film type help

onefunkypenguin

onefunkypenguin

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dave
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hey guys, i need some help...

i'm planning on shooting my 3a photography class on film and need some help with films.

im planning on shooting this on a mamiya 645 camera with various lenses in a flat with studio lights, im looking for a grainy black and white film that will look good printed but scanned too if possible.

my lecturer recommended i try a few different films, something i will be doing this week but thought i would ask you knowledgeable people to get a starting point!
 
For grain you want a high ISO film, So Ilford HP5 400 would be a good starting point. You could rate it higher and push process it for more grain.

The next step up really is something like Delta 3200

No idea how well these scan but im not aware of any known issues.
 
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This site is a great help with stuff like that LINK

Shows loads of examples of different films and different ways od developing or pushing it.
 
Thanks Chris, I will take a look and see what information I can find!

Ideally, I am only looking for 3 or 4 films that i can shoot side by side and see which I prefer, gives me more brownie points as I am researching everything i can for this unit.
 
I've even just found some great stuff on developing C41 process black and white film in normal black and white chemicals, some great results too!!!
 
SparkUK said:
I've even just found some great stuff on developing C41 process black and white film in normal black and white chemicals, some great results too!!!
Click to expand...

Sounds interesting, can you post a link?
 
I was just going to say that BY, for real harsh images try cheap and nasty old stock crappy colour film and develop in BW chemistry. Having said that, I just did some Superia and it turned out rather nice too.
 
I would suggest Ilford Delta 3200.
Here are some examplesand a little 'test' on my blog:
http://http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/2008/02/ilford-delta-3200.html
The great thing about Delta is it's a lowish contrast film so you can push it to quite high EI like 12,800 without it being too contrasty.

Here are some examples at high speeds
http://http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/2008/07/pushing-envelope.html
It certainly has grain even in 120 size, depending on your style you may rather push something like Tri-x which will give more contrast and gritty grain even at moderate pushes like EI1600.

Ilford 3200 and Tri-x or HP5 would be ones to try...
 
Rolleikin said:
I would suggest Ilford Delta 3200.
Here are some examplesand a little 'test' on my blog:
http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/2008/02/ilford-delta-3200.html
The great thing about Delta is it's a lowish contrast film so you can push it to quite high EI like 12,800 without it being too contrasty.

Here are some examples at high speeds
[URL="http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/2008/07/pushing-envelope.html[/URL]
It certainly has grain even in 120 size, depending on your style you may rather push something like Tri-x which will give more contrast and gritty grain even at moderate pushes like EI1600.

Ilford 3200 and Tri-x or HP5 would be ones to try...
Click to expand...


fixed the links for you (y)

although, second link still doesn't work ???

This one does ...http://photo-utopia.blogspot.com/2008/07/pushing-envelope.html
 
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RaglanSurf said:
Sounds interesting, can you post a link?
Click to expand...

This was one of them but you can just search for c41 or xp2 etc http://filmdev.org/recipe/show/6051

TheBigYin said:
Have you seen what a certain Arthur of this parish has been doing with C41 in B&W chemicals ?
Click to expand...

I'll take a look right now :) Thanks

Ambermile said:
I was just going to say that BY, for real harsh images try cheap and nasty old stock crappy colour film and develop in BW chemistry. Having said that, I just did some Superia and it turned out rather nice too.
Click to expand...

Can you post a few samples?
 
So does the colour film come out as black and white then? But with a nasty colour cast?
 
Well, not nasty no, but yes it has a colour cast, sometimes blue, sometimes orange, sometimes green. It's simply a case of scanning in BW or sorting in the pp package of your choice. Obviously contrast takes a dive and needs a "helping hand" in the same way but for 50p a roll and easy to use chemicals it sure as hell beats ISO3200 and pro labs!
 
Give me a minute and I'll do a colour scan of the Superia from the XA2 yesterday
 
OK, look at this:

gradual.jpg


From the left... scanned, inverted, levels, convert bw, contrast boost


Simples, more work at the pp end makes for better pics, as does making sure you only expose a film once (this one went through the Dynax 7 first, then the XA2... bit a of a cockup on the film control front there!
 
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TheBigYin said:
Have you seen what a certain Arthur of this parish has been doing with C41 in B&W chemicals ?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update BY, this post seems to have passed me by a bit, I either assumed it was standard E6-C41 cross processing or Arthur in a frock :LOL:

There's some really nice effects, the grainy images have a wondeful gritty feel to them, I think a wander round some the less salubrious parts of London may be in order.
 
If you want grain develop using rodinal, here is an image on delta 400 exposed correctly...

img054-3.jpg
 
Wow, lots of replies in here!

I have four films i'm planning on shooting tomorrow, fuji acros, fuji neopan, ilford fp4 and ilford hp5.

From speaking to my lecturer, developing half of each film in standard rodinal and half in PQ developer is the route I plan on going. This gives me a total of eight choices to choose from which is more than enough.
 
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