Thursday, May 27, 2010

Juliet lakeside





Juliet at Lake Lowell

This is my sweet Juliet on a windy day at Lake Lowell. The light was soft and beautiful, and I had my trusty Minolta XD-11 loaded with Ilford Pan F+. Life is good!

Film: Ilford Pan F+
Format: 35mm
Developer: GSD-10
Dilution: 1:7.5
Time: 20:00
Temp: 70F
Agitation: Semi-Stand


Monday, May 24, 2010

TMY-2 and GSD-10

Juliet at Celebration Park

I still grin from ear to ear every time I develop a roll of TMY-2; what a feat of engineering! TMY-2 is, as the package reminds us, the sharpest 400 speed film in the world, and its grain is as fine as many 100 speed films. GSD-10 was formulated with slow, quick-to-build-contrast, fine grained films in mind. The compensating effect of GSD-10 and stand development really tames these films, opening up shadows, and protecting delicate highlight detail, but it's the midtones that matter most to me. The micro contrast produced by this film/developer combination is quite impressive. I'll be experimenting with this combination a lot, and sharing my findings here. Here's the developing information for the above photo:

Film: TMY-2
Format: 120 (6x7)
EI: 400
Developer: GSD-10
Dilution: 1:7.5
Time: 20 min
Temp: 70F
Agitation: 1 minute initial, 10 seconds at 1/2 way point

The light was very flat (SBR 5.5)

Monday, May 17, 2010

Ultrafine + ISO 100, aka Lucky film


Juliet at Curtis Park

This image was made with Ultrafine + 100 film from Photo Warehouse. Many clues suggest it is re-labelled Lucky film from China, but I have no direct evidence it is. The film is wrapped in a black backing paper with no band to secure it once exposed (120 format), just a small and inadequate peel and stick square at the end of the paper backing itself. Don't trust it! I did with my first roll, and it came undone, fogging several frames. The film has a nasty curl to it that makes it difficult to load onto reels for processing, and dries into a tube after processing, complicating printing or scanning. There are no edge markings on the film, nor is there anything on the backing paper to identify the film once removed from the cheap, foil wrapper. These problems are enough to dissuade me from buying more once my current supply runs out, and that's a shame, because the film is actually very nice; it's sharp, fine grained, and true to its box speed, but so is Fuji Acros, which suffers none of the skimpiness of this budget film. I've finally learned my lesson regarding budget films, and will stock Fuji Acros as my slow film, and TMY-2 as my fast film, and I could do without the Acros, in most circumstances, and all formats except 35mm. Those more tolerant of handling quirks might find the following information useful.

Film: Ultrafine + 100
ISO: 100
Format: 120
Developer: GSD-10
Dilution: 1:5
Time: 7:30
Temp: 70F
Agitation: 10 sec/ minute, inversion