Winter Hockey - Game 21

The losing skid continues....  Last night the Renegades played a rare late weekday game.  The game started at 10:45PM so by the time I got home, had a shower and got to bed, it was 2:00AM.  Sure made it difficult to get up for work this morning.  Even tougher given that fact that we lost by a score of 10-7.  We played the team that calls themselves StAnkey... and they have overtaken us and moved into second place in our Divison.  They have one really good player, who has not been out the two previous times we played them.  He just kind of coasts around and doesn't really try.  But when they need a couple of goals he kicks into high gear and just outplays everyone.  He scored five of their goals and assisted on two more.  He probably could have scored a few more, but he backed off and didn't try at the end of the game, once they had a secure lead.  We are going to have to find a way to defend against this guy in the future.

Processing Ilford Films

Last weekend I processed a mixed batch of Ilford films.  All were 4" x 5" sheet film negatives.  This batch included 1 sheet of FP4+ that received normal development, 10 sheets of FP4+ that received N+1 development [for increased contrast], and 10 sheets of HP5+ that received normal development.

The FP4+ material was developed in Kodak HC-110 Developer, Dilution B.  Normal development was for 6:20 minutes, but the plus development sheets stayed in the chemistry for 14:20 minutes.

The HP5+ material was developed in Ilford Ilfotec HC Developer, 1:31, for 6:30 minutes.

I really like the FP4+ material with N+1 development and will continue to shoot with this combination when the situation dictates.  I don't particularly care for Normal development with this film and will probably not bother to shoot it that way in the future.

I continue to refine my development of HP5+ and in the future I will give the film less exposure and reduce development time as I believe this will yield an image with more crispness.  I am also experimenting with this film in 510 Pyro.

Processing was completed on the weekend but the film did not finish washing and get dried and scanned until tonight.  Almost all of these images were taken in 2013, during various trips out to the mountains.  There are a couple that were taken in the fall of 2014 on a trip down to the southern Alberta badlands.

The Monochrome Guild

About a dozen years ago I founded a local group of film based traditional photographers called The Monochrome Guild.  A lot of photographers have come and gone over the years, many giving up on film and the darkroom and switching to digital.  In recent years there has been a renewed interest in film and we have seen some younger members coming on board.  So, the Guild now has a core of a few long term, experienced members, as well as a number of recently joined members that are demonstrating a serious interest in film based photography.

Last week I hosted our first meeting of the 2015 season and there were a dozen members in attendance.  Everyone seemed anxious to move forward with some new projects this year.  We are planning a spring trip, some gallery submissions and a fall show, among other things.  It was great to get together with so many others that are also enthusiastic about photography.  We will be getting together again in a few weeks to move forward with some of the projects that were outlined at this past meeting.

Winter Hockey - Game 20

The Renegades reached the 2/3 point of our season with yet another loss....  this time to the last place Hungry Beavers.  It was one of those awful ice times, at 7:30AM on a Saturday.  I had to get up before 6:00AM in order to be at the rink on time.  Three of our guys didn't show up and we were forced to play with a short bench.  The game was close and we found ourselves trailing by just one goal, with just over two minutes left to play.  But then the Beavers scored a power play goal to put the game pretty much out of reach.  We sort of gave up at that point and then they managed to shovel in two more late goals for a 8-4 victory.  We now sit tied for for third place in our division, and clinging to the last playoff spot.  With ten games remaining in the regular season it is time to put an end to the losing streak and start to string together a few wins.  We have a chance to turn things around on Tuesday evening, with a late game at 10:45PM.  I'll take a late ice time like this any time over these awful morning games...!!

510 Pyro Developer

In recent month's I've been experimenting with 510 Pyro Developer, a formula that was established by American photographer Jay DeFehr.  Although Jay's interest in subject matter is much different than mine, he really likes to experiment in the darkroom and has come up with a number of developers that are beginning to gain some attention in the film based photographic community.  

This particular formula is a pyro based developer, which imparts a proportionate stain into the emulsion of the film.  As it is typically used at high dilution it also seems well suited to extended development in highly dilute solution.

I stumbled across some information on line that suggested a development time for Arista EDU Ultra 200 film in 510 Pyro.  This is a low-cost emulsion manufactured in Eastern Europe and distributed by Freestyle Photo out of Califormia.  As I had several boxes of this low-cost film in stock I decided to load some up and experiment with this developer.

The information I had come across recommended "Semi-Stand" development in a dilute solution of 510 Pyro.  This technique basically utilizes a very dilute developer solution with the film left to stand in it for an extended period of time, with little or no agitation.  The idea is that the developer quickly becomes exhausted and development stops in the highlight areas of the film, where there is a lot of silver halide to be converted to metallic silver.  In the shadows area where there is very little exposure of the emulsion, development continues for a longer period of time.  This technique is supposed to restrain highlights a little, and support shadow values.  I thought this would be perfect to experiment with on some building interiors.  This type of image tends to typically include some shadow values, as well as some areas of highlight that are considerably brighter.

I exposed my 4" x 5" Arista EDU Ultra 200 negatives at 200 iso, and developed in 510 Pyro, diluted 1:200, for 24 minutes, at 21 degrees C, with minimal agitation.  The film was initially agitated for a minute, but thereafter was only agitated 3 times, for 15 seconds, at 6:00 minute intervals.

Over the Christmas holidays, and at the beginning of January, I made several day trips out northeast of the city.  I photographed at the abandoned Monastery, as well as a couple of other locations.  While working at these locations, I shot a few extra sheets of this Arista film, and this past weekend I processed them in 510 Pyro, using this semi-stand technique.  I am quite encouraged by the results.  Eventually when I get around to processing some of the other negatives that I exposed at the same time, I will be able to determine whether or not this technique yields any appreciable improvement.

January Day Trip

On Sunday Margarit and I decided to head out for a day trip.  The weather was unusually mild for January, with the temperature peaking a couple degrees above freezing, no wind, and mostly clear skies.  Our friend Court came along as we headed back up to the abandoned Monastery northeast of the city.  When we photographed here a couple weeks ago a light seal on the Hasselblad that Margarit was using failed, and ruined a bunch of her shots.  She wanted to try again.  I am experimenting with some new film and developer combinations and was anxious to shoot some film and compare the results.  I processed one small batch of film earlier this week, but it is still in the process of being washed and dried.  The results are promising and I will scan and post a couple images in the coming days.  In the meantime here is a snapshot I captured with my cell phone camera....

Winter Hockey - Game 19

Yet another tough loss for the Renegades on Saturday afternoon.  We played against a team called Los Banditos, recently moved up into our division.  The game was close, and we were only trailing by a goal, with about 3 minutes left in the game.  They shovelled in a couple late ones to defeat us by a score of 7-4.  We actually outshot them during the game, but hit several goal posts and were facing a goaltender that seemed to be in the zone.  With this loss we are clinging to third place in our division.  Time to turn things around a string together a winning streak going into the final third of the season!!

FLICKR

Today I began posting some of my images to the Flickr photo sharing website.  Intially I dumped five images onto my page as I needed to have something to start with.  Moving forward I will just post some of my very favorite images, just a few times a month.  Here is a link to my page... please check it out from time to time.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/130527519@N08/

Problem Solved....

This past weekend it was pretty cold... too cold to consider going out shooting with large format cameras.  View cameras are delicate to operate, and the fine controls are just not properly accessed with gloves on.  Considering that many of the parts are metal, handling them with bare hands, in cold weather becomes an issue.  I think that over the years my fingers have been close to frozen far too many times and as a result they are now very sensitive to cold.  Fifteen or twenty minutes of handling a metal camera and my fingers are hurting.  Even worse than the cold, is when they begin to thaw and warm up.  I experience a throbbing pain that shoots from my fingers up into my elbows and shoulders.  Needless to say, it is not very comfortable... so when the temperature drops down below -10C I tend to avoid trying to get out with my cameras.

This past weekend it was much colder than that so I retreated to my darkroom and attempted to print some of my negatives.  I had been having a lot of issues with contrast and acheiving a reasonable tonal scale in my prints.  It was very discouraging and over the holiday break it seemed as though mostly I just wasted a lot of time, and a lot of costly photo paper.  This weekend I was determined to find a solution for my printing woes....

I started by mixing up a fresh batch of developer.  I used an old kit for 130 developer, but disposed of the packet of developing agent, Glycin, that had obviously gone bad and replaced it with some fresh chemical.  This time the mixed developer solution had sort of a urine color, rather than the look of my previous batch, that resembled strong, black coffee.  I was optimistic that this would at least partially resolve my contrast issues.  In addition to this I realized that my enlarger had been set on the high lamp intensity, so I dialed this down to the low setting.  I don't know if it's my imagination but it seems as though the longer exposures, with a weaker lamp, enhanced the effect of the contrast filters.  In any event the print sessions of this weekend were much more acceptable.  Though these are just work prints, that were not subjected to the sort of attention that exhibition prints might receive, I was generally much happier with the results.  I printed five of my negatives, mostly from Utah, and also helped Margarit to print one of her negatives from the recent weekend day trip out to the abandoned Monastery....

These are all snapshots of the work prints in a water rinse tray, following toning with selenium.  Four of my negatives were images taken with my view camera down in Utah.  The fifth is an image taken on a hike up to Wilcox Pass in Jasper.  The last is Margarit's print from a medium format negative...

Winter Hockey - Game 18

The Renegades played a game on Friday night against the first place Trojans.  These guys were moved down from a higher division earlier in the season, and our team has only played them once so far this year.  I missed that earlier game so I personally have not played against them before.  The game was in the old Coronation Arena.  Kind of a neat old barn, but the ice was really soft and rough and didn't make for very good conditions.  Two of our better players were serving suspensions, but we had a full roster of 15 skaters and a goalie.  We didn't play a very good game and were badly outshot and lost by a score of 7-2.  These guys are definitely the best team in the division and we are going to have to find a way to beat them if we want any success in the playoffs.  This win puts the Trojans further ahead of us in first place, and depending on the outcome of some of the other divisional games, it remains to be seen whether or not we can retain our hold on second place.

Medium Format Snapshots....

I recently processed a few rolls of Fuji Neopan Acros in 120 format.  This batch included a few snapshots taken on recent day trips, just before Christmas.  Nothing really serious or technical here, just a handful of interesting shots...

More TMX Negatives

Here are scans of a few more of my recently processed 100 T-Max negatives.  These were all processed in X-Tol developer, after being exposed at 200 iso.  Upon further review of my recently posted test negatives, I think I need to give slightly more exposure, to better hold shadow values, and slightly less development, to slightly suppress some of the highlights that were getting slightly blown out.  These are minor refinements to the very beneficial information that I was able to glean from these recent test images.

The scans included here were from the same batch, but I did not shoot duplicate negatives of these... at least not on 100 T-Max film.  I have duplicate negatives of all of these images, but they were on different films, so they can not be compared for the purpose of assessing alternative developers.  All of these images were taken in 2014, most on various outings late in the year.

I will continue to refine this film and developer combination over the coming year, as well as several others that I want to pursue.  I just bought some fresh chemistry which will permit me to mix up a batch of Glycin Stand Developer.  This developer is used with little or no agitation and is ideally suited to images with a lot of low values.  The lack of agitation supports shadow values, without allowing the highlights to get blown away.  When I find myself in suitable lighting situations I will expose duplicate negatives, and set them aside for processing in this developer.  When I have accumulated a batch of suitable size I will process them, and compare them to my standard developers.  I'm not sure yet exactly which films I will consider for this... probably more of this Kodak 100 T-Max as well as perhaps some Fuji Neopan Acros and maybe some Ilford FP4+.

Onward with my Developer Comparisons...

Not only have I had to return to my job, after a long and wonderful Chrismas break, but now the weather has also taken a turn for the worse.  The days are mostly sunny and clear, but short, and somewhat ideal for photography, except for the temperature.  Daytime highs have been around -20C the last few days, and there has been a breeze that makes if feel even colder...  Overnight the temperature has dropped down as low as about -30C...!!

Being trapped indoors a lot at this time of year this is typically when I catch up on some of my photo notes, my printing, and some of my testing and evaluation.  When I say that I am testing a new developer this may sound very technical, but actually it is very subjective.  Initially when I first start working with a film that is new to me, I will carry out some rather technical darkroom testing.  This involves exposing several pieces of film through a step tablet, and then developing them for various times.  The resulting negatives are measured with a densitometer.  These density values are then plotted onto graphs which are analyzed to yield exposure and development guidelines.  I wrote a rather detailed and involved blog post about this back in March of last year.  Here is a link to that blog post if anyone is interested in referring back to it....

 http://robertspohl.blogspot.ca/2014/03/darkroom-work.html

I don't actually do that sort of testing very often... only once or twice every couple of years.  Once I have undertaken this sort of testing it provides me with a starting point that I then fine tune through trial and error, and subjective evaluation.

Recently I posted that I intend to do some experimentation with Kodak 400 T-Max... and I will over the coming months.  This past year I have experimented with Kodak 100 T-Max.  This has not involved anything particularly out of the ordinary.  I just continue with my regular routine of exploring this wonderful world that we live in.  I really enjoy exploring new places, returning to old favorites, and just experiencing nature and some man made places under various lighting conditions, and at various times of year.  Sometimes I make some photographs, and sometimes I do not...  When I decide to do some experimentation I simply work with my known film and developer combination and make a photograph as I normally would.  But, then while I have the camera set up I will make a couple of duplicate negatives.  These duplicates may be rated at a different film speed, and are designated to receive development with an alternative developer.  When I get back home and unload my film holders these extra sheets of film are set aside with other test shots intended to receive the same development.  When I eventually accumulate enough of these test shots I will set up and process a batch of this film in the developer I wish to evaluate.  It has taken me most of 2014 to accumulate a couple of batches of Kodak 100 T-Max negatives that I want to try in two alternative developers.  Over this recent holiday season, and in light of the recent cold weather I have now found time to process all of these batches of film and compare them.  I have not yet attempted to print any of these negatives.  So far I have simply scanned them and compared the scans.  These scans are very straightforward and have received very minimal digital adjustment.  They are simply adjusted to a similar brightness level so that they can be compared.  This comparison is very subjective and non technical and simply involves my personal preferences and opinion of the qualities of these images. The differences can be very subtle.  It is not that there is anything wrong with what has been my standard developer in the past.  And in fact these negatives can be much further manipulated and controlled in printing.  It is just that there may be something that is subtley better, at least in certain lighting conditions.  It is through years of experience with all sorts of different subject matter at different times of year and under different lighting conditions that I am able to fine tune what works best for me.  Here are some examples...

This first set of three images is an old house up in Lamont County.  These were taken on April 6th 2014 at about 2:00PM in the afternoon.  I used my Ebony SV45TE 4x5 Camera with a Schneider Super Symmar 110mm lens.  I used a #11 Yellow-Green Filter.  The film was Kodak 100 T-Max.  The light was rather flat with an overcast sky.  The lowest values were the window openings, which fell about 3 stops below middle grey.  The highest values were in the sky, which extended up as much as 4 stops above middle grey.  The brick, the cedar shingles and some of the weeds fell on about middle grey.  The scene was metered with a Pentax digital spot meter.  All three images were exposed the same, though the film speed was adjusted to suit the intended development.

The image on the left was exposed at ISO64 and processed in Ilford Perceptol, diluted 1:3, with constant agitation, for 16:00 minutes at 22C.  This has been my standard developer in the past and I am attempting to establish whether or not one of these other options yields a better negative.

The center image was exposed at ISO50 and processed in a home-made developer called 510Pyro, diluted 1:100, with normal agitation, for 6:15 minutes at 24C.  This developer was created by an American photographer named Jay DeFehr.  It is a Pyro based developer that imparts a proportional stain into the emulsion.  

The image on the right was exposed at ISO200 and processed in Kodak X-Tol developer, diluted 1:1, with constant agitation, for 12:00 minutes, at 20C.  This combination was suggested to me by large format photographer Leon Strembitsky.  The advantage of this combination is that the film requires significantly less exposure, allowing faster shutter speeds and/or smaller apertures.  I am curious to see if this reduced exposure supports adequate shadow values.

This next set of three images is an old timber bridge down in the southern Alberta badlands.  These were taken on August 9th 2014 at about 7:30PM.  I used my Ebony SV45TE 4x5 Camera with a Schneider Super Symmar 80mm lens.  I used at #25 Red Filter.  The film was Kodak 100 T-Max.  It was a rather clear and crisp light on this summer evening with only a thin veil of clouds.  The lowest values were in the background bush, at about 2 stops below middle grey.  Some of the shadows on the timbers approached this value.  The highest values were in the sky and on some of the highlighted timbers at 2-1/2 to 3 stops above middle grey.  The scene was metered with a Pentax digital spot meter.  All three images were exposed the same, though the film speed was adjusted to suit the intended development.

The image on the left was exposed at ISO64 and given my standard development in Ilford Perceptol, as outlined above.

The center image was exposed at ISO50 and developed in 510Pyro, as outlined above.

The image on the right was exposed at ISO200 and processed in Kodak X-Tol, as outlined above.

This next set of three images is of a piano at an abandoned Russian Orthodox Monastery up to the northeast of Edmonton.  It was taken on September 7th at about 1:50PM.  I used my Ebony SV45TE 4x5 Camera with a Schneider Super Symmar 80mm lens.  No filter was used.  The film was Kodak 100 T-Max.  The light was very soft and muted here in the forest.  The lowest values were in the opening at the base of the piano, which were placed about 3 stops below middle grey.  The highest values were in the little patches of sky visible between the trees, which fell about 6 stops above middle grey.  The next highest values were in the bush and the piano, at about 1 stop above middle grey.  The scene was metered with a Pentax digital spot meter.  All three images were exposed the same, though the film speed was adjusted.  This time around the order is a little different.

The image on the left was exposed at ISO200 and processed in Kodak X-Tol, as outlined above.

The center image was exposed at ISO50 and developed in 510Pyro, as outlined above.

The image on the right was exposed at ISO64 and processed in Ilford Perceptol, as outlined above... my standard developer for this film.

This final set includes only two of the three previous combinations.  For some reason I did not designate a third negative for processing in 510Pyro.  Perhaps I was running low on film while I was out on this trip.  These images are of the Ram River Canyon, below Ram Falls.  This is out along the Forestry Trunk Road, southeast of Nordegg.  It was taken on August 31st at about 7:00PM.  I used my Ebony SV45TE 4x5 Camera with a Schneider G-Claron 210mm lens.  A #25 Red Filter was used.  The film was Kodak 100 T-Max.  Though there was cloud cover, the ceiling was quite high and there was a fairly clear evening light.  I didn't take a meter reading off the dark shadowed area in the foreground but based on other negatives exposed at the same time I believe that it fell at 3 or more stops below middle gray.  The dark red filter would have reduced this value even further.  The highest values are in the sky, at about 2 stops above middle grey.  The scene was metered with a Pentax digital spot meter.  Both images were exposed the same, though the film speed was adjusted.

The left image was exposed at ISO200 and developed in X-tol, as outlined above.

The right image was exposed at ISO64 and processed in Perceptol, my standard developer.

My initial impression is that my standard developer, Perceptol, is OK, but that the other two are better.  The X-tol images are good, but the shadow values fall off a little.  Perhaps it can not be rated as high as ISO200.  An small increase in exposure and a slight reduction in development might yield an even better negative.  The 510Pyro shows some promise as well but perhaps can stand a little less exposure, and a longer development time.  Some printing of these negatives is in order to finalize this initial opinion.  Further fine tuning will help to perfect this.  Of course the differences are subtle and vary with the lighting conditions, and the filtration.  It didn't help that a couple of these negatives were taken on some very outdated film that, although it was stored frozen, expired in 1998.  This could yield a slightly flatter negative as compared to fresh film.  If any blog readers would care to share an opinion, please feel free to post comments.

Kodak TMY400

Way back before the holidays I processed at batch of 4" x 5" Kodak T-Max 400.  My typical developer for this film has been Kodak T-Max Developer.  This developer is actually not recommended with sheet film as it is prone to uneven development.  I have certainly experienced that in the past but have come up with a regimen that includes minimal agitation and that has seemed to resolve the problem.  However, I am beginning to feel that this is not the best developer for this film, at least for the subject matter and lighting conditions that I am inclined to work with.  In the coming year I will be doing some experimentation with both X-Tol developer, and 510 Pyro.

This particular batch included a mix of negatives that received both normal and plus development.  I am generally happy with the results, but feel that there is room for improvement.  These were all taken on various outings and weekend trips during 2014...

Dead Greasewood, southern Alberta Badlands, October 2014

Balanced Rock, southern Alberta Badlands, October 2014

Bridge Ladder, Timber Bridge, July 2014

Doorway, abandoned school, June 2014

Gravel Pit Cars along Highway 21, May 2014

Mini Hoodoos, Starland Recreation Area, June 2014

Rills, southern Alberta Badlands, October 2014

This is the shot I was taking when a gust of wind blew my tripod over, damaging my camera.

Shelf Unit, Abandoned School, June 2014

Tipi Ring, southern Alberta Badlands, October 2014

Un-marked Grave, Dorothy, Alberta, July 2014

White Mushrooms, Ram River Valley, August 2014