SHARE YOUR FILM SHOOTING OUTINGS HERE - Communal Thread (warning, may be picture heavy)

TheBigYin

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After a Brilliant Idea by a certain @Asha of this parish, its been decided that what we kind of need is a place to share "the whole story" behind our Film shooting excursions.

What the Hell are you on about Mark, I hear you thinking... Well, let me try and explain...

I'm talking about a kind of "joint blog" where you can raise a post for a photo trip. And you can document it, with words (naturally, this is a largely text based forum), with the occasional "mood setting" picture to give the readers an idea of what you had to contend with, AND, again, pictures (probably digital/cameraphone) of any interesting or novel ways you had to deal with the terrain around your chosen viewpoint - so it could (say) be a picture of the camera on tripod, a foot above ground, with a bin bag on the floor behind it, so you could lie behind the viewfinder and not get soaked to the skin... or (say) a camera and tripod 3 yards out into the water as you attempt to get a picture of "that tree" somewhere in the lakes, but it'd been raining for the past few months and high water was a lot higher than last time you were there... OR, oh - i dunno - anything interesting or fun, or clever, or something we others might learn from....

And, I'm not averse to there being the odd "digital polaroid" as a teaser for what is to come when the negs finally come out of the soup and scanner...

Now, this isn't REALLY the photo sharing area, but I've added it here because, well, if we post it in the Photo's from Film, the images will end up on the front page image slider. And, some doofus will wander in here, and critique the BTS snapshots, or, as per usual, ask for the colour version of the 5x4 image and get all bent out of shape when you tell them it was shot on Acros 100 and there IS NO COLOUR VERSION. Then they'll start being a cockwomble, i'll get dragged in here, and it'll all get messy... So, we're not having any of that. Please, if you think this is in the wrong place, DONT RTM IT, as it'll result in me swearing at you via PM for not reading this disclaimer.

And that's it really - for the moment, I'm expecting it'll initially be populated by people who've already got documentation of earlier trips, but I'd love to see it continue as an on-going testament to us all getting back out there after lockdown and spending the time that we've realised just how precious it can be...

Original Idea came from here - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/sharing-outings.711673/#post-8715388 and initially, until this thread settles down and people get the idea of what it is, what it can be and where it can or should go (because, this is F&C and we always go off on little meanders...), maybe we could keep any "nuts and bolts" discussion of the thread direction and howto in there... Try and keep this thread for the actual outings and discussion of the trip/presentation -

So, Over to you guys...
 
Ok so it looks like I’m kicking this thread into first gear.
Out atm and have just taken this shot:

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Camera today is Chamonix 45h-1

This filling station literally exploded , well the propane gas cyclinders did four years ago iirc. It is/ was the only fuel outlet in the village the next nearest being 20 km away.

Due Togo’s slow systems work out here when it comes to admin procedures thé reopening is still on hold even though there is an interested entrepreneur.
For me personally, no longer possessing à motorised vehicle, it poses no problem but for many locals it is a serious inconvenience.
Directly across the road is the present and old gendarmerie.
A building which will soon become abandoned as a new one is being built near to the railway station .
So I’m going to set up and hopefully shoot a frame depending how the light falls as atm there are some harsh conteast.

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Ok so it looks like I’m kicking this thread into first gear.
Out atm and have just taken this shot:

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Camera today is Chamonix 45h-1

This filling station literally exploded , well the propane gas cyclinders did four years ago iirc. It is/ was the only fuel outlet in the village the next nearest being 20 km away.

Due Togo’s slow systems work out here when it comes to admin procedures thé reopening is still on hold even though there is an interested entrepreneur.
For me personally, no longer possessing à motorised vehicle, it poses no problem but for many locals it is a serious inconvenience.
Directly across the road is the present and old gendarmerie.
A building which will soon become abandoned as a new one is being built near to the railway station .
So I’m going to set up and hopefully shoot a frame depending how the light falls as atm there are some harsh conteast.

It's funny you should post this as I was looking only this weekend for abandoned fuel stations in the NW to use my 4x5 on.

That's a grand beard, too!
 
Looks an interesting shot mate...now then let's discuss the face fungus...bloody impressive :D(y)
 
Voilà both shots exposed. Heading home as firstly I have no unexposed holders left... I thought I had four sheets but upon inspection clearly not but I dunno what the other two are
!
Secondly the village weather is cut in too. Atmi I stand on the dividing line between sunshine and rain/ probable thunder .

D’itinéraire to head home and possibly occupy myself with some deving [emoji6]IMG_1004.JPG
 
Loving the beard Asha, like the product of an unholy alliance between Moses and the lovely but hirsute lady that worked in my local bakers.
 
That "bombed" out fuel station must have rattled a few windows!

I was hoping that Mark might be online so I could report the thread...

My name is Nod and I am a cockwomble (at times!) :p
 
The morning of the explosion, I lived not too far from the filling station( about 500 yards or so).

I woke believing we were experiencing an earthquake ( we get minor ones quite regularly) .

The blast did shatter a number of windows including some of the gendarmerie.

It took several hours to get the scene under control.

The inquest found the cause of the initial fire to be electrical but being during the middle of the night, no one picked up on it until it spread far and hot enough to make the bottles pop.
 
Ok continuing with today’s outing.

Before I collapse in a heap with exhaustion, I’ve decided to Dev the two exposures from today.

There are two more but unsure what’s on them as I’ve already souped the fungi one from the other day.

I rarely dev four sheets at a time, as I prefer to reduce risks of stuffing more than one negative should I make an error which does occasionally happen, thus
generally it’s one neg at a time for me but this evening is an exception.

So orbital processor ready to accept the four sheets.

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On commence alors:

Water added to orbital for prewash

Dev soup ready.

Stop and fixer in hot water to warm a few degrees up to 20c

Duration known off by heart so all ready for the off [emoji846]

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I have one of those orbital gizmos and I used it once for LF, I found it works well but the agitation bit was tricky to do without spillage. I put some blobs of glue on the bottom of the plate to lift the negs away from the surface (advice from???) it seems to work.
 
Last stage, the wash accompanied with an obligatory mug of coffee [emoji6]

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Voilà here’s the two frames shot today hung to dry in the shower.
The other two, well one was in stuffed, the other was shot yesterday( and I couldn’t even recall what was on it !!....memory failure along with everything else [emoji23]) It May prove to be a pleasing image for you to see so I’ll keep it secret and post if the scan/ print is worth it.

So there you have it , my first ‘live’ broadcast [emoji13]

So who’s next??

Don’t make me come in here with another before you lot do!!

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I have one of those orbital gizmos and I used it once for LF, I found it works well but the agitation bit was tricky to do without spillage. I put some blobs of glue on the bottom of the plate to lift the negs away from the surface (advice from???) it seems to work.

I love the orbital.... I now have two and find them so much easier than the mod54 of which I also have two [emoji849]

Never had much of issue as to having to score the base or put blobs on it.

Agitation is fine for me with 100ml of solution which is a 1:31 solution of hc110.
Well nigh on.
It’s 100ml water with an egg spoon (3ml) of syrup.
That mix will dev four 5x4 sheets or one 10x8 with no problem re strength.
Dev time is reduced to account for continual agitation.

Are you agitating with the motor base? I always do it manually by hand.... no comments thank you !![emoji23]
 
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I love the orbital....[...] Dev time is reduced to account for continual agitation.

Interesting. If I start to shoot more than 4 frames of LF per year, I think I'd like to get an Orbital. I definitely don't like the taco method, and 700 mls of solution... OMG!

Do you reduce the dev times by 15% (as I do for the Rondinax)?
 
Interesting. If I start to shoot more than 4 frames of LF per year, I think I'd like to get an Orbital. I definitely don't like the taco method, and 700 mls of solution... OMG!

Do you reduce the dev times by 15% (as I do for the Rondinax)?

Precisely that so the standard 6 mins for ilford delta 100 or fomapan 100 becomes five mins six secs.
 
I have one of those orbital gizmos and I used it once for LF, I found it works well but the agitation bit was tricky to do without spillage. I put some blobs of glue on the bottom of the plate to lift the negs away from the surface (advice from???) it seems to work.
Advice was from the late Roger Hicks.
 
This weather is becoming irritating. Just got to a location that I came across a while ago which is the abandoned retirement home .There is a small section at the side of the building which interests me so I’m here with the intrepid 10x8 but of course rain is now threatening.

I am going to set up under shelter and see how I get on.....

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So outside didn’t happen.

Technically I am trespassing ( not that I’m doing harm to anything or anyone) and literally only a hundred yards or so from the gendarmerie!!

Atm I’m tucked away sat here:

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It’s 17:39 local time and i will be going nowhere until 18.45 as I came out with the last sheet of film I have loaded in a film holder.
Of course it has to be fomapan 100.
I quite like the film and the reciprocal issue generally don’t bother me however the image that I ended up choosing to shoot is in a dim location and the necessary exposure is 4 mins..... that’s before recip compensation.
Calculated by my own makeshift methods, I have an exposure duration of EIGHTY ONE MINUTES!!!.

It’s the longest exposure I have ever attempted and one that for sure was not planned.
It will be an absolute miracle of the negative is even worthwhile as focusing on the groundglass was like trying to obtain sharp focus of my black cat in an unlit cellar!!

So who’s bored and wants to keep me amused for an hour ?

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I’ve just recalculated the exposure time and tbh it’s nearer to 87 mins although with these sort of times a few mins is unlikely to make a whole whist of difference.

For info my specs for reciprocity go upto 60 secs so I looked back on other durations and very roughly there is a multiplication of 2.5 for each stop ( at least that’s how it is from measured exposures of 15 secs upwards.

60secs metered gives an actual expore time of 843 secs so I multiplied by 2.5 to get a metered two min exposure then again the same multiplication to obtain some idea of what duration is needed for a metered four minute exposure.

843 x 2.5. = 2107

2107 x 2.5= 5267

5267 \ 60 = 87.7 minute exposure!

Is it not obvious that boredom has already took a serious hold [emoji23]
 
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Good news, I make it only 70 minutes according to the reciprocity app I've used for years.

Perhaps there’s a chance of me getting to the grocery store before closing at 7pm then!

If not I may have to turn to blix or it’s b&w chemical equivalent to get me through the night till I can shop tomorrow [emoji23]
 
I must admit that I like a well seasoned d76 before tea but after nothing hits the spot like a fixer that's basically saturated with silver and left to rest for a few weeks.
 
I must admit that I like a well seasoned d76 before tea but after nothing hits the spot like a fixer that's basically saturated with silver and left to rest for a few weeks.
Another 10 mins and I’ll close the shutter. That’ll be a good 70 mins so if underexposed you’ll owe me a sheet of 10x8
 
Well thanks to @Steveo-mcg , I cut my calculation of 80+ mins down near to his recommendation of 70.

A good move looking at the neg.

Possibly a tad over exposed and the focus isn’t nailed but it’s a result[emoji106]

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In a situation like that, might a laser pointer help achieve focus?
 
In a situation like that, might a laser pointer help achieve focus?
Yes that’s a good idea.
Your comment reminds me that when I was focusing the ruins of the old olive press ( photo in FPOTY) , I actually sat my mobile phone in one of the darkest areas with its torch switch on.
For some reason I never thought to do similar yesterday duh!!

edit. I cud do with one of them laser thingymajigs to keep the young cat occupied when she pesters the elder to play..... without success lol
 
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I think after this expedition I’m going to refuse to post anymore until someone else shares an outing or some sort of togging experience if you’re still stuck at hone.

Just a 20 min walk uphill from home gets me in this location which I’ve used before.

Canham dlc45 set up ..... just waiting fordecent light / skies if they arrive..... if not tant pis as the French say ( hard luck! )

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For those people who wonder why I enjoy LF so much, we’ll besides the using of the kit, the large negs and the slow methodical practices involved, this is the other reason even if I don’t fire the shutter, sat waiting for the right light....
What’s not to like?!
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I entirely agree with you mate. LF is a pain, heavy, cumbersome, way too many things to remember and far too many ways of buggering it up however the process is almost zen-like at times and when it's right it's very right, I hope to get it right one day :)
I am in the process of working out a still life shot or two so you'll see my indoor set up soon. I've finally sorted out my issue with using an old brass lens on my Chroma so I'm going to use that.
 
I entirely agree with you mate. LF is a pain, heavy, cumbersome, way too many things to remember and far too many ways of buggering it up however the process is almost zen-like at times and when it's right it's very right, I hope to get it right one day :)
I am in the process of working out a still life shot or two so you'll see my indoor set up soon. I've finally sorted out my issue with using an old brass lens on my Chroma so I'm going to use that.

Excellent [emoji106]
Already looking forward to it matey [emoji6]
 
Just FYI, don’t use a laser pointer to focus on. Even a low power one will produce a very bright spot, and using coherent light will produce speckle, and you’ll struggle to focus on this as a result. Just take a small torch and either shine it on what you want to focus on from the camera position, or place it in the scene and walk back to the camera to focus. In combination with a loupe, this should be completely adequate.
 
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Just FYI, don’t use a laser pointer to focus on. Even a low power one will produce a very bright spot, and using coherent light will produce speckle, and you’ll struggle to focus on this as a result. Just take a small torch and either shine it on what you want to focus on from the camera position, or place it in the scene and walk back to the camera to focus. In combination with a loupe, this should be completely adequate.
Thanks for that Woodsy
Seems that my mobile phone torch ( which is surprisingly bright) will suffice then.... it did when placed in the scene for focusing on the darkest areas of the large “wheel” in the olive press shot.
Saves carrying yet another accessory.[emoji6]

Having looked at laser torches, I might still purchase one seeing as they can be had for coppers, simply to keep this youngest cat of mine entertained.
Eldest cat ( 12 years) will be grateful not to be pestered to death to play by a two year old![emoji23]
 
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As promised. Chroma with a Thornton Pickard Beck symmetrical lens which I think is around 230-240mm or 9" in old money. This wasn't quite the finished set up, I added a couple of extra props. I'll post up the results later as I've still got a couple of shots to take before I dev everything. I shall try using the Paterson Orbital this time I think.

Chroma still life set up by Andy, on Flickr
 
Franka Rolfix, OOD Ilford PanF, processed in a Kab-Bix with Cinestill DF96 Monobath. Not a set up shot but an in-situ camera shot and a shot from the Franka Rolfix a little while later. 424E3D90-E884-4896-96EE-9347E8AE59A1.jpeg898B19F0-D2CA-44A9-8D91-2D63791EC981.jpeg
 
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