Shots from Bodega Bay

These photos were shot at Bodega Bay in December 2011.

Farm

Farm, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

Old abandoned farmhouse near Bolinas, CA.

Unfortunately the white walls were a bit overexposed and now look slightly murky.

Skyscraper

Skyscraper, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

Battery street

Battery, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

Flag

Flag, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

Montgomery

Montgomery, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

This is the first shot taken with Ekfe PL 100 M film.

Hard to say anything definite of the film from one shot, but it looks to have higher contrast than Ilford FP4+ and also bigger grain. I'll have to see some more shots to give better opinion about it.

Results from the night shoot

Osgood, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

I scanned the negatives from a night shoot some days back. They look absolutely fantastic! The old Dogmar lens can't really take any highlights and all bright spots are beautifully haloed. The contrast is not too high and I actually increased the contrast in Photoshop after the scan. No other editing done.

I scanned at 6400DPI which resulted in 32000 * 25600 pixel (800mpix?) files so if someone needs a large print I have files to give ;)

Bay Bridge

Bay Bridge, originally uploaded by M Skaffari.

Finally got around scanning some of my large negatives. This turned out to be a bigger issue than I thought. I didn't consider the size of the images / files.

Scanning 4x5 inch negative at 6400dpi results in 1.23G TIFF file. That also results in ~ 70x90 inch print at 300dpi so maybe i'm scanning a bit too high resolution if i'm just putting the files in the internet. If I need to print the images I will just scan at desired size.

Otherwise I have to say I like the results for both paper image scanning and film scanning. I can recommend the Epson V700 to everybody.

Finally got around to testing the Arista paper

It has been a long time since I managed to go into the darkroom. I finally managed to test out the Arista paper I got back in November! Not sure what happens with all my time...

I used Arista Private Reserve Paper and printed from Kodak T-max and Agfa APX films.

The paper is very nice. Easy to handle, it sits very flat. Contrast range is very usable, I ended up printing on grades 2 (T-max) and 3 (APX). The base is very white and the paper produces slightly warm toned grays. Overall I would say this paper is excellent value for money.

Now I still need that scanner to get the images from paper to computer.

My Parents

My Parents
Originally uploaded by M Skaffari

Portrait with natural light through window on camera right. White reflector on the camera right just outside the shot. Shot in our Pacific Heights apartment on 20th of June 2009.

Graflex Anniversary Speed Graphic
Goerz Dogmar 6.5in f4.5
FP4+
f8 / 1/25s

North Beach By Night

North Beach By Night
Originally uploaded by M Skaffari

Picture finally digitalized after almost an year. This was shot on Jan 20 2009 in North Beach in San Francisco.

Graflex Anniversary Speed Graphic
Goerz Dogmar 6.5in f4.5
FP4+
f11 / 1s

Disapontment

Now I did it! I took half a box of non-exposed film to be developed. I feel like a moron. Luckily Chris from Photoworks had pity on me and I only paid half for what I would have paid normally.

This experiment cost me ~10$ in film and ~25$ in processing. So 35$ learning on how to mark film boxes.

The solution: Have 1 box that is for exposed film. Write very clearly "EXPOSED, Ready to be developed" on the box. All other boxes of film should be marked "Instructions for lab: DO NOT DEVELOP, THE IDIOT BROUGHT NON-EXPOSED FILM HERE. Call him at: 555 1234". This way the lab at least checks with you before ruining your film and making you pay for it.

Darkroom

I managed to carve few hours to go into a darkroom to develop few pictures yesterday. It was a blast. This time there were other people in the darkroom also, 5 total including me. Occasionally there was a queue to the development trays.

I made 3 prints from my 4x5's and two from 35mm negatives. It really is so much nicer to work with large film. I highly recommend to everybody. The 35mm negatives were shot using Ilford XP2 Super film which is one of my favorite films to print from. It paled in comparison to Ilford FP4 Plus in 4x5 format.

I know the math when enlarging from 35mm compared to 4x5. There are 20 times more data in the 4x5 thus 20 times the details. I'm still amazed by the difference when looking at the prints side by side.

Now I need to get the images scanned so I can show off. Naturally the web presentation won't do any justice to the prints. But at least my parents can see a picture of themselves ;)

Darkroom time

Yesterday I went to my local darkroom Rayko here in San Francisco. The plan was to make contact prints of my recent 4x5s and maybe few proper prints from my older negatives.

I really have to start going to the darkroom more often. I was so rusty and working there wasn't as enjoyable as it once was.

Still got 3 decent prints and all needed contacts done. All this should have been done in less than an hour, but due my rustiness it took almost 2.

I'm still looking for a good scanner so I can start scanning my prints and maybe going digital in processing black and white film into pictures also.

Portraits

I shot few portraits of my parents while they were visiting me here in San Francisco. One of my mother turned out OK, but the one of my Father has some camera shake in it. I'm still struggling to get close enough to the subject for portraits with my Dogmar lens. The 6.5 inch lens is too wide for portraits and my backdrop, even when it is big enough got portraits with my DSLR, is not big enough to work comfortably.

WIndy windy

The negatives from my last shoot show a lot of camera movement. The exposures were 10 and 15 seconds and the big camera really took the wind from the Bay blurring the shots. I'll have to go do this all again on a calm night. Otherwise the negatives look good.

Results

Got the latest batch of negatives back from the shop today. The good news first. All four negatives seem to have been shot the right way around. Good for me.

The not so good news is that two of the negatives show signs of serious light leak. I'll have to mark the film holders and see if they consistently leak or if this is just due my carelessness.

The shot of the old truck looks really good!

1st print Negative #8, Barn

Barn
First print out of 4x5 negatives. I scanned it in the office and the results are not best possible, but this goes as preview. Now I need a proper scanner - bad.

Films are back from development

Got films 7 through 10 back from development yesterday. Here are some findings.

The drawing circle on my Dogmar is so small that when I dropped the bed for shot #7 the upper corners were cut off. The bed was dropped in order to get better DOF for the shot. I have to test if compensating by rising the lens would yield better results.

I can load the film into the wooden holders a tad crooked or I can put the film holder into the camera a bit crooked. In any case the shot #9 was not streights in relation to the film.

The eyes, the eyes

I got the negatives (#5 & #6) back from the shop today. Both were otherwise ok, but the focus was a bit off. The DoF is so narrow in the Dogmar fully open that I really have to be careful with the focus. Now I have 2 negatives that are sharp on ears and soft in the eyes. Can't really fix that...