Donald Traxler's Poetry

Sunday, February 20, 2022

My Return to Film Photography - XI

I'm still shooting and developing film, but for this instalment 2-1/4 x 2-1/4" (6x6cm) medium-format shooting with my venerable Mamiya C33 is the focus. My promise to compare a couple of digital images to their 35mm film re-creations will have to wait until next time.

Since my 28" cable-release works so well with the C33 (much better than the 20 ft. air release, or my jury-rigged substitute for it), I decided to shoot some selfies using the cable-release. Doing this with a TLR with no internal metering or auto-exposure and (of course) no autofocus, presented some challenges. These would be direct, not mirror shots, and the distance would be limited by the cable-release and my arm. I measured the distance from my body to the film plane, and it turned out to be 38". I set this distance, as best I could, on the distance scale for the 80mm normal lens. With an 80mm lens, especially at this close distance, the depth-of-field would be quite shallow, and focusing would be critical.

I would be using the LED desk lamp for my main light, and had already measured its light with my two 35mm, auto-exposure cameras. With 400 ISO film, the Canon AE-1 gave me 1/30 sec. at f 2.8; the EOS gave me 1/30 sec. at f 4. I set the shutter of the C33 at 1/30 sec., and the aperture between f 2.8 and f 4. I also verified this setting with the Gossen Scout 2 handheld light meter (selenium photocell), which I had learned from previous experiments must be set for 150 ASA/ISO instead of 400, to compensate for the LED light source.

These were challenging conditions, thanks to the use of vintage equipment. As it turned out, though, all frames were well focused and properly exposed.

The film I would be using was Ilford HP5+, which is one of my favorites, just as it was many years ago.

In the course of this selfie shoot, which was pretty repetitive, I became overconfident and forgot that the cable-release holds the shutter button down until you unlock the release. This caused two of my twelve exposures to be wasted.

Development was very straightforward, and presented no problem. Ilford, of course, does not tell you what developing time to use with Kodak D-76, but their ID-11 is essentially the same developer. I developed the film for six minutes at 72°F, and got consistently excellent negatives.

Here are some results from the medium-format selfie shoot:

The framing of this shot was guesswork, based on the amount of the taking lens that was in my line of sight. After slight cropping, the file size of the scanned negative is 6.66 MB.

I often wish that I had a more youthful model. The angle of the single, LED light was unforgiving, but I like the honesty and accuracy of the shot. I also like its luminosity, which I don't think you would get in a digital shot. All scans were done at 2400 dpi. This is the full, uncropped negative, and the file size is 7.14 MB.

Apart from artistic considerations, one advantage of an extremely high-contrast rendition is that the file size of the scan will be much smaller than that of a normal, gray-scale version. This scan, which was also moderately cropped, has a file size of 2.47 MB.

Next time, we'll attempt some comparisons between film and digital, and between 35mm and medium-format. In the meantime, shoot film if you can!

(to be continued)

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Photo: Torso at Seventy-five

Age is just a number, and mine is fully listed. Shot on May 6, 2018. I'd like to say that Torquato Torso has improved with age in the intervening years, but that is sadly not the case.

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

If You Were Going to Say

Text and image are by Donald C. Traxler aka Donald Jacobson Traxler, and are hereby given into the public domain.

He Lives in a Dream / ᎠᏨᏯᎢ ᎠᎴᏂᏙᎭᏎ ᎠᏍᎩᏘᏍᎦ ᎭᏫᎾ

My Return to Film Photography - X

I've continued to shoot and develop film, most recently in 35mm. I'm using the Canon AE-1, with the new (to me) 50mm f1.4 FD normal lens. This lens is extremely sharp, and the results are so gratifying that I really don't want to shoot with any other lens. Unfortunately, the Canon EOS uses a different lens mount, so I'll be stuck using the 28-80mm zoom lens with it.

Here are a few of my recent shots:

The tree was shot in deep shade, 1/250 sec. at f5.6. For all of these shots, the film is Tri-X, rated at ISO 400.

This shot, looking up into the trees, was done at 1/250 and f16. I think the lens begins to be affected by the diffraction (? don't remember if this is the right word) limit at f16.

I had some trouble with water-spotting with the TX film. I am using a Paterson squeegee that I haven't really gotten used to. For 35mm, I think I would do better using my two fingers. I wish I still had my Yankee squeegee, with the soft sponge pads.

My agèd face shows the sharpness of the f1.4 normal lens. The main light source was the 60W quartz-halogen clamp light, and the exposure was 1/30 sec. at f5.6.

For comparison, here are a couple of digital shots:

I don't think they hold up too well against the film shots, but in the next instalment of this series, I'll try to re-create them on film. Then we can do a more proper comparison. In the meantime, shoot film, if you can!

(to be continued)

Friday, February 11, 2022

This Body Is a Friend / ᎯᎠ ᎠᏰᎸ ᎨᏒᎠᏎ ᎤᎾᎵ

My Return to Film Photography - IX

Since the last instalment of this series, I've shot a couple of rolls of Ilford HP5+ in the C33, developed them, and scanned selected negatives. I'm happy with the results, though I'm sure I will do better as I re-familiarize myself with the camera.

I am also re-familiarizing myself with the processing of 120 film. For example, the other night I was opening a roll of exposed film (in the changing bag, of course), and that simple step was made much more difficult because I had not folded under the tongue of the backing paper before licking and sticking the tape. Now I know why I always used to do this. I had a hell of a time, because I couldn't find the right place (or any place) to cut the tape. Under normal conditions (especially now that I have a larger changing bag), I can get the film loaded onto the reel and the reel securely in the tank in ten minutes. This simple omission when I sealed the exposed roll added five minutes and some stress to the process.

Having jury-rigged a long cable release, I shot a lot of nude (but modest) selfies, under controlled conditions. Here is a sample:

This is a tight crop, representing about half the area of the original 6x6cm negative. The main light was a 60-watt quartz halogen indoor flood (not very well directed). I believe the exposure was 1/30 sec. at f5.6.

The Mamiya C33 has no internal metering. My handheld Gossen Scout 2 light meter has a selenium photocell that overestimates modern light sources such as LED and quartz halogen. For this reason, I have to set the meter's ASA/ISO at only 150 when I am using ISO 400 film with these light sources. Outdoors, in sunlight, I would set the meter's ISO normally, but I have less need of a light meter outdoors.

Here is a photo of our dog, Betty:

This was a spur-of-the-moment grab-shot (not easy to do with a TLR on a tripod). I panned and hastily focused. I had to act fast, so I left the exposure settings as they were from the previous shot (1/250 at f5.6, for deep shade). This was open shade, so f8 would have been preferable. HP5 has plenty of latitude, so not a problem. Betty's hair needed brushing, and she had some leaves stuck in her coat, as usual.

Since a regular cable release works just fine with the Mamiya, I decided to do a mirror selfie with the C33 beside me. Again, this is a tight crop, representing a relatively small part of the negative:

For this type of shot, one has to double the distance from the mirror to the camera's film plane. This I did, making the effective distance about nine feet, which I set on the distance scale for the 80mm normal lens. I must have stepped back a bit, though, since the camera seems to be more sharply in focus than I. The exposure was 1/30 at f4, so the lens is quite sharp, even at f4.

Until quite recently, all of my film cameras had maximum apertures of f2.8. Now, though, I have an f1.4 normal lens for the Canon AE-1 (two stops faster). This will make it possible to do some interesting shooting, which I'll share with y'all next time. In the meantime, shoot it with film, if you can!

(to be continued)