The Infrared Film that I have been using is the old Kodak High Speed Infrared. I have quite a bit of stock left in 4" x 5" sheet film format. This film is long discontinued and the stock that I have left in my freezer hit its best before date almost a quarter century ago. The expiry dates on the boxes that I have are all in 2000 and 2001.
As a result of age some of the shots are showing a fair bit of fog, and are really susceptible to uneven development. The results seem to be better if I keep the film frozen and don't load my film holders until shortly before I plan to expose the film. Then, after exposure I pull the film from the holders and store the sheets in the refrigerator until I'm ready to develop them. I always try to accumulate a batch of at least 15 sheets or so, to make the best use of the chemistry, so some of it ends up being stored for a while before the batch accumulates to enough for processing. It's really all that I can do... to attempt to make use of it in this manner, and hope for the best.
I took these shots of Coliseum Mountain, from on the Forestry Trunk Road, near the Nordegg Industrial Park. The upper image is the one that I shot on Kodak High Speed Infrared. The film was loaded into the film holder on September 6th 2023, and the image was taken on November 21st 2023. The exposed film was pulled from the holder on November 26th 2023, and stored in the fridge until I developed the film on January 14th 2024. The film reached its expiry date in August of 2001.
I shot this on November 21st 2023 at about 3:00 in the afternoon. I used my one of my Ebony view cameras and a Fujinon-C 300mm lens. A number 25 red filter was used, with no filter factor. The film was rated at 100 iso and exposed at F22.0 for 1/30 second. Development was in Kodak T-Max Developer, diluted 1:6, for 6:45 minutes at 22C [71F]. There is a little uneven development noticeable in the image, but all things considered, it isn't too bad.
I actually have three Ebony view cameras. The one that I used for this shot was my Ebony SV45Ti. I recently purchased this camera used, from my friend Rob, when he gave up on large format photography. I keep that camera, and a small selection of lenses, out at Nordegg, so that I don't need to haul camera gear back and forth whenever I go out to the cottage.
The second shot was actually taken moments prior to the infrared version. It was taken on Ilford Delta 100 film, rated at 160 iso and given N+1 development in PMK. Exposure was with the same camera and lens, and a number 25 red filter with a three stop filter factor was used. Exposure was at F22.0 for 1/4 second. Development was on my Jobo Processor for 22:30 minutes at 20C [68F].
The images certainly look very different and I'm not sure which one I like better. I posted this mostly just as an example so that the differences between these films could be seen side by side. Of course if the Infrared film wasn't so far out of date, it would have a little more snap and contrast.
No comments:
Post a Comment