Leica M3, 21mm Super-Angulon, Neopan 400, developed in Rodinal 1:45
I just works for me. The diagonal of the arm, the pose of my sister-in-law on the left, the depth of the image without excessive `wide angle distortion’.
Well, I unpacked the enlarger, taped a few bin-liners to the windows and experimented a bit.
I used some old paper that was packed in with the enlarger and trays (making it at least 25 years old, probably well past 30), developed in Rodinal (the only suitable developer I had, since 30 year old developer is probably even more of a crapshoot than 30 year old paper), used a water stop and my normal fixer.
Note that this is a bad scan from an office copier. The actual print is much sharper and has no banding.
As you can see, the paper was heavily fogged ((Interesting detail: The paper was probably older than the girl in the picture)), but the image is still recognizable. Considering that I pretty much winged both exposure and development, and this is the second print I made (ever), I’m actually pretty satisfied.
Specs: Neopan 400@320, Rodinal 1:50; Ilford Ilfospeed #3, Rodinal 1:25
I just ordered some fresh paper and a proper paper developer. More to come…
Shot two weeks ago in the east of the Netherlands, a close up of a fish ladder. A little experiment with shapes and close-ups.
Leica M3, 135mm Tele-Elmar, Neopan 400, developed in Rodinal 1:45
Leica M3, 50mm Summicron, Neopan 400, developed by my lab in Ilford chemistry.
It’s something new for me, but one of the first shots where I really think I got to the gist of B&W photography (at least what I want to do with it).
Leica M3, 50mm Summicron, Neopan 400, Rodinal 1+45 (11 minutes).
I managed to get on film what I wanted to get when I pressed the shutter…
Part of this is due to the fact that my lab charges more for B&W development than they do for colour (slide) development. (Or their contact sheets are very expensive). Costs run to over 10 EUR per roll. At over 2 rolls a week on average, that gets to over 100 EUR a month.
Luckily, when I chose my film, I went for a classic B&W film, so I dug up my parents’ old developing equipment and ordered some chemicals. This weekend, I developed my first few rolls. It was easier than I expected.
I used Agfa Rodinal, since it’s very cheap ((The `try the cheapest, upgrade if necessary’ tactic worked well for my film, so I applied it here as well.)) and lasts forever (reportedly). I used a 1+45 dilution ((I wanted something around 1+50 and my tank (Jobo 2400) has a 450ml capacity, so 450ml water + 10ml concentrate is easy to measure off, giving great reproducability.)) and developed for 11 minutes, with 30 seconds agitation every 3 minutes. Followed by a water stop-bath and 6 minutes in RXA fixer (rapid, non hardening). Temperature was around 19 degrees, which is the temperature of the tapwater in my kitchen ((Once again, taking the easy way out.)).
I also caught up with my scanning this weekend, so from now on, I can develop and scan each roll in a reasonable time. Who needs digital?
This is Ben, one of our cats. He’s about one year old now.
Shot with the Leica, of course. As you can see from the emphasized grain, the photo was slightly underexposed, but once again I was saved by the large dynamic range.
Because it’s a good, well focussed portrait of a cat. As anyone who’s ever photographed cats knows, it brings along its own difficulties. Taking a picture of a cat isn’t hard, if you don’t mind your subject being either a) sleeping, b) motion-blurred or c) not looking at you. Getting one to look at you and sit still for long enough to take a picture takes either hypnosis, skill or luck ((I’m not counting taxidermy, that’s just cheating.)). In this case, it was mostly the last.