t know all the variables to the equation yet — maybe it’s the scans, maybe it’s the film, maybe I did something stupid I don’t remember while shooting. But what I absolutely love is that film forces you to think carefully before you shoot, so I ended up with a collection of images of which maybe 80% were interesting, as opposed to the 5% I get on digital cameras. And those that weren’t visually interesting brought me back to moments I loved. No more sorting through dozens of duplicates to figure out which one is slightly better.

The last one was a purely accidental double exposure — things just magically aligned.

[praffensperger]

Wonderful pictures. I like the grain in the photos you shared, but I also understand how it could be frustrating since you can’t turn it off.

[simondemeule]

Thank you for the kind words. I can’t quitte put my finger on it, but something just feels wrong when I view them in full resolution on my monitor — it’s as if there was some kind of weird digital aliasing taking place. Maybe my brain is just not used to analog grain yet!

[simondemeule]

Maybe I’m not crazy and there actually is digital aliasing going on with the scan. I stumbled upon this article, which interestingly applies some of the same principles used in audio processing and sampling to explain what might be going on. What are your thoughts and experiences related to this?

[SYS2064]

grain is an essential part of a picture, photographers use grain as well as musicians use sounds. : )

[quixot]

Scanning is a whole art/science unto itself. Type of glass used, flatness of the film or how the film is sat in the scanner, distance between the film and the scanner, image color and contrast profiles, qualitiies of the film itself vs the intended printing medium. I find scanning very exhausting

[Angela]

The last one was a purely accidental double exposure — things just magically aligned.

More of this please.

[stripes]

the grain in this film is so nice imo

it almost looks to me like the film was pushed (metered/had camera set to a faster ISO than 400)? that would definitely increase grain + contrast. but could also very well just be the lomo film which i find to be pretty highly stylized. it doesn’t look like there is any digital weirdness going on anyway…

also re: color developing at home ~
after processing probably close to 20-30 rolls of film in the last couple of months using only one little analog thermometer, i bought this for my color developing and it totally changed my life. no more boiling water kettle and kneeling over my bathtub constantly maintaining 105 degrees during the 30 second intervals i have between agitations! totally worth it for longer developing sessions and i could definitely see the difference in end result.

some recent walkabouts -

[simondemeule]

Lovely colors! I like how your series conveys calm and contemplation.

What you noted about my the colors of my shots is likely the extra bit of contrast I added digitally.

[delmerdarion]

I recently returned from a trip to Nepal doing the Everest base camp trek which was an absolutely amazing experience!

It was a 16 day trip with little access to electricity for charging cameras/phones so I took it as an opportunity to dig out my parents old film camera. I used an Olympus Trip 35 which turned out to be perfect for the job - super easy to just point and shoot. Here is my favourite shot…

[nuun]

i’ve been developing a lot and didn’t want to spam the thread but here are some of my recent favorites.

The same here

More here:

Joris (@joristimothebroekhoven) • Instagram photos and videos

[louis]

I kept cropping this one (digitally - no enlarger yet…) which I don’t usually like doing but I like the effect here. Kinda like charcoal:

A lot of my photos keep getting this single long straight line across them. So annoying? Does anyone know what it is? I’m sure there’s stuff on the internet but I thought I’d ask here because you guys are all lovely. Can you see it, just above the horizon?

[Hovercraft]

I’ve seen similar artifacts when one element of the ccd scanning array has a spec of dust on it. Can you gently blow off the scanning array?

[dianus]

When I was younger I really enjoyed film processing and developing.

Alt-process still fascinates me. I remember reading about this technique in school using the ammonia in windex to develop photo paper https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-develop-a-photo-using-blueprint-paper-and-W/

This is not my photo. It demonstrates a solargraph. A long exposure on photo paper. the solar paper is loaded into a tube (in the past I used a pringles can lined with tin foil) and a small pinhole is cut. Developing can take up to days or months. Roofs or telephone poles are good spots to leave it. You can see the transit of the sun and the moon in this type of photo. I wonder if people would have a different reaction nowadays to strange tubes taped to telephone poles.

[louis]

Thanks! I’ll give that a try and will report back.

[Antharia]

I still have an old flickr account, i used an Olympus OM-10.